CHAPTER XII

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And about a stade from the tomb of Epaminondas is a temple of Zeus surnamed Charmo. In the Arcadian oak-plantations there are different kinds of oaks, some they call broadleaved, and others they call fegi. A third kind have a thin bark so light, that they make of it floats for anchors and nets. The bark of this kind of oak is called cork by some of the Ionians and by Hermesianax the Elegiac Poet.

From Mantinea a road leads to the village Methydrium, formerly a town, now included in Megalopolis. When you have gone 30 stades further you come to the plain called Alcimedon, and above it is the mountain Ostracina, where the cave is where Alcimedon, one of the men called Heroes, used to dwell. Hercules according to the tradition of the Phigalians had an intrigue with Phialo, the daughter of this Alcimedon. When Alcimedon found out she was a mother he exposed her and her boy immediately after his birth on the mountain. Æchmagoras was the name given to the boy according to the Arcadians. And the boy crying out when he was exposed, the bird called the jay heard his wailing and imitated it. And Hercules happening to pass by heard the jay, and thinking it was the cry of his boy and not the bird, turned at the sound, and when he perceived Phialo he loosed her from her bonds and saved the boy’s life. From that time the well has been called Jay from the bird. And about 40 stades from this well is the place called Petrosaca, the boundary between Megalopolis and Mantinea.

Besides the roads I have mentioned there are two that lead to Orchomenus, and in one of them is what is called Ladas’ course, where he used to practise for running, and near it is a temple of Artemis, and on the right of the road a lofty mound which they say is the tomb of Penelope, differing from what is said about her in the Thesprotian Poem. For in it she is represented as having borne a son Ptoliporthes to Odysseus after his return from Troy. But the tradition of the Mantineans about her is that she was detected by Odysseus in having encouraged the suitors to the house, and therefore sent away by him, and that she forthwith departed to Lacedæmon, and afterwards migrated to Mantinea, and there died. And near this tomb is a small plain, and a hill on it with some ruins still remaining of old Mantinea, and the place is called _The Town_ to this day. And as you go on in a Northerly direction, you soon come to the well of Alalcomenea. And about 30 stades from _The Town_ are the ruins of a place called Mæra, if indeed Mæra was buried here and not at Tegea: for the most probable tradition is that Mæra, the daughter of Atlas, was buried at Tegea and not at Mantinea. But perhaps it was another Mæra, a descendant of the Mæra that was the daughter of Atlas, that came to Mantinea.

There still remains the road which leads to Orchomenus, on which is the mountain Anchisia, and the tomb of Anchises at the foot of the mountain. For when Æneas was crossing to Sicily he landed in Laconia, and founded the towns Aphrodisias and Etis, and his father Anchises for some reason or other coming to this place and dying there was also buried at the foot of the mountain called Anchisia after him. And this tradition is confirmed by the fact that the Æolians who now inhabit Ilium nowhere shew in their country the tomb of Anchises. And near the tomb of Anchises are ruins of a temple of Aphrodite, and Anchisia is the boundary between the districts of Mantinea and Orchomenus.

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