§2.29.6προσπλεῦσαι δὲ Αἴγινά ἐστι νήσων τῶν Ἑλληνίδων ἀπορωτάτη· πέτραι τε γὰρ ὕφαλοι περὶ πᾶσαν καὶ χοιράδες ἀνεστήκασι.
To approach by sea, Aegina is the most difficult of the Greek islands; for sunken rocks and reefs rise all around it.
μηχανήσασθαι δὲ ἐξεπίτηδες ταῦτα Αἰακόν φασι λῃστειῶν τῶν ἐκ θαλάσσης φόβῳ, καὶ πολεμίοις ἀνδράσι μὴ ἄνευ κινδύνου εἶναι.
They say that Aeacus contrived this on purpose through fear of piratical raids from the sea, and so that it should not be without danger for hostile men.
πλησίον δὲ τοῦ λιμένος ἐν ᾧ μάλιστα ὁρμίζονται ναός ἐστιν Ἀφροδίτης, ἐν ἐπιφανεστάτῳ δὲ τῆς πόλεως τὸ Αἰάκειον καλούμενον, περίβολος τετράγωνος λευκοῦ λίθου.
Near the harbor in which they anchor most, there is a temple of Aphrodite, and in the most conspicuous part of the city is the so-called Aeaceium, a quadrangular enclosure of white stone.
§2.29.7ἐπειργασμένοι δέ εἰσι κατὰ τὴν ἔσοδον οἱ παρὰ Αἰακόν ποτε ὑπὸ τῶν Ἑλλήνων σταλέντες· αἰτίαν δὲ τὴν αὐτὴν Αἰγινήταις καὶ οἱ λοιποὶ λέγουσιν.
At the entrance are carved those who were once sent to Aeacus by the Greeks; and the others tell the same cause as the Aeginetans.
αὐχμὸς τὴν Ἑλλάδα ἐπὶ χρόνον ἐπίεζε καὶ οὔτε τὴν ἐκτὸς ἰσθμοῦ χώραν οὔτε Πελοποννησίοις ὗεν ὁ θεός, ἐς ὃ ἐς Δελφοὺς ἀπέστειλαν ἐρησομένους τὸ αἴτιον ὅ τι εἴη καὶ αἰτήσοντας ἅμα λύσιν τοῦ κακοῦ.
A drought pressed upon Greece for a time, and the god sent no rain either upon the land outside the Isthmus or upon the Peloponnesians, until they sent to Delphi to ask what the cause was and at the same time to petition for a release from the evil.
τούτοις ἡ Πυθία εἶπε Δία ἱλάσκεσθαι, χρῆναι δέ, εἴπερ ὑπακούσει σφίσιν, Αἰακὸν τὸν ἱκετεύσαντα εἶναι.
To these the Pythia said to propitiate Zeus, and that, if he were to hearken to them, Aeacus must be the supplicant.
§2.29.8οὕτως Αἰακοῦ δεησομένους ἀποστέλλουσιν ἀφʼ ἑκάστης πόλεως· καὶ ὁ μὲν τῷ Πανελληνίῳ Διὶ θύσας καὶ εὐξάμενος τὴν Ἑλλάδα γῆν ἐποίησεν ὕεσθαι, τῶν δὲ ἐλθόντων ὡς αὐτὸν εἰκόνας ταύτας ἐποιήσαντο οἱ Αἰγινῆται.
Thus they sent from each city to petition Aeacus; and he, having sacrificed to Zeus Panhellenius and prayed, caused rain to fall on the land of Greece, and the Aeginetans made these images of those who came to him.
τοῦ περιβόλου δὲ ἐντὸς ἐλαῖαι πεφύκασιν ἐκ παλαιοῦ καὶ βωμός ἐστιν οὐ πολὺ ἀνέχων ἐκ τῆς γῆς· ὡς δὲ καὶ μνῆμα οὗτος ὁ βωμὸς εἴη Αἰακοῦ, λεγόμενόν ἐστιν ἐν ἀπορρήτῳ.
Within the enclosure, olives have grown from of old, and there is an altar not rising much from the ground; and that this altar is also the tomb of Aeacus is told as a secret.
