Description of Greece

​To one going to the summit of Ithome, which is indeed the acropolis for the Messenians, there is a spring called Clepsydra. Now, to count all those who wish Zeus to have been born and reared among them is impossible, even for one who is eager; however, the Messenians also share in this claim. For these too say that the god was reared among them, and that Ithome and Neda were his nurses, and that the river was named after Neda, while the other nymph gave her name to the mountain, Ithome. They say that these nymphs washed Zeus here, after he was stolen by the Curetes because of the dread of his father, and that the name of the water comes from the theft of the Curetes; and they carry water every day from the spring to the sanctuary of Zeus Ithomatas.

​The statue of Zeus is the work of Ageladas, and it was originally made for the Messenians who settled in Naupactus; and a priest, elected annually, keeps the statue in his house. They also celebrate an annual festival called Ithomaea, and in ancient times they also held a musical contest; this can be inferred from, among other things, the verses of Eumelus, who indeed wrote these lines in his processional song to Delos: ‘ For to Ithomatas the Muse was pleasing, she who has the pure lyre and free sandals. ‘ Therefore, it seems to me that he composed these verses knowing that they held a musical contest.

​To one going along the road to Arcadia toward Megalopolis, there is at the gates a Hermes of Attic workmanship; for the square shape of the Herms belongs to the Athenians, and from them the others have learned it. To one who has gone down thirty stades from the gates, there is the stream of Balyra. They say that the river got its name because Thamyris threw away his lyre there upon his blinding; and they say that he was the son of Philammon and the nymph Argiope. They say that Argiope lived for a time around Parnassus, but when she was pregnant, she migrated to the Odrysae, because Philammon was unwilling to bring her into his house. For this reason, they call Thamyris both an Odrysian and a Thracian; and the Leucasia and the Amphitus join their streams in the same place.

​To one who has crossed these rivers, there is a plain called Stenyclerian; and they say there was a hero Stenyclerus. Opposite the plain is what was called in ancient times Oechalia, but in our day the Carnasian grove, especially full of cypresses. There are statues of the gods, namely of Apollo Carneius, Hagne, and Hermes carrying a ram. Hagne is an epithet of Core, the daughter of Demeter; and water rises from a spring right beside the statue.

​Let the matters concerning the Great Goddesses—for they perform the mystery rite for them also in the Carnasian grove—be kept secret by me; for I assign to them the second place in holiness, next to the Eleusinian mysteries. But that the bronze urn, the discovery of the Argive general, and the bones of Eurytus, the son of Melaneus, were guarded here, my dream did not prevent me from revealing to everyone. A river called Charadros flows beside the Carnasian grove, and to one who has gone forward eight stades on the left, ​are mostly the ruins of Andania. And that the city got its name from a woman, Andania, is agreed upon by the guides; yet I cannot speak of her parents or whom she lived with. To those going from Andania as if toward Cyparissiae, there is what is called Polichne, and the rivers Electra and Coeus flow there; perhaps they might tell some story about Electra, the daughter of Atlas, and Coeus, the father of Leto, or perhaps Electra and Coeus were among the local heroes.

​To those who have crossed the Electra, there is a spring named Achaia and the ruins of the city Dorium. Homer indeed has represented that the misfortune of Thamyris happened here at Dorium, because he asserted that he would conquer even the Muses themselves in singing; but Prodicus of Phocaea—if indeed the verses concerning the Minyad belong to him—says that punishment was laid upon Thamyris in Hades for his boasting against the Muses. But Thamyris, in my opinion, was ruined in his eyes by a disease, and the same thing also happened to Homer later; but the latter indeed continued composing to the very end, for he did not yield to his misfortune, while Thamyris abandoned even his song because of the affliction present upon him.