§10.28.1τὸ δὲ ἕτερον μέρος τῆς γραφῆς τὸ ἐξ ἀριστερᾶς χειρός, ἔστιν Ὀδυσσεὺς καταβεβηκὼς ἐς τὸν Ἅιδην ὀνομαζόμενον, ὅπως Τειρεσίου τὴν ψυχὴν περὶ τῆς ἐς τὴν οἰκείαν ἐπέρηται σωτηρίας·
\nThe other part of the painting, the one on the left hand, shows Odysseus who has descended into the so-called Hades, in order to inquire of the soul of Teiresias concerning his safe return to his own home.
ἔχει δὲ οὕτω τὰ ἐς τὴν γραφήν.
The details concerning the painting are as follows.
ὕδωρ εἶναι ποταμὸς ἔοικε, δῆλα ὡς ὁ Ἀχέρων, καὶ κάλαμοί τε ἐν αὐτῷ πεφυκότες καὶ ἰχθύες· ἔστι δʼ ἀμυδρὰ οὕτω δή τι τὰ εἴδη τῶν ἰχθύων ὡς σκιὰς μᾶλλον ἢ ἰχθῦς εἰκάσεις.
The water appears to be a river, clearly the Acheron, and there are reeds growing in it, and also fish; but the shapes of the fish are so indistinct that you would guess them to be shadows rather than fish.
καὶ ναῦς ἐστιν ἐν τῷ ποταμῷ καὶ ὁ πορθμεὺς ἐπὶ ταῖς κώπαις. §10.28.2ἐπηκολούθησε δὲ ὁ Πολύγνωτος ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν ποιήσει Μινυάδι· ἔστι γὰρ δὴ ἐν τῇ Μινυάδι ἐς Θησέα ἔχοντα καὶ Πειρίθουν
"
ἔνθʼ ἤτοι νέα μὲν νεκυάμβατον, ἣν ὁ γεραιός
πορθμεὺς ἦγε Χάρων, οὐκ ἔλαβον ἔνδοθεν ὅρμου. "
ἐπὶ τούτῳ οὖν καὶ Πολύγνωτος γέροντα ἔγραψεν ἤδη τῇ ἡλικίᾳ τὸν Χάρωνα. §10.28.3οἱ δὲ ἐπιβεβηκότες τῆς νεὼς οὐκ ἐπιφανεῖς ἐς ἅπαν εἰσὶν οἷς προσήκουσι.
There is also a boat in the river, and the ferryman is at the oars.\n\nPolygnotus, in my opinion, followed the poem Minyas; for in the Minyas there is a passage concerning Theseus and Pirithous:\n"\n'There indeed, the ship that carries the dead, which the aged ferryman Charon used to steer, they did not find inside the harbor.'\n"\nOn this account, therefore, Polygnotus also painted Charon as a man already advanced in years.\n\nThose who have embarked upon the ship are not at all distinguished as to whom they belong to.
Τέλλις μὲν ἡλικίαν ἐφήβου γεγονὼς φαίνεται, Κλεόβοια δὲ ἔτι παρθένος, ἔχει δὲ ἐν τοῖς γόνασι κιβωτὸν ὁποίας ποιεῖσθαι νομίζουσι Δήμητρι.
Tellis appears to be of the age of a youth, and Cleoboea is still a maiden, holding on her knees a chest of the kind they are accustomed to make for Demeter.
ἐς μὲν δὴ τὸν Τέλλιν τοσοῦτον ἤκουσα ὡς ὁ ποιητὴς Ἀρχίλοχος ἀπόγονος εἴη τρίτος Τέλλιδος, Κλεόβοιαν δὲ ἐς Θάσον τὰ ὄργια τῆς Δήμητρος ἐνεγκεῖν πρώτην ἐκ Πάρου φασίν. §10.28.4ἐπὶ δὲ τοῦ Ἀχέροντος τῇ ὄχθῃ μάλιστα θέας ἄξιον, ὅτι ὑπὸ τοῦ Χάρωνος τὴν ναῦν ἀνὴρ οὐ δίκαιος ἐς πατέρα ἀγχόμενός ἐστιν ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρός.
