CHAPTER XXIII

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The Thebans in front of the gate Prœtis have what is called the gymnasium of Iolaus, and a mound of earth constituting a race-course like that at Olympia and Epidaurus. There is also shown there the hero-chapel of Iolaus, who died in Sardinia, (as the Thebans admit), with the Athenians and Thespians who crossed over with him. As you leave the race-course on the right is the Hippodrome, and in it is the tomb of Pindar. When he was quite a young man, going one day to Thespiæ in the middle of a very hot day, he was tired and sleep came upon him. And he lay down a little above the road, and some bees settled on him as he slept and made their honey on his lips. This circumstance made him first write poems. And when he was famous throughout all Greece, the Pythian Priestess raised his fame still higher by proclaiming at Delphi, that Pindar was to have an equal share with Apollo of the firstfruits. It is said that he also had an appearance in a dream when he was advanced in years. Proserpine stood by him as he slept, and told him that she was the only one of the gods that was not celebrated by him, but he would also celebrate her in an Ode when he came to her. And he died before the close of the 10th day after this dream. And there was at Thebes an old woman related to Pindar, who had been accustomed to sing many of his Odes, to her Pindar appeared in a dream and recited his Hymn to Proserpine. And she directly she awoke wrote it down just as she had heard him reciting in her dream. In this Hymn Pluto has several titles, among others the _Golden-reined_, dearly an allusion to the Rape of Proserpine.

The road from the tomb of Pindar to Acræphnium is mostly level. They say Acræphnium was originally a city in the district of Thebes, and I heard that some Thebans fled for refuge there when Alexander destroyed Thebes, for through weakness and old age they were not able to get safe to Attica but dwelt there. This little city is situated on Mount Ptoum, and the temple and statue of Dionysus there are well worth seeing.

About 15 stades further you come to the temple of Ptoan Apollo. Ptous was the son of Athamas and Themisto, and from him both Apollo and the Mountain got their name according to the poet Asius. And before the invasion of Alexander and the Macedonians, and the destruction of Thebes, there was an infallible oracle there. And on one occasion a European whose name was Mys was sent by Mardonius to consult the oracle in his own tongue, and the god gave his response not in Greek but in the Carian dialect.[61]

When you have passed over the mountain Ptoum, you come to Larymna a city of the Bœotians by the sea, so called from the daughter of Cynus who was Larymna: her remote ancestors I shall relate when I come to Locris. Formerly Larymna was reckoned in with Opus, but when the Thebans became powerful the inhabitants voluntarily transferred themselves to the Bœotians. There is here a temple of Dionysus, and a statue of the god in a standing posture. And there is a deep harbour close to the shore, and the mountains above the town afford excellent wild boar hunting.

[61] See Herodotus, viii. 135.

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