Pausanias' Description of Greece (Volume 2) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: BOOK VIII.?ARCADIA. CHAPTER I. TTHE parts of Arcadia near Argolis are inhabited by the J- people of Tegea and Mantinea. They and the other Arcadians are the inland division of the Peloponnese. For the Corinthians come first at the Isthmus: and next them by the sea are the Epidaurinns: and by Epidaurus and Trcezen and Hermion is the Gulf of Argolis, and the maritime parts of Argolis: and next are the states of the Lacedaemonians, and next comes Messenia, which touches the sea at Mothone and Pylos and near Cyparissira. At Lechaeum the Sicyonians border upon the Corinthians, being next to Argolis on that side: and next to Sicyon are the Achaeans on the sea-shore, and the other part of the Peloponnese opposite the Echinadcs is occupied by Elis. And the borders between Elis and Messenia are by Olympia and the month of the Alpheus, and between Elis and Achaia the neighbourhood of Dyme. These states that I have mentioned border on the sea, but the Arcadians live in the interior and are shot off from the sea entirely: from which circumstance Homer describes them aa having come to Troy not in their own ships but in transports provided by Agamemnon.1 The Arcadians say that Pelasgus was the first settler in their land. It is probable that others also came with Pelasgus and that he did not come alone. For in that case what subjects would be have had ? I think moreover that Pelasgns was eminent for strength and beauty and judgment beyond others, and that was why he was appointed king over them. This is the description of him by Agios. " Dirint Pelatgus on thu tree-clad hills Jtlacik earth brought Ibrih, to be of mortal ' Iliad, ii. Glil. And Pelasgus when he became king contrived huts that men should be free from cold and rain, and not be exposed to the fierce son, and al...