Pausanias´ Description of Greece - Παυσανίου Ελλάδος περιήγησις
Recogito Annotation
Book 8 — Chapter 29
English
8.29.1 After crossing the Alpheius you come to what is called Trapezuntian territory and to the ruins of a city Trapezus. On the left, as you go down again from Trapezus to the Alpheius, there is, not far from the river, a place called Bathos (Depth), where they celebrate mysteries every other year to the Great Goddesses. Here there is a spring called Olympias which, during every other year, does not flow, and near the spring rises up fire. The Arcadians say that the fabled battle between giants and gods took place here and not at Pallene in Thrace, and at this spot sacrifices are offered to lightnings, hurricanes and thunders.
8.29.2 Homer does not mention giants at all in the Iliad, but in the Odyssey he relates how the Laestrygones attacked the ships of Odysseus in the likeness not of men but of giants, and he makes also the king of the Phaeacians say that the Phaeacians are near to the gods like the Cyclopes and the race of giants. In these places then he indicates that the giants are mortal, and not of divine race, and his words in the following passage are plainer still: “Who once was king among the haughty giants; But he destroyed the infatuate folk, and was destroyed himself.” “Folk” in the poetry of Homer means the common people.
8.29.3 That the giants had serpents for feet is an absurd tale, as many pieces of evidence show, especially the following incident. The Syrian river Orontes does not flow its whole course to the sea on a level, but meets a precipitous ridge with a slope away from it. The Roman emperor wished ships to sail up the river from the sea to Antioch. So with much labour and expense he dug a channel suitable for ships to sail up, and turned the course of the river into this.
8.29.4 But when the old bed had dried up, an earthenware coffin more than eleven cubits long was found in it, and the corpse was proportionately large, and human in all parts of its body. This corpse the god in Clarus, when the Syrians came to his oracle there, declared to be Orontes, and that he was of Indian race. If it was by warming the earth of old when it was still wet and saturated with moisture that the sun made the first men, what other land is likely to have raised men either before India or of greater size, seeing that even today it still breeds beasts monstrous in their weird appearance and monstrous in size?
8.29.5 Some ten stades distant from the place named Bathos is what is called Basilis. The founder of it was Cypselus, who gave his daughter in marriage to Cresphontes, the son of Aristomachus. Today Basilis is in ruins, among which remains a sanctuary of Eleusinian Demeter. Going on from here you will cross the Alpheius again and reach Thocnia, which is named after Thocnus, the son of Lycaon, and today is altogether uninhabited. Thocnus was said to have built the city on the hill. The river Aminius, flowing by the hill, falls into the Helisson, and not far away the Helisson falls into the Alpheius.
Ancient Greek
8.29.1 διαβάντων δὲ Ἀλφειὸν χώρα τε καλουμένη Τραπεζουντία καὶ πόλεώς ἐστιν ἐρείπια Τραπεζοῦντος. καὶ αὖθις ἐπὶ τὸν Ἀλφειὸν ἐν ἀριστερᾷ καταβαίνοντι ἐκ Τραπεζοῦντος, οὐ πόρρω τοῦ ποταμοῦ Βάθος ἐστὶν ὀνομαζόμενον, ἔνθα ἄγουσι τελετὴν διὰ ἔτους τρίτου θεαῖς Μεγάλαις: καὶ πηγή τε αὐτόθι ἐστὶν Ὀλυμπιὰς καλουμένη, τὸν ἕτερον τῶν ἐν αὐτῶν οὐκ ἀπορρέουσα, καὶ πλησίον τῆς πηγῆς πῦρ ἄνεισι. λέγουσι δὲ οἱ Ἀρκάδες τὴν λεγομένην γιγάντων μάχην καὶ θεῶν ἐνταῦθα καὶ οὐκ ἐν τῇ Θρᾳκίᾳ γενέσθαι Παλλήνῃ, καὶ θύουσιν ἀστραπαῖς αὐτόθι καὶ θυέλλαις τε καὶ βρονταῖς.
