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Pausanias · Description of Greece §8.24.1-8.24.7

Traditions of Psophis and the River Erymanthus

Passage 328 of 465 · Greek

Summary

The author describes the mythological origins of the city of Psophis, the course and source of the river Erymanthus, Heracles' hunt of the Erymanthian boar, and local sanctuaries, including the temple of Aphrodite Erycina and the tomb of Alcmaeon.

§8.24.1Ψωφῖδος δὲ οἱ μέν φασιν οἰκιστὴν γενέσθαι Ψώφιδα τὸν Ἄρρωνος τοῦ Ἐρυμάνθου τοῦ Ἀρίστα τοῦ Παρθάονος τοῦ Περιφήτου τοῦ Νυκτίμου· τοῖς δέ ἐστιν εἰρημένα θυγατέρα Ψωφῖδα εἶναι Ξάνθου τοῦ Ἐρυμάνθου τοῦ Ἀρκάδος.
As for Psophis, some say that the founder was Psophis, the son of Arron, the son of Erymanthus, the son of Aristas, the son of Parthaon, the son of Periphetus, the son of Nyctimus; but by others it has been said that Psophis was the daughter of Xanthus, the son of Erymanthus, the son of Arcas.
τάδε μὲν οὖν οὕτω κατὰ τὴν Ἀρκάδων ἐς τοὺς βασιλέας ἔχει μνήμην·
These are the traditions of the Arcadians regarding their kings.
§8.24.2ὁ δὲ ἀληθέστατος τῶν λόγων ἐστὶν Ἔρυκος τοῦ ἐν Σικανίᾳ δυναστεύσαντος παῖδα εἶναι τὴν Ψωφῖδα, ᾗ συγγενόμενος Ἡρακλῆς ἀγαγέσθαι μὲν αὐτὴν ἐς τὸν οἶκον οὐκ ἠξίου, καταλείπει δὲ ἔχουσαν ἐν τῇ γαστρὶ παρὰ Λυκόρτᾳ, ξένῳ μὲν ὄντι αὐτοῦ, παροικοῦντι δὲ ἐν πόλει Φηγίᾳ, πρὸ δὲ τοῦ Φηγέως τῆς βασιλείας Ἐρυμάνθῳ καλουμένῃ·
But the truest of the stories is that Psophis was the daughter of Eryx, who ruled in Sicania. Heracles, having associated with her, did not think fit to take her to his home, but left her, when she was with child, with Lycortas, who was his guest-friend and dwelt in the city of Phegia, which before the reign of Phegeus was called Erymanthus.
ἐπιτραφέντες δὲ αὐτόθι Ἐχέφρων καὶ Πρόμαχος Ἡρακλέους τε ὄντες καὶ τῆς γυναικὸς τῆς Σικανῆς μετέθεντο τῇ Φηγίᾳ τὸ ὄνομα Ψωφῖδα ἀπὸ τῆς μητρός.
Having been brought up there, Echephron and Promachus, who were the sons of Heracles and the Sicanian woman, changed the name of Phegia to Psophis after their mother.
§8.24.3ἔστι δὲ καὶ Ζακυνθίων τῇ ἀκροπόλει Ψωφὶς ὄνομα, ὅτι ναυσὶν ἐς τὴν νῆσον ἐπεραιώθη πρῶτος καὶ ἐγένετο οἰκιστὴς ἀνὴρ Ψωφίδιος, Ζάκυνθος ὁ Δαρδάνου.
And the acropolis of the Zacynthians also has the name Psophis, because the first man to cross over to the island in ships and become its founder was a man of Psophis, Zacynthus the son of Dardanus.
Σειρῶν μὲν δὴ σταδίοις ἐστὶν ἀπωτέρω τριάκοντα ἡ Ψωφίς· παρὰ δὲ αὐτὴν ὅ τε Ἀροάνιος ποταμὸς καὶ ὀλίγον ἀπωτέρω τῆς πόλεως Ἐρύμανθος ῥέουσιν.
Now Psophis is thirty stades distant from Seirae; and past it flows the river Aroanius, and a little further from the city flows the Erymanthus.
§8.24.4ἔχει δὲ τὰς πηγὰς ὁ Ἐρύμανθος ἐν ὄρει Λαμπείᾳ, τὸ δὲ ὄρος τοῦτο ἱερὸν εἶναι Πανὸς λέγεται· εἴη δʼ ἂν τοῦ ὄρους τοῦ Ἐρυμάνθου μοῖρα ἡ Λάμπεια.
The Erymanthus has its sources in Mount Lampeia, and this mountain is said to be sacred to Pan; Lampeia would be a part of Mount Erymanthus.
ἐποίησε δὲ Ὅμηρος ὡς ἐν Ταϋγέτῳ τε καὶ Ἐρυμάνθῳ θηρευτὴς οὖν τῆς Λαμπείας ὁ Ἐρύμανθος, καὶ Ἀρκαδίαν διεξελθὼν ἐν δεξιᾷ μὲν τὸ ὄρος ἔχων τὴν Φολόην, ἐν ἀριστερᾷ δὲ πάλιν Θέλπουσαν χώραν, κάτεισιν ἐς τὸν Ἀλφειόν.
Homer made poetry of Artemis as a hunter on Taygetus and Erymanthus; the Erymanthus then, flowing from Lampeia and passing through Arcadia with Mount Pholoe on its right and the territory of Thelpusa on its left, goes down into the Alpheius.
