CHAPTER LIII

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That is the inscription at Tegea. And the statues erected to Apollo Aguieus by the people of Tegea were dedicated they say for the following reason. Apollo and Artemis punished they say in every place all persons who, when Leto was pregnant and wandering about Arcadia, neglected and took no account of her. And when Apollo and Artemis came into the district of Tegea, then they say Scephrus, the son of Tegeates, went up to Apollo and had a private conversation with him. And Limon his brother, thinking Scephrus was making some charge against him, ran at his brother and slew him. But swift vengeance came upon Limon, for Artemis at once transfixed him with an arrow. And Tegeates and Mera forthwith sacrificed to Apollo and Artemis, and afterwards when a mighty famine came upon the land the oracle at Delphi told them to mourn for Scephrus. Accordingly they pay honours to him at the festival of Apollo Aguieus, and the priestess of Artemis pursues some one, pretending that she is Artemis pursuing Limon. And the remaining sons of Tegeates, Cydon and Archedius and Gortys, migrated they say of their own accord to Crete, and gave their names to the towns Cydonia and Gortys and Catreus. But the Cretans do not accept the tradition of the people of Tegea, they say that Cydon was the son of Acacallis the daughter of Minos and Hermes, and that Catreus was the son of Minos, and Gortys the son of Rhadamanthus. About Rhadamanthus Homer says, in the conversation between Proteus and Menelaus, that Menelaus went to the Elysian fields, and before him Rhadamanthus: and Cinæthon in his verses represents Rhadamanthus as the son of Hephæstus, and Hephæstus as the son of Talos, and Talos as the son of Cres. The traditions of the Greeks are mostly different and especially in genealogies. And the people of Tegea have 4 statues of Apollo Aguieus, one erected by each tribe. And the names of the tribes are Clareotis, Hippothœtis, Apolloniatis, and Atheneatis, the two former so called from the lots which Arcas made his sons cast for the land, and from Hippothous the son of Cercyon.

There is also at Tegea a temple to Demeter and Proserpine, the goddesses whom they call Fruit-giving, and one near to Paphian Aphrodite, which was erected by Laodice, who was, as I have stated before, a daughter of that Agapenor who led the Arcadians to Troy, and dwelt at Paphos. And not far from it are two temples to Dionysus, and an altar to Proserpine, and a temple and gilt statue of Apollo, the statue by Chirisophus, a Cretan by race, whose age and master we do not know. But the stay of Dædalus at Minos’ court in Crete, and the statues which he made, has brought much greater fame to Crete. And near Apollo is a stone statue of Chirisophus himself.

And the people of Tegea have an altar which they call common to all Arcadians, where there is a statue of Hercules. He is represented as wounded in the thigh with the wound he received in the first fight which he had with the sons of Hippocoon. And the lofty place dedicated to Zeus Clarius, where most of the altars at Tegea are, is no doubt so called from the lots which the sons of Arcas cast. And the people of Tegea have an annual festival there, and they say the Lacedæmonians once invaded their territory at the time of the festival, and the god sent snow, and they were cold, and weary from the weight of their armour, and the people of Tegea unbeknown to the enemy lit a fire, (and so they were not incommoded with the cold), and put on their armour, and went out against them, and overcame them in the action. I have also seen at Tegea the following sights, the house of Aleus, and the tomb of Echemus, and a representation on a pillar of the fight between Echemus and Hyllus.

As you go from Tegea towards Laconia, there is an altar of Pan on the left of the road, and another of Lycæan Zeus, and there are ruins of temples. Their altars are about 2 stades from the walls, and about seven stades further is a temple of Artemis called Limnatis, and a statue of the goddess in ebony. The workmanship is called Æginætan by the Greeks. And about 10 stades further are ruins of the temple of Artemis Cnaceatis.

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