CHAPTER XXII

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At Tanagra besides the temple of Dionysus there is one of Themis, and another of Aphrodite, and a third of Apollo, near which are both Artemis and Leto. With respect to the two temples of Hermes _the Ram-carrier_ and Hermes _the Champion_, they say Hermes got the first title because he allayed a pestilence by carrying a ram round the walls, and that is why Calamis made a statue of Hermes carrying a ram on his shoulders. And whoever is selected as the most handsome youth, carries a ram on his shoulders round the walls during the festival of Hermes. And Hermes they say was called Champion because, when the Eretrians came with a fleet from Eubœa to Tanagra, he led the young men out to battle, and himself (with a scraper like a young man) mainly brought about the rout of the Eubœans. There is also some purslane preserved in the temple of Hermes the Champion: for they fancy it was under this tree that Hermes was reared. And at no great distance is a theatre, and near it a portico. The people of Tanagra seem to honour their gods most of all the Greeks, for they keep their houses and temples apart, and their temples are in a pure place, and apart from men. And Corinna, the only Poetess of Tanagra, has a tomb in the town in a conspicuous place, and her painting is in the gymnasium, her head is adorned with a fillet because of her victory over Pindar at Thebes. And I think she conquered him because of her dialect, for she did not compose in Doric like Pindar, but in Æolic which the Æolians would understand, and she was also one of the handsomest of women as we can see from her painting. They have also two kinds of cocks, game cocks and those they call black cocks. The latter are in size like the Lydian birds and in colour like a crow, and their gills and crest are like the anemone, and they have small white marks on the end of their bill and tail. Such is their appearance.

And in Bœotia on the left of the Euripus is the mountain Messapium, and at the foot of it is the Bœotian city Anthedon on the sea, called according to some after the Nymph Anthedon, but according to others from Anthas who they say ruled here, the son of Poseidon by Alcyone the daughter of Atlas. At Anthedon in about the middle of the city is a temple and grove round it of the Cabiri, and near it is a temple of Demeter and Proserpine and their statues in white stone. There is also a temple of Dionysus and a statue of the god in front of the city in the land direction. Here too are the tombs of Otus and Ephialtes the sons of Iphimedea and Aloeus, who were slain by Apollo as both Homer[60] and Pindar have represented. Fate carried them off in Naxos beyond Paros, but their tombs are in Anthedon. And by the sea is a place called the leap of Glaucus. He was a fisherman but after eating a certain grass became a marine god and predicts the future, as is believed by many and especially by seafaring men, who every year speak of Glaucus’ powers of prophesy. Pindar and Æschylus have celebrated Glaucus from these traditions of the people of Anthedon, Pindar not so much, but Æschylus has made him the subject of one of his plays.

[60] Odyssey, xi. 318-320. Pindar, Pyth. iv. 156 _sq._

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