Pausanias´ Description of Greece - Παυσανίου Ελλάδος περιήγησις

Recogito Annotation

Book 9 — Chapter 4

English

9.4.1 The Plataeans have also a sanctuary of Athena surnamed Areia (Warlike); it was built from the spoils given them by the Athenians as their share from the battle of Marathon. The agalma is a gilded xoanon, but the face, hands and feet are of Pentelic marble. In size it is but little smaller than the bronze Athena on the Acropolis, the one which the Athenians also erected as first-fruits of the battle at Marathon; the Plataeans too had Pheidias for the maker of their agalma of Athena.

9.4.2 In the temple are paintings: one of them, by Polygnotus, represents Odysseus after he has killed the wooers; the other, painted by Onasias, is the former expedition of the Argives, under Adrastus, against Thebes. These paintings are on the walls of the pronaos, while at the feet of the agalma is a portrait of Arimnestus, who commanded the Plataeans at the battle against Mardonius, and yet before that at Marathon.

9.4.3 There is also at Plataea a sanctuary of Demeter, surnamed Eleusinian, and a tomb of Leitus, who was the only one to return home of the chiefs who led Boeotians to Troy. The spring Gargaphia was filled in by the Persian cavalry under Mardonius, because the Greek army encamped against them got therefrom their drinking-water. Afterwards, however, the Plataeans recovered the water.

9.4.4 On the road from Plataea to Thebes is the river Oeroe, said to have been a daughter of the Asopus. Before crossing the Asopus, if you turn aside to lower ground in a direction parallel to the river, after about forty stades you come to the ruins of Scolus. The temple of Demeter and Kore among the ruins is not finished, and only half-finished are the images of the goddesses. Even today the Asopus is the boundary between Thebes and Plataea.

Ancient Greek

9.4.1 Πλαταιεῦσι δὲ Ἀθηνᾶς ἐπίκλησιν Ἀρείας ἐστὶν ἱερόν: ᾠκοδομήθη δὲ ἀπὸ λαφύρων ἃ τῆς μάχης σφίσιν Ἀθηναῖοι τῆς Μαραθῶνι ἀπένειμαν. τὸ μὲν δὴ ἄγαλμα ξόανόν ἐστιν ἐπίχρυσον, πρόσωπον δέ οἱ καὶ χεῖρες ἄκραι καὶ πόδες λίθου τοῦ Πεντελησίου εἰσί: μέγεθος μὲν οὐ πολὺ δή τι ἀποδεῖ τῆς ἐν ἀκροπόλει χαλκῆς, ἣν καὶ αὐτὴν Ἀθηναῖοι τοῦ Μαραθῶνι ἀπαρχὴν ἀγῶνος ἀνέθηκαν, Φειδίας δὲ καὶ Πλαταιεῦσιν ἦν ὁ τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς τὸ ἄγαλμα ποιήσας.

9.4.2 γραφαὶ δέ εἰσιν ἐν τῷ ναῷ Πολυγνώτου μὲν Ὀδυσσεὺς τοὺς μνηστῆρας ἤδη κατειργασμένος, Ὀνασία δὲ Ἀδράστου καὶ Ἀργείων ἐπὶ Θήβαςπροτέρα στρατεία. αὗται μὲν δή εἰσιν ἐπὶ τοῦ προνάου τῶν τοίχων αἱ γραφαί, κεῖται δὲ τοῦ ἀγάλματος πρὸς τοῖς ποσὶν εἰκὼν Ἀριμνήστου: ὁ δὲ Ἀρίμνηστος ἔν τε τῇ πρὸς Μαρδόνιον μάχῃ καὶ ἔτι πρότερον ἐς Μαραθῶνα Πλαταιεῦσιν ἡγήσατο.

9.4.3 ἔστι δὲ καὶ Δήμητρος ἐπίκλησιν Ἐλευσινίας ἱερὸν ἐν Πλαταιαῖς καὶ Ληίτου μνῆμα: τῶν δὲ ἡγεμόνων, οἳ Βοιωτοὺς ἐς Τροίαν ἤγαγον, μόνος ἀνέστρεψεν οἴκαδε οὗτος ὁ Λήιτος. τὴν δὲ κρήνην τὴν Γαργαφίαν Μαρδόνιος καὶ ἡ ἵππος συνέχεεν ἡ Περσῶν, ὅτι τὸ Ἑλλήνων στράτευμα τὸ ἀντικαθήμενόν σφισιν ἀπ᾽ αὐτῆς ἔπινεν: ὕστερον μέντοι τὸ ὕδωρ ἀνεσώσαντο οἱ Πλαταιεῖς.

9.4.4 ἐκ Πλαταίας δὲ ἰοῦσιν ἐς Θήβας ποταμός ἐστιν Ὠερόη: θυγατέρα δὲ εἶναι τὴν Ὠερόην τοῦ Ἀσωποῦ λέγουσι. πρὶν δὲ ἢ διαβῆναι τὸν Ἀσωπόν, παρ᾽ αὐτὸ τὸ ῥεῦμα ἀποτραπεῖσιν ἐς τὰ κάτω καὶ προελθοῦσιν ὅσον τεσσαράκοντα στάδια ἔστιν ἐρείπια Σκώλου: Δήμητρος δὲ καὶ Κόρης ἐν τοῖς ἐρειπίοις οὐκ ἐξειργασμένος ὁ ναός, ἡμίεργα δὲ καὶ ταῖς θεαῖς ἐστι τὰ ἀγάλματα. ἀποκρίνει δὲ καὶ νῦν ἔτι ἀπὸ τῆς Θηβαίων τὴν ΠλαταιίδαἈσωπός.