Description of Greece

​Beside Memnon, a naked Ethiopian boy is also depicted, because Memnon was king of the Ethiopian race. However, he arrived at Ilium not from Ethiopia but from Persian Susa and from the river Choaspes, having made subject to himself all the nations that dwelt between. And the Phrygians still point out the road through which he led his army, choosing the shortest cuts of the country; and the road is cut through the stations.

​Above Sarpedon and Memnon, above them is Paris, who does not yet have a beard; and he is clapping with his hands, such a clapping as would be that of a rustic man; you would say that Paris, by the noise of his hands, resembles one calling Penthesilea to his side. And Penthesilea too is looking at Paris, but by the tilt of her face she seems to look down on him and to hold him of no account; and Penthesilea’s appearance is that of a maiden having a bow similar to the Scythian ones, and a leopard’s skin upon her shoulders.

​And the women above Penthesilea are carrying water in broken potsherds, and one is depicted as still beautiful in form, and the other as already advanced in age; individually indeed there is no inscription over either of the women, but in common over both of them it is written that they are of the uninitiated women.

​Higher up than these are Kallisto the daughter of Lycaon, and Nomia, and Pero the daughter of Neleus; for her marriage gifts Neleus demanded the cattle of Iphiclus. And for Kallisto, instead of a mattress she has a bear’s skin, and she has her feet resting on the knees of Nomia. And the earlier part of my account showed that the Arcadians say Nomia is a local nymph; and that the nymphs live for a very great number of years, yet are by no means entirely free from death, is the story of the poets concerning them. And after Kallisto and the women with her, there is the shape of a cliff, and Sisyphus the son of Aeolus striving to push the rock up towards the cliff.

​There is also a jar in the painting, and an old man, and another who is still a boy, and women, a young one under the rock, and beside the old man a woman similar to him in age; the others indeed are carrying water, but of the old woman, you would guess that her water-jar is broken; and whatever water was left in the potsherd, she is pouring it out again into the jar. And we conjectured that these too were of those who held of no account the rites performed at Eleusis; for the more ancient of the Greeks held the Eleusinian rite as much more honorable than all things which pertain to piety, as they also held the gods prior to heroes.

​And under this jar is Tantalus, having also other painful sufferings such as Homer has made for him, and in addition to them there is also present to him the terror of the stone hanging over him. Polygnotus is clearly following the account of Archilochus; but as for Archilochus, I do not know whether he was taught the details about the stone by others, or whether he himself introduced it into his poetry. Such in quantity and having reached such a degree of beauty is the painting of the Thasian.