Description of Greece

​The Lacedaemonians call ‘Dromos’ the place where even in our time the practice of running for the young is established. For one going to this Dromos from the tomb of the Agiadae, there is on the left the monument of Eumedes; and this Eumedes also was a son of Hippocoon. There is also an ancient statue of Heracles, to whom the Sphaireis sacrifice; and these are those who are beginning to be enrolled from the ephebes into the men. Gymnasia have also been built in the Dromos, one of them being an offering of Eurycles, a Spartan man. Outside the Dromos, opposite the statue of Heracles, there is a house, in my day belonging to a private person, but anciently of Menelaus. For one who has gone forward from the Dromos, there is a sanctuary of the Dioscuri and of the Graces, and another of Eileithyia, and of Apollo Carneius, and of Artemis Hegemone.

​The sanctuary of Agnitas is built on the right of the Dromos; and ‘Agnitas’ is a surname of Asclepius, because the wooden image of the god was made of chaste-tree. And the chaste-tree is a willow-like shrub, and is itself in the same class as the buckthorn. Not far from the sanctuary of Asclepius stands a trophy, which they say Polydeuces set up over Lynceus; and to me this also makes the story probable, that the sons of Aphareus were not buried in Sparta. Near the beginning of the Dromos are the Dioscuri Apheterioi, and for one who has gone forward a little, the hero-shrine of Alcon; and they say that Alcon was a son of Hippocoon. Beside the hero-shrine of Alcon is a sanctuary of Poseidon, whom they surname Domatites.

​There is also a place called Platanistas from the trees, namely the plane trees, high and continuous, which grow around it. This very place, where it is established for the ephebes to fight, is surrounded by a moat in a circle, just as the sea surrounds an island, and there are entrances over bridges. On each of the two bridges, on the one is a statue of Heracles, on the other an image of Lycurgus; and Lycurgus established laws both for the rest of the constitution and for the battle of the ephebes.

​And these other things are performed by the ephebes: they sacrifice before the battle in the Phoebaeum; and the Phoebaeum is outside the city, not far distant from Therapne. There each division of the ephebes sacrifices a puppy of a dog to Enyalius, judging that for the strongest of the gods, the strongest of domestic animals is the appropriate sacrifice according to their opinion. And I know of no other Greeks who make it a custom to sacrifice puppies of a dog, except the Colophonians; for the Colophonians also sacrifice a black puppy to Enodia. And both the sacrifice of the Colophonians and that of the ephebes in Lacedaemon are established as nocturnal.

​And after the sacrifice, the ephebes bring together tame boars to fight; and whichever party’s boar happens to win, it usually happens that these are victorious in the Platanistas. So many things indeed they perform in the Phoebaeum; but on the following day, a little before midday, they enter over the bridges into the said place. And the entrance, by which each division is to enter here, a lot has revealed to them beforehand in the night; and they fight both with their hands and by jumping on each other with kicks, and they bite and dig out each other’s eyes. Thus indeed man against man fights in the said manner; but they also charge violently in a mass and push one another into the water.