Description of Greece

​To one going from the springs of the river, first the place Maratha will welcome you, and after it Gortys, which is a village in my time, but in still older times was a city. There is there a temple of Asclepius of Pentelic marble, with an image of Asclepius himself, as yet without a beard, and an image of Hygeia; they were the works of Scopas. And the local people also say this, that Alexander the son of Philip dedicated his breastplate and spear to Asclepius; and even down to my time the breastplate and the spearhead of the spear were still there.

​Through Gortys flows a river, which is named Lousios by those near its springs, because of the bathing of the newborn Zeus; but those further from the springs call it Gortynios after the village. This Gortynios provides the coldest water of all rivers. For indeed, the Istros and the Rhine, and also the Hypanis and the Borysthenes, and all other rivers whose streams freeze in the winter season, one might correctly call “winter rivers” in my opinion, which flow through land that is snow-covered for most of the year, and the air around them is full of frost.

​But all those that pass through a land that is well-favored in its seasons, and in summer their water cools people who drink it or bathe in it, while in winter it is not painful, these I say provide cold water. Cold indeed is the water of the Cydnus which flows through Tarsus, and of the Melas which flows by Side of the Pamphylians; and elegiac poets sing of the coldness of the Ales in Colophon. But the Gortynios excels even further in coldness, especially in the summer season. It has its springs in Theisoa, which borders on the Methydrians; and where it joins its stream with the Alpheus, they call it Rhaeteae.

​Adjacent to the territory of Theisoa is the village Teuthis; in ancient times Teuthis was a town. During the war against Ilium, the people here provided a leader of their own; his name was Teuthis, but others say it was Ornytus. When favorable winds from Aulis did not come to the Greeks, but a violent wind kept them shut in for a long time, Teuthis came into enmity with Agamemnon, and was about to lead back the Arcadians whom he ruled.

​Then they say that Athena, made like Melas the son of Ops, tried to turn Teuthis away from his journey home; but he, since his anger was swelling, struck the goddess with his spear in the thigh, and led his army back from Aulis. When he returned to his home, the goddess herself seemed to appear to him with her thigh wounded; after this, a wasting disease fell upon Teuthis, and to those here alone among the Arcadians the earth yielded no fruit.

​At a later time, among other things, oracle responses came to them from Dodona, telling them what deeds they must do to appease the goddess, and they made an image of Athena having a wound on her thigh. I myself saw this image, with its thigh wrapped in a purple band. There are also other things in Teuthis, a sanctuary of Aphrodite and one of Artemis.

​These indeed are there; and along the road from Gortys to Megalopolis is built a tomb for those who died in the battle against Cleomenes. This tomb the Megalopolitans call Paraibasion, because Cleomenes broke his treaty against them. Adjoining the Paraibasion is a plain of about sixty stades; and the ruins of the city Brenthe are on the right of the road, and from there flows the river Brentheates, and after going about five stades it descends into the Alpheus.