§2.29.9παρὰ δὲ τὸ Αἰάκειον Φώκου τάφος χῶμά ἐστι περιεχόμενον κύκλῳ κρηπῖδι, ἐπίκειται δέ οἱ λίθος τραχύς· καὶ ἡνίκα Φῶκον Τελαμὼν καὶ Πηλεὺς προηγάγοντο ἐς ἀγῶνα πεντάθλου καὶ περιῆλθεν ἐς Πηλέα ἀφεῖναι τὸν λίθον—οὗτος γὰρ ἀντὶ δίσκου σφίσιν ἦν—, ἑκὼν τυγχάνει τοῦ Φώκου.
Beside the Aeaceium is the tomb of Phocus, a mound surrounded in a circle by a basement, and on it lies a rough stone; and when Telamon and Peleus induced Phocus to go to a pentathlon contest, and it came to the turn of Peleus to hurl the stone—for this was their substitute for a discus—he happened to hit Phocus intentionally.
ταῦτα δὲ ἐχαρίζοντο τῇ μητρί· αὐτοὶ μὲν γὰρ ἐγεγόνεσαν ἐκ τῆς Σκίρωνος θυγατρός, Φῶκος δὲ οὐκ ἐκ τῆς αὐτῆς, ἀλλʼ ἐξ ἀδελφῆς Θέτιδος ἦν, εἰ δὴ τὰ ὄντα λέγουσιν Ἕλληνες.
They did this to favor their mother; for they themselves were born of the daughter of Sciron, but Phocus was not of the same mother, but of a sister of Thetis, if indeed the Greeks tell the truth.
Πυλάδης τέ μοι καὶ διὰ ταῦτα φαίνεται καὶ οὐκ Ὀρέστου φιλίᾳ μόνον βουλεῦσαι Νεοπτολέμῳ τὸν φόνον.
And to me, Pylades seems for this reason also, and not only out of friendship for Orestes, to have planned the murder of Neoptolemus.
§2.29.10τότε δὲ ὡς τῷ δίσκῳ πληγεὶς ἀπέθανεν ὁ Φῶκος, φεύγουσιν ἐπιβάντες νεὼς οἱ Ἐνδηίδος παῖδες· Τελαμὼν δὲ ὕστερα κήρυκα ἀποστέλλων ἠρνεῖτο μὴ βουλεῦσαι Φώκῳ θάνατον.
At that time, when Phocus died from being struck by the discus, the sons of Endeis fled, embarking on a ship; but Telamon afterwards, sending a herald, denied that he had plotted the death of Phocus.
Αἰακὸς δὲ ἐς μὲν τὴν νῆσον ἀποβαίνειν αὐτὸν οὐκ εἴα, ἑστηκότα δὲ ἐπὶ νεώς, εἰ δὲ ἐθέλοι, χῶμα ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ χώσαντα ἐκέλευεν ἐντεῦθεν ἀπολογήσασθαι.
Aeacus, however, would not allow him to land on the island, but commanded him, standing on his ship, or if he wished, having heaped up a mound in the sea, to make his defense from there.
οὕτως ἐς τὸν Κρυπτὸν καλούμενον λιμένα ἐσπλεύσας νύκτωρ ἐποίει χῶμα.
Thus, having sailed by night into the harbor called Cryptus, he made a mound.
καὶ τοῦτο μὲν ἐξεργασθὲν καὶ ἐς ἡμᾶς ἔτι μένει· καταγνωσθεὶς δὲ οὐκ ἀναίτιος εἶναι Φώκῳ τῆς τελευτῆς, τὸ δεύτερον ἐς Σαλαμῖνα ἀπέπλευσε.
And this, having been completed, still remains to our day; but having been judged not guiltless of the end of Phocus, he sailed away for the second time to Salamis.
§2.29.11τοῦ λιμένος δὲ οὐ πόρρω τοῦ Κρυπτοῦ θέατρόν ἐστι θέας ἄξιον, κατὰ τὸ Ἐπιδαυρίων μάλιστα μέγεθος καὶ ἐργασίαν τὴν λοιπήν.
Not far from the harbor of Cryptus is a theater worth seeing, very near in size and other workmanship to that of the Epidaurians.
τούτου δὲ ὄπισθεν ᾠκοδόμηται σταδίου πλευρὰ μία, ἀνέχουσά τε αὐτὴ τὸ θέατρον καὶ ἀντὶ ἐρείσματος ἀνάλογον ἐκείνῳ χρωμένη.
Behind this is built one side of a stadium, which itself supports the theater and serves in proportion as a support for it.