Description of Greece

​Near it is the temple of Hipposthenes, who had many victories in wrestling; and they worship Hipposthenes by an oracle, as if paying honors to Poseidon. Opposite the temple is an ancient statue of Enyalius, who has fetters on him. The opinion of the Lacedaemonians about this statue and that of the Athenians about the so-called “Wingless” Nike is that the former think Enyalius, being held by the fetters, will never depart from them by fleeing, while the Athenians think Nike, because she has no wings, will always remain there. In this manner and with such belief these cities have dedicated these wooden statues.

​In Sparta there is a clubhouse called Poikile, and near it are the hero-shrines of Cadmus, the son of Agenor, and of his descendants, Oeolycus, the son of Theras, and Aegeus, the son of Oeolycus. They say that Maisis, Laias, and Europas made these hero-shrines, and that they were the children of Hyraeus, the son of Aegeus. And they also made the hero-shrine for Amphilochus, because their ancestor Tisamenus had for a mother Demonassa, the sister of Amphilochus.

​Among the Greeks, only the Lacedaemonians have the custom of surnaming Hera “Aigophagos” and of sacrificing goats to the goddess. They say that Heracles founded the sanctuary and was the first to sacrifice goats, because when he was fighting against Hippocoon and his sons, no obstacle met him from Hera, whereas on other occasions he believed that the goddess opposed him; and they say that he sacrificed goats because he was in want of other kinds of sacrificial victims.

​Not far from the theater is a sanctuary of Poseidon Genethlios, and the hero-shrines of Cleodaeus, the son of Hyllus, and of Oebalus. The most famous of their sanctuaries of Asclepius is built near the Booneti, and on the left is the hero-shrine of Teleclus; of him I shall make mention later in the Messenian history. Going forward not far, there is a hill, not large, and on it is an ancient temple with a wooden statue of Aphrodite in arms. Of the temples I know, on this one alone is built an upper story, another sanctuary, that of Morpho.

​The surname of Aphrodite is Morpho, and she sits wearing a veil and with fetters on her feet; they say that Tyndareus put the fetters on her, assimilating by the bonds the constancy of women toward their husbands. For the other story—that Tyndareus punished the goddess with fetters, believing that the scandals of his daughters arose from Aphrodite—I do not accept at all; for indeed it was completely foolish to expect to punish the goddess after having made a wooden image of cedar and given it the name Aphrodite.