§8.24.5λέγεται δὲ ὡς Ἡρακλῆς κατὰ πρόσταγμα Εὐρυσθέως παρὰ τῷ Ἐρυμάνθῳ θηράσειεν ὗν μεγέθει καὶ ἀλκῇ τοὺς ἄλλους ὑπερηρκότα.
It is said that Heracles, by the command of Eurystheus, hunted by the Erymanthus a boar that surpassed all others in size and strength.
Κυμαῖοι δὲ οἱ ἐν Ὀπικοῖς συὸς ὀδόντας ἀνακειμένους παρὰ σφίσιν ἐν Ἀπόλλωνος ἱερῷ λόγῳ μὲν λέγουσιν ὡς οἱ ὀδόντες ὑὸς εἶεν τοῦ Ἐρυμανθίου, τῷ λόγῳ δὲ αὐτῶν οὐδὲ ἐπʼ ὀλίγον μέτεστι τοῦ εἰκότος.
The Cymaeans in the country of the Opici, when speaking of the boar's tusks dedicated in their temple of Apollo, say that they are the tusks of the Erymanthian boar, but their story has not even a shred of probability.
§8.24.6Ψωφιδίοις δὲ ἐν τῇ πόλει τοῦτο μὲν Ἀφροδίτης ἱερὸν Ἐρυκίνης ἐστὶν ἐπίκλησιν— ἐρείπια ἐφʼ ἡμῶν ἐλείπετο αὐτοῦ μόνα, ἐλέγοντο δὲ οἱ Ψωφῖδος αὐτὸ ἱδρύσασθαι παῖδες, καὶ τῷ λόγῳ τὸ εἰκὸς πρόσεστι· ἔστι γὰρ καὶ ἐν Σικελίᾳ τῆς Ἐρυκίνης ἱερὸν ἐν τῇ χώρᾳ τῇ Ἔρυκος, ἁγιώτατόν τε ἐκ παλαιοτάτου καὶ οὐκ ἀποδέον πλούτῳ τοῦ ἱεροῦ τοῦ ἐν Πάφῳ— §8.24.7Προμάχου δὲ καὶ Ἐχέφρονος τῶν Ψωφῖδος οὐκ ἐπιφανῆ κατʼ ἐμὲ ἔτι ἦν τὰ ἡρῷα.
For the Psophidians, there is in their city, on the one hand, a sanctuary of Aphrodite surnamed Erycina—only its ruins were left in my time, and it was said to have been founded by the children of Psophis, and there is probability in the story; for there is also in Sicily, in the territory of Eryx, a sanctuary of Erycina, most holy from the oldest times and not falling behind the sanctuary in Paphos in wealth— but the hero-shrines of Promachus and Echephron, the sons of Psophis, were no longer conspicuous in my day.
τέθαπται δὲ καὶ Ἀλκμαίων ἐν Ψωφῖδι ὁ Ἀμφιαράου, καί οἱ τὸ μνῆμά ἐστιν οἴκημα οὔτε μεγέθει μέγα οὔτε ἄλλως κεκοσμημένον· περὶ δὲ αὐτὸ κυπάρισσοι πεφύκασιν ἐς τοσοῦτον ὕψος ἀνήκουσαι, ὥστε καὶ τὸ ὄρος τὸ πρὸς τῇ Ψωφῖδι κατεσκιάζετο ὑπʼ αὐτῶν.
Alcmaeon also, the son of Amphiaraus, is buried in Psophis, and his tomb is a building neither great in size nor otherwise decorated; around it grow cypresses rising to such a height that even the mountain next to Psophis was overshadowed by them.
ταύτας οὐκ ἐθέλουσιν ἐκκόπτειν ἱερὰς τοῦ Ἀλκμαίωνος νομίζοντες· καλοῦνται δὲ ὑπὸ τῶν ἐπιχωρίων παρθένοι.
These they will not cut down, regarding them as sacred to Alcmaeon; and they are called "the Maidens" by the people of the country.

Notes

  1. 8.24.1τοῖς δέ ἐστιν εἰρημένα — An impersonal construction using the perfect passive participle in the neuter plural (εἰρημένα) with the dative of agent τοῖς δέ (by others), meaning 'by others it has been said'.
  2. 8.24.4ἐποίησε δὲ Ὅμηρος ὡς ἐν Ταϋγέτῳ τε καὶ Ἐρυμάνθῳ θηρευτὴς οὖν τῆς Λαμπείας ὁ Ἐρύμανθος — The manuscript reading θηρευτής (hunter) poses syntactical difficulties, and modern editors often emend it to ῥέων (flowing). This translation understands the passage by supplying the idea of Artemis hunting on these mountains in Homer (Odyssey 6.102-104) while connecting the context of the river Erymanthus rising from Mount Lampeia.
  3. 8.24.6τοῦτο μὲν — An adverbial expression anticipating a subsequent contrast. Without an explicit corresponding τοῦτο δέ (on the other hand), the contextual contrast shifts, after a parenthetical clause (§8.24.6), to the sentence starting with Προμάχου δὲ... (§8.24.7).

Cite this passage

Pausanias, Description of Greece §8.24.1-8.24.7. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:8.24.1-8.24.7

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