CHAPTER XLIV

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To return to our account of Arcadia, there is a road from Megalopolis to Pallantium and Tegea, leading to what is called the Mound. On this road is a suburb of Megalopolis, called Ladocea from Ladocus the son of Echemus. And next comes Hæmoniæ, which in ancient times was a town founded by Hæmon the son of Lycaon, and is still called Hæmoniæ. And next it on the right are the ruins of Oresthasium, and the pillars of a temple to Artemis surnamed the Priestess. And on the direct road from Hæmoniæ is the place called Aphrodisium, and next to it Athenæum, on the left of which is a temple of Athene and stone statue of the goddess. About 20 stades from Athenæum are the ruins of Asea, and the hill which was formerly the citadel has still remains of walls. And about 5 stades from Asea is the Alpheus a little away from the road, and near the road is the source of the Eurotas. And near the source of the Alpheus is a temple of the Mother of the Gods without a roof, and two lions in stone. And the Eurotas joins the Alpheus, and for about 20 stades they flow together in a united stream, till they are lost in a cavity and come up again, the Eurotas in Laconia, the Alpheus at Pegæ in Megalopolis. There is also a road from Asea leading up to Mount Boreum, on the top of which are traces of a temple. The tradition is that Odysseus on his return from Ilium built it to Poseidon and Preserver Athene.

What is called the Mound is the boundary for the districts of Megalopolis Tegea and Pallantium, and as you turn off from it to the left is the plain of Pallantium. In Pallantium there is a temple, and a stone statue of Pallas and another of Evander, and a temple to Proserpine the daughter of Demeter, and at no great distance a statue of Polybius. The hill above the town was used of old as the citadel, and on the top of it are remains even to our day of a temple of the gods called Pure, oaths by whom are still accounted most weighty. They do not know the particular names of these gods, or if they know they will not tell them. But one might conjecture that they were called Pure, because Pallas did not sacrifice to them in the same way as his father did to Lycæan Zeus.

And on the right of what is called the Mound is the Manthuric plain on the borders of Tegea, being indeed only 50 stades from Tegea. There is a small hill on the right of the road called Cresium, on which is the temple of Aphneus. For according to the legend of the people of Tegea Ares had an intrigue with Aerope, the daughter of Cepheus the son of Aleus, and she died in childbirth, and the baby still clung to his mother though she was dead, and sucked from her breasts a plentiful supply of milk, and as Ares had caused this they called the god Aphneus, and the boy was called they say Aeropus. And on the road to Tegea is the well called Leuconius, so called from Leucone, (who they say was a daughter of Aphidas), whose tomb is not far from Tegea.

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