LP0038 Descriptions of Athens

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• published: 04 Sep 2015
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Legendary Passages #0038 - Descriptions of Athens - The Sanctuary of Theseus from Pausanias' Description of Greece. Last time we heard about the founding of city of Athens, and many of its early kings. This time we get a tour of Athens and its many temples and sanctuaries. First is the Odeum of Athens and the Fountain of Nine Jets. Nearby is a statue of Triptolemus, the first to plant and grow crops. There are many shrines and monuments honoring those who fought against the Persians. A portico has depictions of battles fought with Spartans, and on the next wall Heracles and Theseus fighting with Amazons. Then the author gives a short history of Selucus of Antioch, a General under Alexander the Great. Lastly, near the market-place and Ptolemy's Gymnasium is the Sancutary of Theseus. The first painting is the battle of Centaurs and the Laphiths, in which Theseus took part. Next is the Ship of Theseus sailing for Crete, where Minos challenged Theseus to retrieve a ring thrown overboard. Then Theseus and his friend are held prisoner in Theresprotia; or Hades, according to mythic sources. Theseus is killed by Lycomedes, but is avenged at long last and his bones returned to Athens. Next time we shall hear more of the Crown of Amphitrite in the Odes of Athens. Descriptions of Athens a Legendary Passage from PAUSANIAS' DESCRIPTION OF GREECE, TRANS. BY W. H. S. JONES [1.14.1] - [1.17.6] XIV. When you have entered the Odeum at Athens you meet, among other objects, a figure of Dionysus worth seeing. Hard by is a spring called Enneacrunos (Nine Jets), embellished as you see it by Peisistratus. There are cisterns all over the city, but this is the only fountain. Above the spring are two temples, one to Demeter and the Maid, while in that of Triptolemus is a statue of him. The accounts given of Triptolemus I shall write, omitting from the story as much as relates to Deiope. The Greeks who dispute most the Athenian claim to antiquity and the gifts they say they have received from the gods are the Argives, just as among those who are not Greeks the Egyptians compete with the Phrygians. It is said, then, that when Demeter came to Argos she was received by Pelasgus into his home, and that Chrysanthis, knowing about the rape of the Maid, related the story to her. Afterwards Trochilus, the priest of the mysteries, fled, they say, from Argos because of the enmity of Agenor, came to Attica and married a woman of Eleusis, by whom he had two children, Eubuleus and Triptolemus. That is the account given by the Argives. But the Athenians and those who with them . . . know that Triptolemus, son of Celeus, was the first to sow seed for cultivation. Some extant verses of Musaeus, if indeed they are to be included among his works, say that Triptolemus was the son of Oceanus and Earth; while those ascribed to Orpheus (though in my opinion the received authorship is again incorrect) say that Eubuleus and Triptolemus were sons of Dysaules, and that because they gave Demeter information about her daughter the sowing of seed was her reward to them. But Choerilus, an Athenian, who wrote a play called Alope, says that Cercyon and Triptolemus were brothers, that their mother was the daughter of Amphictyon, while the father of Triptolemus was Rarus, of Cercyon, Poseidon. After I had intended to go further into this story, and to describe the contents of the sanctuary at Athens, called the Eleusinium, I was stayed by a vision in a dream. I shall therefore turn to those things it is lawful to write of to all men. In front of this temple, where is also the statue of Triptolemus, is a bronze bull being led as it were to sacrifice, and there is a sitting figure of Epimenides of Cnossus, who they say entered a cave in the country and slept. And the sleep did not leave him before the fortieth year, and afterwards he wrote verses and purified Athens and other cities. But Thales who stayed the plague for the Lacedaem...