8.29.2 γιγάντων δὲ ἐν μὲν Ἰλιάδι οὐδεμίαν ἐποιήσατο Ὅμηρος μνήμην: ἐν Ὀδυσσείᾳ δὲ ἔγραψε μὲν ὡς ταῖς Ὀδυσσέως ναυσὶ Λαιστρυγόνες ἐπέλθοιεν γίγασι καὶ οὐκ ἀνδράσιν εἰκασμένοι, ἐποίησε δὲ καὶ τὸν βασιλέα τῶν Φαιάκων λέγοντα εἶναι τοὺς Φαίακας θεῶν ἐγγὺς ὥσπερ Κύκλωπας καὶ τὸ γιγάντων ἔθνος. ἔν τε οὖν τούτοις δηλοῖ θνητοὺς ὄντας καὶ οὐ θεῖον γένος τοὺς γίγαντας καὶ σαφέστερον ἐν τῷδε ἔτι, ὅς ποθ᾽ ὑπερθύμοισι γιγάντεσσιν βασίλευεν: ἀλλ᾽ ὁ μὲν ὤλεσε λαὸν ἀτάσθαλον, ὤλετο δ᾽ αὐτός. Od. 7.59-60 ἐθέλουσι δ᾽ αὐτῷ λαὸς ἐν τοῖς ἔπεσιν ἀνθρώπων οἱ πολλοὶ καλεῖσθαι.
8.29.3 δράκοντας δὲ ἀντὶ ποδῶν τοῖς γίγασιν εἶναι, πολλαχῇ τε ὁ λόγος ἄλλῃ καὶ ἐν τῷδε ἐδείχθη μάλιστα ὡς ἔστιν εὐήθης. Ὀρόντην τὸν Σύρων ποταμὸν οὐ τὰ πάντα ἐν ἰσοπέδῳ μέχρι θαλάσσης ρέοντα, ἀλλὰ ἐπὶ κρημνόν τε ἀπορρῶγα καὶ ἐς κάταντες ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ φερόμενον, ἠθέλησεν ὁ Ῥωμαίων βασιλεὺς ἀναπλεῖσθαι ναυσὶν ἐκ θαλάσσης ἐς Ἀντιόχειαν πόλιν: ἔλυτρον οὖν σὺν πόνῳ τε καὶ δαπάνῃ χρημάτων ὀρυξάμενος ἐπιτήδειον ἐς τὸν ἀνάπλουν, ἐξέτρεψεν ἐς τοῦτο τὸν ποταμόν.
8.29.4 ἀναξηρανθέντος δὲ τοῦ ἀρχαίου ρεύματος, κεραμεᾶ τε ἐν αὐτῷ σορὸς πλέον ἢ ἑνός τε καὶ δέκα εὑρέθη πηχῶν καὶ ὁ νεκρὸς μέγεθός τε ἦν κατὰ τὴν σορὸν καὶ ἄνθρωπος διὰ παντὸς τοῦ σώματος. τοῦτον τὸν νεκρὸν ἐν Κλάρῳ ὁ θεός, ἀφικομένων ἐπὶ τὸ χρηστήριον τῶν Σύρων, εἶπεν Ὀρόντην εἶναι, γένους δὲ αὐτὸν εἶναι τοῦ Ἰνδῶν. εἰ δὲ τὴν γῆν τὸ ἀρχαῖον οὖσαν ὑγρὰν ἔτι καὶ ἀνάπλεων νοτίδος θερμαίνων ὁ ἥλιος τοὺς πρώτους ἐποίησεν ἀνθρώπους, ποίαν εἰκός ἐστιν ἄλλην χώραν ἢ προτέραν τῆς Ἰνδῶν ἢ μείζονας ἀνεῖναι τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, ἥ γε καὶ ἐς ἡμᾶς ἔτι καὶ ὄψεως τῷ παραλόγῳ καὶ μεγέθει διάφορα ἐκτρέφει θηρία;
8.29.5 τοῦ δὲ χωρίου τοῦ ὀνομαζομένου Βάθους σταδίους ὡς δέκα ἀφέστηκεν καλουμένη Βασιλίς: ταύτης ἐγένετο οἰκιστὴς Κύψελος ὁ Κρεσφόντῃ τῷ Ἀριστομάχου τὴν θυγατέρα ἐκδούς: ἐπ᾽ ἐμοῦ δὲ ἐρείπια ἡ Βασιλὶς ἦν καὶ Δήμητρος ἱερὸν ἐν αὐτοῖς ἐλείπετο Ἐλευσινίας. ἐντεῦθεν δὲ προϊὼν τὸν Ἀλφειὸν αὖθις διαβήσῃ καὶ ἐπὶ Θωκνίαν ἀφίξῃ, τὸ ὄνομα ἀπὸ Θώκνου τοῦ Λυκάονος ἔχουσαν, ἐς ἅπαν δὲ ἐφ᾽ ἡμῶν ἔρημον: ἐλέγετο δὲ ὁ Θῶκνος ἐν τῷ λόφῳ κτίσαι τὴν πόλιν. ποταμὸς δὲ ὁ Ἀμίνιος ρέων παρὰ τὸν λόφον ἐς τὸν Ἑλισσόντα ἐκδίδωσι, καὶ οὐ πολὺ ἄπωθεν ἐς τὸν Ἀλφειὸν ὁ Ἑλισσών.