Concerning Tellis, I have heard only this much, that the poet Archilochus was the great-grandson of Tellis; and they say that Cleoboea was the first to bring the mysteries of Demeter from Paros to Thasos.\n\nOn the bank of the Acheron, what is most of all worth seeing is that, under the boat of Charon, a man who was unjust to his father is being strangled by his father.
περὶ πλείστου γὰρ δὴ ἐποιοῦντο οἱ πάλαι γονέας, ὥσπερ ἔστιν ἄλλοις τε τεκμήρασθαι καὶ ἐν Κατάνῃ τοῖς καλουμένοις Εὐσεβέσιν, οἵ, ἡνίκα ἐπέρρει τῇ Κατάνῃ πῦρ τὸ ἐκ τῆς Αἴτνης, χρυσὸν μὲν καὶ ἄργυρον ἐν οὐδενὸς μερίδι ἐποιήσαντο, οἱ δὲ ἔφευγον ὁ μὲν ἀράμενος μητέρα, ὁ δὲ αὐτῶν τὸν πατέρα·
For the men of old held their parents in the highest esteem, as may be inferred both from other things and from those in Catana called the Pious, who, when the fire from Etna was flowing over Catana, made no account of gold and silver, but fled, one having lifted up his mother, and another of them his father.
προϊόντας δὲ οὐ σὺν ῥᾳστώνῃ καταλαμβάνει σφᾶς τὸ πῦρ ἐπειγόμενον τῇ φλογί· καὶ —οὐ γὰρ κατετίθεντο οὐδʼ οὕτω τοὺς γονέας— διχῇ σχισθῆναι λέγεται τὸν ῥύακα, καὶ αὐτούς τε τοὺς νεανίσκους, σὺν δὲ αὐτοῖς τοὺς γονέας τὸ πῦρ οὐδέν σφισι λυμηνάμενον παρεξῆλθεν.
As they advanced, the fire overtaking them with its flame caught up with them not with ease; and—for they would not lay down their parents even so—the stream of lava is said to have parted in two, and the fire passed by without doing any harm either to the young men themselves or to their parents with them.\n\nThese indeed still receive honors down to my time from the people of Catana; but in the painting of Polygnotus, near the man who maltreated his father and on that account suffers ills in Hades, near him a man who plundered a temple has suffered punishment.
§10.28.5οὗτοι μὲν δὴ τιμὰς καὶ ἐς ἐμὲ ἔτι παρὰ Καταναίων ἔχουσιν, ἐν δὲ τῇ Πολυγνώτου γραφῇ πλησίον τοῦ ἀνδρός, ὃς τῷ πατρὶ ἐλυμαίνετο καὶ διʼ αὐτὸ ἐν Ἅιδου κακὰ ἀναπίμπλησι, τούτου πλησίον ἱερὰ σεσυληκὼς ἀνὴρ ὑπέσχε δίκην· γυνὴ δὲ ἡ κολάζουσα αὐτὸν φάρμακα ἄλλα τε καὶ ἐς αἰκίαν οἶδεν ἀνθρώπων. §10.28.6περισσῶς δὲ ἄρα εὐσεβείᾳ θεῶν ἔτι προσέκειντο οἱ ἄνθρωποι, ὡς Ἀθηναῖοί τε δῆλα ἐποίησαν, ἡνίκα εἷλον Ὀλυμπίου Διὸς ἐν Συρακούσαις ἱερόν, οὔτε κινήσαντες τῶν ἀναθημάτων οὐδὲν τὸν ἱερέα τε τὸν Συρακούσιον φύλακα ἐπʼ αὐτοῖς ἐάσαντες·
The woman who is punishing him knows other drugs and especially those for the torture of men.\n\nThus excessively, it seems, did men still cling to the piety of the gods, as the Athenians made clear when they took the temple of Olympian Zeus at Syracuse, neither moving any of the offerings nor disturbing the Syracusan priest who was the guardian over them.
