Pausanias´ Description of Greece - Παυσανίου Ελλάδος περιήγησις
Recogito Annotation
Book 5 — Chapter 13
English
5.13.1 Within the Altis there is also a sacred enclosure consecrated to Pelops, whom the Eleans as much prefer in honor above the heroes of Olympia as they prefer Zeus over the other gods. To the right of the entrance of the temple of Zeus, on the north side, lies the Pelopium. It is far enough removed from the temple for statues and other offerings to stand in the intervening space, and beginning at about the middle of the temple it extends as far as the rear chamber. It is surrounded by a stone fence, within which trees grow and statues have been dedicated.
5.13.2 The entrance is on the west. The sanctuary is said to have been set apart to Pelops by Heracles the son of Amphitryon. Heracles too was a great-grandson of Pelops, and he is also said to have sacrificed to him into the pit. Right down to the present day the magistrates of the year sacrifice to him, and the victim is a black ram. No portion of this sacrifice goes to the sooth-sayer, only the neck of the ram it is usual to give to the “woodman,” as he is called.
5.13.3 The woodman is one of the servants of Zeus, and the task assigned to him is to supply cities and private individuals with wood for sacrifices at a fixed rate, wood of the white poplar, but of no other tree, being allowed. If anybody, whether Elean or stranger, eat of the meat of the victim sacrificed to Pelops, he may not enter the temple of Zeus. The same rule applies to those who sacrifice to Telephus at Pergamus above the river Caicus; these too may not go up to the Asclepeion before they have bathed.
5.13.4 The following tale too is told. When the war of the Greeks against Troy was prolonged, the soothsayers prophesied to them that they would not take the city until they had fetched the bow and arrows of Heracles and a bone of Pelops. So it is said that they sent for Philoctetes to the camp, and from Pisa was brought to them a bone of Pelops — a shoulder-blade. As they were returning home, the ship carrying the bone of Pelops was wrecked off Euboea in the storm.
5.13.5 Many years later than the capture of Troy,
5.13.6 It happened that by the providence of Heaven there was then at Delphi an Elean embassy praying for deliverance from a pestilence. So the Pythian priestess ordered the Eleans to recover the bones of Pelops, and
5.13.7 That Pelops and Tantalus once dwelt in my country there have remained signs right down to the present day. There is a lake called after Tantalus and a famous grave, and on a peak of Mount Sipylus there is a throne of Pelops beyond the sanctuary of Plastene the Mother. If you cross the river Hermus you see an image of Aphrodite in Temnus made of a living myrtle-tree. It is a tradition among us that it was dedicated by Pelops when he was propitiating the goddess and asking for Hippodameia to be his bride.
5.13.8 The altar of Olympic Zeus is about equally distant from the Pelopium and the sanctuary of Hera, but it is in front of both. Some say that it was built by Idaean Heracles, others by the local heroes two generations later than Heracles. It has been made from the ash of the thighs of the victims sacrificed to Zeus, as is also the altar at Pergamus. There is an ashen altar of Samian Hera not a bit grander than what in Attica the Athenians call “improvised hearths.”
5.13.9 The first stage of the altar at Olympia, called prothysis, has a circumference of one hundred and twenty-five feet; the circumference of the stage on the prothysis is thirty-two feet; the total height of the altar reaches to twenty-two feet. The victims themselves it is the custom to sacrifice on the lower stage, the prothysis. But the thighs they carry up to the highest part of the altar and burn them there.
5.13.10 The steps that lead up to the prothysis from either side are made of stone, but those leading from the prothysis to the upper part of the altar are, like the altar itself, composed of ashes. The ascent to the prothysis may be made by maidens, and likewise by women, when they are not shut out from Olympia, but men only can ascend from the prothysis to the highest part of the altar. Even when the festival is not being held, sacrifice is offered to Zeus by private individuals and daily by the Eleans.
5.13.11 Every year the soothsayers, keeping carefully to the nineteenth day of the month Elaphius, bring the ash from the town-hall, and making it into a paste with the water of the Alpheius they daub the altar therewith. But never may the ash be made into paste with other water, and for this reason the Alpheius is thought to be of all rivers the dearest to Olympic Zeus. There is also an altar at Didyma of the Milesians, which Heracles the Theban is said by the Milesians to have made from the blood of the victims. But in later times the blood of the sacrifices has not made the altar excessively large.
