CHAPTER XXXIX

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Past Lycosura in a westerly direction flows the river Plataniston, which everyone must cross who is going to Phigalia, after which an ascent of 30 stades or a little more takes you to that town. How Phigalus was the son of Lycaon, and how he was the original founder of the town, and how in process of time the name of the town got changed into Phialia from Phialus the son of Bucolion, and afterwards got back its old name, all this I have entered into already. There are other traditions not worthy of credit, as that Phigalus was an Autochthon and not the son of Lycaon, and some say that Phigalia was one of the Nymphs called Dryads. When the Lacedæmonians attacked Arcadia and invaded Phigalia, they defeated the inhabitants in a battle and laid siege to the town, and as the town was nearly taken by storm the Phigalians evacuated it, or the Lacedæmonians allowed them to leave it upon conditions of war. And the capture of Phigalia and the flight of the Phigalians from it took place when Miltiades was chief magistrate at Athens, in the 2nd year of the 30th Olympiad, in which Chionis the Laconian was victor for the third time. And it seemed good to those Phigalians who had escaped to go to Delphi, and inquire of the god as to their return. And the Pythian Priestess told them that if they tried by themselves to return to Phigalia she foresaw no hope of their return, but if they took a hundred picked men from Oresthasium, and they were slain in battle, the Phigalians would get their return through them. And when the people of Oresthasium heard of the oracular message given to the Phigalians, they vied with one another in zeal who should be one of the 100 picked men, and participate in the expedition to Phigalia. And they engaged with the Lacedæmonian garrison and fulfilled the oracle completely: for they all died fighting bravely, and drove out the Spartans, and put it in the power of the Phigalians to recover their native town. Phigalia lies on a hill which is mostly precipitous, and its walls are built on the rocks, but as you go up to the town there is a gentle and easy ascent. And there is a temple of Artemis the Preserver, and her statue in stone in an erect position. From this temple they usually conduct the processions. And in the gymnasium there is a statue of Hermes with a cloak on, which does not cease at his feet but covers the whole square figure. There is also a temple of Dionysus called Acratophorus by the people of the place, the lower parts of the statue are not visible being covered by leaves of laurel and ivy. And all the statue that can be seen is coloured with vermilion so as to look very gay. The Iberes find this vermilion with their gold.

[41] Iliad, xxi. 194-197.

[42] Iliad, xxiv. 615-617.

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