ἐδήλωσε δὲ καὶ ὁ Μῆδος Δᾶτις λόγοις τε οὓς εἶπε πρὸς Δηλίους καὶ τῷ ἔργῳ, ἡνίκα ἐν Φοινίσσῃ νηὶ ἄγαλμα εὑρὼν Ἀπόλλωνος ἀπέδωκεν αὖθις Ταναγραίοις ἐς Δήλιον.
And the Mede Datis also showed this both by the words which he spoke to the Delians, and by his deed, when, having found an image of Apollo in a Phoenician ship, he restored it again to the Tanagraeans at Delium.
οὕτω μὲν τὸ θεῖον καὶ οἱ πάντες τότε ἦγον ἐν τιμῇ, καὶ ἐπὶ λόγῳ τοιούτῳ τὰ ἐς τὸν συλήσαντα ἱερὰ ἔγραψε Πολύγνωτος. §10.28.7ἔστι δὲ ἀνωτέρω τῶν κατειλεγμένων Εὐρύνομος· δαίμονα εἶναι τῶν ἐν Ἅιδου φασὶν οἱ Δελφῶν ἐξηγηταὶ τὸν Εὐρύνομον, καὶ ὡς τὰς σάρκας περιεσθίει τῶν νεκρῶν, μόνα σφίσιν ἀπολείπων τὰ ὀστᾶ.
In this way, then, did all men at that time hold the divine in honor, and it was on such an account that Polygnotus painted the scene concerning the man who plundered the temple.\n\nAbove those already listed is Eurynomus; the guides at Delphi say that Eurynomus is one of the daemons in Hades, and that he eats off the flesh of the corpses, leaving only the bones for them.
ἡ δὲ Ὁμήρου ποίησις ἐς Ὀδυσσέα καὶ ἡ Μινυάς τε καλουμένη καὶ οἱ Νόστοι—μνήμη γὰρ δὴ ἐν ταύταις καὶ Ἅιδου καὶ τῶν ἐκεῖ δειμάτων ἐστὶν—ἴσασιν οὐδένα Εὐρύνομον δαίμονα.
But the poetry of Homer concerning Odysseus, and the poem called Minyas, and the Returns—for in these there is mention both of Hades and of its terrors—know of no daemon Eurynomus.
τοσοῦτο μέντοι δηλώσω, ὁποῖός τε ὁ Εὐρύνομος καὶ ἐπὶ ποίου γέγραπται τοῦ σχήματος· κυανοῦ τὴν χρόαν μεταξύ ἐστι καὶ μέλανος, ὁποῖαι καὶ τῶν μυιῶν αἱ πρὸς τὰ κρέα εἰσὶ προσιζάνουσαι, τοὺς δὲ ὀδόντας φαίνει, καθεζομένῳ δὲ ὑπέστρωταί οἱ δέρμα γυπός. §10.28.8ἐφεξῆς δὲ μετὰ τὸν Εὐρύνομον ἥ τε ἐξ Ἀρκαδίας Αὔγη καὶ Ἰφιμέδειά ἐστι· καὶ ἡ μὲν παρὰ Τεύθραντα ἡ Αὔγη ἀφίκετο ἐς Μυσίαν, καὶ γυναικῶν ὁπόσαις ἐς τὸ αὐτὸ Ἡρακλέα ἀφικέσθαι λέγουσι, μάλιστα δὴ παῖδα ἐοικότα ἔτεκε τῷ πατρί·
I will, however, describe what Eurynomus is like and in what attitude he is painted: his color is between dark blue and black, like that of the flies that settle on meat, and he shows his teeth, and a vulture's skin is spread under him as he sits.\n\nNext after Eurynomus are Auge from Arcadia and Iphimedeia; Auge came to Mysia to Teuthras, and of all the women who are said to have coupled with Heracles, she bore a child most like his father.
τῇ δʼ Ἰφιμεδείᾳ γέρα δέδοται μεγάλα ὑπὸ τῶν ἐν Μυλάσοις Καρῶν.
To Iphimedeia, great honors are given by the Carions in Mylasa.