CHAPTER XXXVII

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From Acacesium it is four stades to the temple of Despœna. There was first there a temple of Artemis the Leader, and a brazen statue of the goddess with torches, about 6 feet high I conjecture. From thence there is an entrance to the sacred enclosure of Despœna. As you approach the temple there is a portico on the right, and on the wall figures in white stone, the Fates and Zeus as Master of the Fates, and Hercules robbing Apollo of his tripod. All that I could discover about them I will relate, when in my account of Phocis I come to Delphi. And in the portico near the temple of Despœna, between the figures I have mentioned, is a tablet painted with representations of the mysteries. On a third figure are some Nymphs and Pans, and on a fourth Polybius the son of Lycortas. And the inscription on him is that Greece would not have been ruined at all had it taken his advice in all things, and when it made mistakes he alone could have retrieved them. And in front of the temple is an altar to Demeter and another to Despœna, and next one to the Great Mother. And the statues of the Goddesses Despœna and Demeter, and the throne on which they sit, and the footstool under their feet, are all of one piece of stone: and neither about the dress nor on the throne is any portion of another stone dove-tailed in, but everything is one block of stone. This stone was not fetched from a distance, they say, but, in consequence of a vision in a dream, found and dug up in the temple precincts. And the size of each of the statues is about the size of the statue at Athens of the Mother. They are by Damophon. Demeter has a torch in her right hand, and has laid her left hand upon Despœna: and Despœna has her sceptre, and on her knees what is called a cist, which she has her right hand upon. And on one side of the throne stands Artemis by Demeter, clad in the skin of a deer and with her quiver on her shoulders, in one hand she holds a lamp, and in the other two dragons. And at her feet lies a dog, such as are used for hunting. And on the other side of the throne near Despœna stands Anytus in armour: they say Despœna was brought up near the temple by him. He was one of the Titans. Homer first introduced the Titans into poetry, as gods in what is called Tartarus, in the lines about the oath of Hera.[39] And Onomacritus borrowed the name of the Titans from Homer when he wrote his poem about the orgies of Dionysus, and represented the Titans as contributing to the sufferings of Dionysus. Such is the Arcadian tradition about Anytus. It was Æschylus the son of Euphorion that taught the Greeks the Egyptian legend, that Artemis was the daughter of Demeter and not of Leto. As to the Curetes, for they too are carved under the statues, and the Corybantes, a different race from the Curetes who are carved on the base, though I know all about them I purposely pass it by. And the Arcadians bring into the temple all wood except that of the pomegranate. On the right hand as you go out of the temple is a mirror fixed to the wall: if any one looks into this mirror, he will see himself very obscurely or not at all, but the statues of the goddesses and the throne he will see quite clearly. And by the temple of Despœna as you ascend a little to the right is the Hall, where the Arcadians perform her Mystic rites, and sacrifice to her victims in abundance. Each sacrifices what animal he has got: nor do they cut the throats of the victims as in other sacrifices, but each cuts off whatever limb of the victim he lights on. The Arcadians worship Despœna more than any of the gods, and say that she was the daughter of Poseidon and Demeter. Her general appellation is Despœna, a name they also give to the Daughter of Zeus and Demeter, but her private name is Persephone, as Homer[40] and still earlier Pamphus have given it, but that name of Despœna I feared to write down for the uninitiated. And beyond the Hall is a grove sacred to Despœna surrounded by a stone wall: in the grove are several kinds of trees, as olives and oak from one root, which is something above the gardener’s art. And beyond the grove are altars of Poseidon Hippius as the father of Despœna, and of several other of the gods. And the inscription on the last altar is that it is common to all the gods.

From thence you ascend by a staircase to the temple of Pan, which has a portico and a not very large statue. To Pan as to all the most powerful gods belongs the property of answering prayer and of punishing the wicked. In his temple a never ceasing fire burns. It is said that in ancient times Pan gave oracular responses, and that his interpreter was the Nymph Erato, who married Arcas the son of Callisto. They also quote some of Erato’s lines, which I have myself perused. There too is an altar to Ares, and two statues of Aphrodite in a temple, one of white marble, the more ancient one of wood. There are also wooden statues of Apollo and Athene, Athene has also a temple.

[39] Iliad, xiv. 277-279.

[40] _e.g._ Odyssey, x. 491, 494, 509.

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