CHAPTER XXVIII

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The other part of the painting, that on the left, represents Odysseus descending to Hades, to consult the soul of Tiresias about his return home. In the painting is a river, which is obviously Acheron, and there are some reeds growing in it, and some fishes so indistinct that they look like the ghosts of fishes. And there is a boat on the river, and a ferryman with his oars. Polygnotus has followed (I think) here the description, in the poem called the Minyad, about Theseus and Pirithous.

“Unwillingly did old Charon admit these living persons into his boat meant for the use of the dead.”

Polygnotus has accordingly represented Charon as old. The persons on board are not very easy to trace. But there is Tellis, looking like a youth, and Cleobœa still a virgin, with a cist on her knees such as they use in the worship of Demeter. Of Tellis I know nothing more than that Archilochus was his greatgrandson. And Cleobœa they say first introduced the mysteries of Demeter from Paros to Thasos. And on the bank of the Acheron near Charon’s boat a son, who had not treated his father well, is being strangled by his father. For the ancients reverenced fathers exceedingly,[128] as one may infer among other things from the conduct of those called _Pious_ at Catana, who, when Catana was consumed by fire from Mount Ætna, took no account of silver or gold, but the one took up his mother, the other his father, and fled for their lives. And as they advanced with great difficulty for the flame gathered on them, (but they would not for all that set their parents down), the flames they say divided so as to let them pass without hurt. These young men are still honoured at Catana. And in Polygnotus’ painting near the man who ill-treated his father, and has consequently a bad time of it in Hades, is a sacrilegious wretch suffering punishment. The woman[129] who is punishing him seems well acquainted with poison, and other things that can do man harm. Men were also in those days remarkable for piety to the gods, as the Athenians shewed when they captured the temple of Olympian Zeus at Syracuse, for they removed none of the votive offerings, and left the former priest still in charge. Datis the Mede also showed the same piety both in word and in deed, in word to the Delians, and in deed when, finding a statue of Apollo on a Phœnician ship, he gave it back to the people of Tanagra to take to Delium. In those days all men honoured the deity, and so Polygnotus introduced into his painting the sacrilegious wretch suffering punishment. Above those I have described is Eurynomus, who according to the Antiquarians at Delphi is a demon in Hades, and eats the flesh of the dead clean to the bones. No such person however is mentioned in the Odyssey, or in the Minyad, or in _The Return from Ilium_, though these poems contain accounts of Hades and its horrors. I shall therefore describe Eurynomus’ appearance in this painting. His colour is a blueish-black, like that of the flies that infest meat,[130] and he shows his fangs, and sits on a vulture’s skin. And next him are Auge and Iphimedea from Arcadia. Auge came to Teuthras in Mysia, and, of all the women who consorted with Hercules, bare a son most like him. And Iphimedea is treated with very great honour by the Carians who dwell at Mylasa.

[128] See for example Hesiod, _Works and Days_, 331, 332, with context.

[129] _Boettiger_ takes this woman to be _Punishment_ personified.

[130] Our “bluebottles.”

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