Ancient Greek
5.13.1 ἔστι δὲ ἐντὸς τῆς Ἄλτεως καὶ Πέλοπι ἀποτετμημένον τέμενος: ἡρώων δὲ τῶν ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ τοσοῦτον προτετιμημένος ἐστὶν ὁ Πέλοψ ὑπὸ Ἠλείων ὅσον Ζεὺς θεῶν τῶν ἄλλων. ἔστιν οὖν τοῦ ναοῦ τοῦ Διὸς κατὰ δεξιὰν τῆς ἐσόδου πρὸς ἄνεμον Βορέαν τὸ Πελόπιον, ἀφεστηκὸς μὲν τοῦ ναοῦ τοσοῦτον ὡς μεταξὺ καὶ ἀνδριάντας καὶ ἀναθήματα ἄλλα ἀνακεῖσθαι, παρήκει δὲ ὡς ἐπὶ τὸν ὀπισθόδομον ἀπὸ μέσου μάλιστα ἀρξάμενον τοῦ ναοῦ: καὶ λίθων τε θριγκῷ περιέχεται καὶ δένδρα ἐντὸς πεφυκότα καὶ ἀνδριάντες εἰσὶν ἀνακείμενοι,
5.13.2 ἔσοδος δὲ ἐς αὐτὸ πρὸς δυσμῶν ἐστιν ἡλίου. τοῦτο ἀπονεῖμαι τῷ Πέλοπι Ἡρακλῆς ὁ Ἀμφιτρύωνος λέγεται: τέταρτος γὰρ δὴ ἀπόγονος καὶ οὗτος ἦν Πέλοπος, λέγεται δὲ καὶ ὡς ἔθυσεν ἐς τὸν βόθρον τῷ Πέλοπι. θύουσι δὲ αὐτῷ καὶ νῦν ἔτι οἱ κατὰ ἔτος τὰς ἀρχὰς ἔχοντες: τὸ δὲ ἱερεῖόν ἐστι κριὸς μέλας. ἀπὸ ταύτης οὐ γίνεται τῷ μάντει μοῖρα τῆς θυσίας, τράχηλον δὲ μόνον δίδοσθαι τοῦ κριοῦ καθέστηκε τῷ ὀνομαζομένῳ ξυλεῖ.
5.13.3 ἔστι δὲ ὁ ξυλεὺς ἐκ τῶν οἰκετῶν τοῦ Διός, ἔργον δὲ αὐτῷ πρόσκειται τὰ ἐς τὰς θυσίας ξύλα τεταγμένου λήμματος καὶ πόλεσι παρέχειν καὶ ἀνδρὶ ἰδιώτῃ: τὰ δὲ λεύκης μόνης ξύλα καὶ ἄλλου δένδρου ἐστὶν οὐδενός: ὃς δ᾽ ἂν ἢ αὐτῶν Ἠλείων ἢ ξένων τοῦ θυομένου τῷ Πέλοπι ἱερείου φάγῃ τῶν κρεῶν, οὐκ ἔστιν οἱ ἐσελθεῖν παρὰ τὸν Δία. τὸ δὲ αὐτὸ καὶ ἐν τῇ Περγάμῳ τῇ ὑπὲρ ποταμοῦ Καΐκου πεπόνθασιν οἱ τῷ Τηλέφῳ θύοντες: ἔστι γὰρ δὴ οὐδὲ τούτοις ἀναβῆναι πρὸ λουτροῦ παρὰ τὸν Ἀσκληπιόν.
5.13.4 λέγεται δὲ καὶ τοιοῦτον: μηκυνομένου τοῦ πρὸς Ἰλίῳ πολέμου τοῖς Ἕλλησιν, προαγορεῦσαι δὲ αὐτοῖς τοὺς μάντεις ὡς αἱρήσουσιν οὐ πρότερον τὴν πόλιν, πρὶν ἂν τὰ Ἡρακλέους τόξα καὶ ὀστοῦν ἐπαγάγωνται Πέλοπος. οὕτω δὴ μεταπέμψασθαι μὲν Φιλοκτήτην φασὶν αὐτοὺς ἐς τὸ στρατόπεδον, ἀχθῆναι δὲ καὶ τῶν ὀστῶν ὠμοπλάτην σφίσιν ἐκ Πίσης τῶν Πέλοπος: ὡς δὲ οἴκαδε ἐκομίζοντο, ἀπόλλυται περὶ Εὔβοιαν καὶ ἡ ναῦς ὑπὸ τοῦ χειμῶνος ἡ τὸ ὀστοῦν φέρουσα τὸ Πέλοπος.
