CHAPTER XXXV

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This road leads to Messene, but another leads from Megalopolis to Carnasium in Messenia, where the Alpheus has its rise, at the place where the Malus and the Scyrus mingle their waters with it in one stream. If you keep the Malus on the right for about thirty stades and then cross it, you will mount on higher ground till you come to the place called Phædria, which is about 15 stades from the village called Hermæum, near the temple of Despœna. Hermæum is the boundary between the districts of Messenia and Megalopolis, and there are statues not very large of Despœna and Demeter, Hermes and Hercules: and I think the wooden statue of Hercules made by Dædalus on the borders of Messenia and Arcadia once stood here.

The road to Lacedæmon from Megalopolis is 30 stades to the Alpheus, and then along the riverside till you come to one of its tributaries the Thius, which you leave on the left and arrive at Phalæsiæ, about 40 stades from the Alpheus. Phalæsiæ is about 20 stades from the temple of Hermes at Belemina. The Arcadians say that Belemina originally belonged to them, and that the Lacedæmonians robbed them of it. But their account is not probable on other grounds, nor is at all likely that the Thebans would have allowed the Arcadians to be stripped of their territory in this quarter, could they with justice have righted them.

From Megalopolis are also roads to the interior of Arcadia, as to Methydrium 170 stades from Megalopolis, and 13 stades further to the place called Scias, where are ruins of a temple to Sciadian Artemis, erected tradition says by Aristodemus the tyrant. And 10 stades further there are the ruins of a place called Charisiæ, and another 10 stades further is Tricoloni, which was formerly a town; and there is still on the hill a temple and square statue of Poseidon, and a grove of trees round the temple. Tricoloni was founded by the sons of Lycaon, and Zœtia about 15 stades from Tricoloni, (not in a direct line but a little to the left); was founded they say by Zœteus the son of Tricolonus. And Paroreus, the younger son of Tricolonus, founded Paroria, which is about 10 stades from Zœtia. Both are without inhabitants now, but at Zœtia there are temples of Demeter and Artemis. And there are other towns in ruins, as Thyræum 15 stades from Paroria, and Hypsus on a hill of the same name above the plain. Between Thyræum and Hypsus all the country is hilly and abounds with wild beasts. I have previously shewn that Thyræus and Hypsus were sons of Lycaon.

On the right of Tricoloni is a steep road to a spring called Wells, as you descend about 30 stades you come to the tomb of Callisto, a high mound of earth, with many trees growing wild, and some planted. And on the top of this mound is a temple of Artemis called The Most Beautiful, and I think when Pamphus in his verses called Artemis The Most Beautiful he first learnt this epithet from the Arcadians. And twenty-five stades further, 100 from Tricolonus in the direction of the Helisson, on the high road to Methydrium, (which is the only town left to Tricoloni), is a place called Anemosa and the mountain Phalanthum, on which are ruins of a town of the same name, founded they say by Phalanthus, the son of Agelaus, and grandson of Stymphelus. Above it is a plain called Polus, and next to it is Schœnus, so called from the Bœotian Schœneus. And if Schœneus was a stranger in Arcadia, Atalanta’s Course near Schœnus may have taken its name from his daughter. And next is a place called I think * * *, and all agree that this is Arcadian soil.

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