5.13.5 ἔτεσι δὲ ὕστερον πολλοῖς μετὰ ἅλωσιν Ἰλίου Δαμάρμενον ἁλιέα ἐξ Ἐρετρίας ἀφέντα δίκτυον ἐς θάλασσαν τὸ ὀστοῦν ἑλκύσαι, θαυμάσαντα δὲ αὐτοῦ τὸ μέγεθος ἔχειν ἀποκρύψαντα ὑπὸ τὴν ψάμμον. τέλος δὲ αὐτὸν ἀφικέσθαι καὶ ἐς Δελφούς, ὅτου τε ἀνδρὸς τὸ ὀστοῦν εἴη καὶ ὅ τι χρηστέον αὐτῷ διδαχθῆναι δεησόμενον.
5.13.6 καί πως κατὰ πρόνοιαν τοῦ θεοῦ τηνικαῦτα πρεσβεία παρῆν Ἠλείων ἐπανόρθωμα αἰτούντων νόσου λοιμώδους: ἀνεῖπεν οὖν σφισιν ἡ Πυθία, τοῖς μὲν ἀνασώσασθαι Πέλοπος τὰ ὀστᾶ, Δαμαρμένῳ δὲ ἀποδοῦναι τὰ εὑρημένα αὐτῷ Ἠλείοις. καί οἱ ταῦτα ποιήσαντι ἄλλα τε ἀντέδοσαν Ἠλεῖοι καὶ Δαμάρμενόν τε αὐτὸν καὶ ἀπογόνους τοὺς ἐκείνου φύλακας σφᾶς εἶναι τοῦ ὀστοῦ. ἡ δὲ ὠμοπλάτη τοῦ Πέλοπος ἠφάνιστο ἤδη κατ᾽ ἐμέ, ὅτι ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν ἐκέκρυπτο ἐπὶ πολὺ κατὰ τοῦ βυθοῦ καὶ ὁμοῦ τῷ χρόνῳ προσέκαμνεν οὐχ ἥκιστα ὑπὸ τῆς θαλάσσης.
5.13.7 Πέλοπος δὲ καὶ Ταντάλου τῆς παρ᾽ ἡμῖν ἐνοικήσεως σημεῖα ἔτι καὶ ἐς τόδε λείπεται, Ταντάλου μὲν λίμνη τε ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ καλουμένη καὶ οὐκ ἀφανὴς τάφος, Πέλοπος δὲ ἐν Σιπύλῳ μὲν θρόνος ἐν κορυφῇ τοῦ ὄρους ἐστὶν ὑπὲρ τῆς Πλαστήνης μητρὸς τὸ ἱερόν, διαβάντι δὲ Ἕρμον ποταμὸν Ἀφροδίτης ἄγαλμα ἐν Τήμνῳ πεποιημένον ἐκ μυρσίνης τεθηλυίας: ἀναθεῖναι δὲ Πέλοπα αὐτὸ παρειλήφαμεν μνήμῃ, προϊλασκόμενόν τε τὴν θεὸν καὶ γενέσθαι οἱ τὸν γάμον τῆς Ἱπποδαμείας αἰτούμενον.
5.13.8 ἔστι δὲ ὁ τοῦ Διὸς τοῦ Ὀλυμπίου βωμὸς ἴσον μὲν μάλιστα τοῦ Πελοπίου τε καὶ τοῦ ἱεροῦ τῆς Ἥρας ἀπέχων, προκείμενος μέντοι καὶ πρὸ ἀμφοτέρων: κατασκευασθῆναι δὲ αὐτὸν οἱ μὲν ὑπὸ Ἡρακλέους τοῦ Ἰδαίου λέγουσιν, οἱ δὲ ὑπὸ ἡρώων τῶν ἐπιχωρίων γενεαῖς δύο ὕστερον τοῦ Ἡρακλέους. πεποίηται δὲ ἱερείων τῶν θυομένων τῷ Διὶ ἀπὸ τῆς τέφρας τῶν μηρῶν, καθάπερ γε καὶ ἐν Περγάμῳ: τέφρας γὰρ δή ἐστι καὶ τῇ Ἥρᾳ τῇ Σαμίᾳ βωμὸς οὐδέν τι ἐπιφανέστερος ἢ ἐν τῇ χώρᾳ τῇ Ἀττικῇ ἃς αὐτοσχεδίας Ἀθηναῖοι καλοῦσιν ἐσχάρας.
5.13.9 τοῦ βωμοῦ δὲ τοῦ ἐν Ὀλυμπίᾳ κρηπῖδος μὲν τῆς πρώτης, προθύσεως καλουμένης, πόδες πέντε καὶ εἴκοσι καὶ ἑκατόν ἐστι περίοδος, τοῦ δὲ ἐπὶ τῇ προθύσει περίμετρος ἐπακτοῦ πόδες δύο καὶ τριάκοντα: τὸ δὲ ὕψος τοῦ βωμοῦ τὸ σύμπαν ἐς δύο καὶ εἴκοσιν ἀνήκει πόδας. αὐτὰ μὲν δὴ τὰ ἱερεῖα ἐν μέρει τῷ κάτω, τῇ προθύσει, καθέστηκεν αὐτοῖς θύειν: τοὺς μηροὺς δὲ ἀναφέροντες ἐς τοῦ βωμοῦ τὸ ὑψηλέστατον καθαγίζουσιν ἐνταῦθα.
5.13.10 ἀναβασμοὶ δὲ ἐς μὲν τὴν πρόθυσιν ἀνάγουσιν ἐξ ἑκατέρας τῆς πλευρᾶς λίθου πεποιημένοι: τὸ δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς προθύσεως ἐς τὸ ἄνω τοῦ βωμοῦ τέφρας παρέχεται καὶ ἀναβασμούς. ἄχρι μὲν δὴ τῆς προθύσεως ἔστιν ἀναβῆναι καὶ παρθένοις καὶ ὡσαύτως γυναιξίν, ἐπειδὰν τῆς Ὀλυμπίας μὴ ἐξείργωνται: ἀπὸ τούτου δὲ ἐς τὸ ἀνωτάτω τοῦ βωμοῦ μόνοις ἔστιν ἀνδράσιν ἀνελθεῖν. θύεται δὲ τῷ Διὶ καὶ ἄνευ τῆς πανηγύρεως ὑπό τε ἰδιωτῶν καὶ ἀνὰ πᾶσαν ἡμέραν ὑπὸ Ἠλείων.
5.13.11 κατ᾽ ἔτος δὲ ἕκαστον φυλάξαντες οἱ μάντεις τὴν ἐνάτην ἐπὶ δέκα τοῦ Ἐλαφίου μηνὸς κομίζουσιν ἐκ τοῦ πρυτανείου τὴν τέφραν, φυράσαντες δὲ τῷ ὕδατι τοῦ Ἀλφειοῦ κονιῶσιν οὕτω τὸν βωμόν. ὑπὸ δὲ ἄλλου τὴν τέφραν ὕδατος ποιηθῆναι πηλὸν οὐ μή ποτε ἐγγένηται: καὶ τοῦδε ἕνεκα ὁ Ἀλφειὸς νενόμισται τῷ Ὀλυμπίῳ Διὶ ποταμῶν δὴ μάλιστα εἶναι φίλος. ἔστι δὲ καὶ ἐν Διδύμοις τῶν Μιλησίων βωμός, ἐποιήθη δὲ ὑπὸ Ἡρακλέους τοῦ Θηβαίου, καθὰ οἱ Μιλήσιοι λέγουσιν, ἀπὸ τῶν ἱερείων τοῦ αἵματος: ἐς δὲ τὰ ὕστερα τὸ αἷμα τῶν θυμάτων οὐκ ἐς ὑπέρογκον ηὔξηκεν αὐτὸν μέγεθος.