Pausanias Analysis

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Chapter 8.29

PassageSentenceBucketConfidenceGreekEnglishRationale
8.29.1 1 other high διαβάντων δὲ Ἀλφειὸν χώρα τε καλουμένη Τραπεζουντία καὶ πόλεώς ἐστιν ἐρείπια Τραπεζοῦντος. After crossing the Alpheios, there is a region called Trapezountia and the ruins of a city, Trapezus. Purely topographical and descriptive: crossing the Alpheios, a named region, and city ruins.
8.29.1 2 other high 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· Proceeding again toward the Alpheios, descending from Trapezus on the left, not far from the river is a place called Bathos, where every third year they hold rites in honor of the Great Goddesses. Primarily a route and place description with a cultic note; it does not narrate a mythic event or a post-500 BC historical event.
8.29.1 3 other high καὶ πηγή τε αὐτόθι ἐστὶν Ὀλυμπιὰς καλουμένη, τὸν ἕτερον τῶν ἐν αὐτῶν οὐκ ἀπορρέουσα, καὶ πλησίον τῆς πηγῆς πῦρ ἄνεισι. At this place there is also a spring called Olympias, whose water flows only every other year, and near the spring, fire emerges from the ground. Describes local natural features of a spring and fire emerging from the ground, without a specific mythic or post-500 BC historical event.
8.29.1 4 mythic high 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. The Arcadians say that the battle between Giants and gods occurred here rather than at Pallene in Thrace, and here they make offerings to lightning, storms, and thunder. Describes the Giants' battle with the gods and cult offerings tied to that mythic event.
8.29.2 1 mythic high 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. Homer makes no mention of Giants in the Iliad, but in the Odyssey he describes how the Laestrygonians attacked Odysseus' ships—beings he compares more to giants than men; he also has the king of the Phaeacians say that the Phaeacians are close kin to the gods, just as are the Cyclopes and the tribe of Giants. Discusses Giants, Laestrygonians, Cyclopes, and other mythic beings from Homer.
8.29.2 2 mythic high ἔν τε οὖν τούτοις δηλοῖ θνητοὺς ὄντας καὶ οὐ θεῖον γένος τοὺς γίγαντας καὶ σαφέστερον ἐν τῷδε ἔτι, Thus, in these passages, Homer clearly indicates that the Giants are mortal and not of divine race, and even more explicitly here: Refers to the Giants, a mythic race, and their mortal status within myth.
8.29.2 3 mythic high ὅς ποθʼ ὑπερθύμοισι γιγάντεσσιν βασίλευεν· ἀλλʼ ὁ μὲν ὤλεσε λαὸν ἀτάσθαλον, ὤλετο δʼ αὐτός. "who once ruled over the arrogant Giants, but he destroyed the reckless people, and was himself destroyed." Refers to the Giants and their destruction, a mythic event affecting the landscape/world.
8.29.2 4 other high ἐθέλουσι δʼ αὐτῷ λαὸς ἐν τοῖς ἔπεσιν ἀνθρώπων οἱ πολλοὶ καλεῖσθαι. Yet in these verses, the majority of men wish to be called by the term 'people.' General descriptive statement about usage of a term; not mythic or historical.
8.29.3 1 mythic high δράκοντας δὲ ἀντὶ ποδῶν τοῖς γίγασιν εἶναι, πολλαχῇ τε ὁ λόγος ἄλλῃ καὶ ἐν τῷδε ἐδείχθη μάλιστα ὡς ἔστιν εὐήθης. That giants had serpents instead of feet has seemed, here as in many other places, an exceedingly foolish story. Refers to giants and their serpent feet, a mythic motif, even though the speaker dismisses it.
8.29.3 2 historical high Ὀρόντην τὸν Σύρων ποταμὸν οὐ τὰ πάντα ἐν ἰσοπέδῳ μέχρι θαλάσσης ῥέοντα, ἀλλὰ ἐπὶ κρημνόν τε ἀπορρῶγα καὶ ἐς κάταντες ἀπʼ 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. When the Roman emperor desired to sail upriver by ship from the sea to the city of Antioch upon the Orontes, the river of Syria, since the river did not flow at an even level all the way to the sea but rather descended abruptly from a steep cliff, he undertook with great effort and expense of money to construct a suitable artificial channel for sailing upstream, and diverted the river into this canal. Describes a Roman emperor's engineering project diverting the Orontes to reach Antioch, an ঘটনা after 500 BC.
8.29.4 1 other high ἀναξηρανθέντος δὲ τοῦ ἀρχαίου ῥεύματος, 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. When the original stream had dried up, there was discovered in it an earthen coffin more than eleven cubits long, and the corpse inside corresponded to the coffin in size and was human in all parts of the body. Describes a discovered coffin and corpse after a stream dried up; this is antiquarian/descriptive, not mythic or historical narrative.
8.29.4 2 mythic high τοῦτον τὸν νεκρὸν ὁ ἐν Κλάρῳ ὁ θεός, ἀφικομένων ἐπὶ τὸ χρηστήριον τῶν Σύρων, εἶπεν Ὀρόντην εἶναι, γένους δὲ αὐτὸν εἶναι τοῦ Ἰνδῶν. When the Syrians came to the oracle at Claros, the god there declared that this corpse was Orontes and that he was descended from the race of Indians. An oracle identifying a corpse and its divine genealogy belongs to mythic narrative.
8.29.4 3 mythic medium 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; Now, if originally, when the earth was still moist and filled with humidity, the sun warming it fashioned the first human beings, what other region would one reasonably suppose either earlier than India or more likely to have produced greater men, seeing that even in our time India breeds creatures remarkable both for extraordinary appearance and size? Explains the origin of the first humans in a primeval, cosmogonic scene.
8.29.5 1 other high τοῦ δὲ χωρίου τοῦ ὀνομαζομένου Βάθους σταδίους ὡς δέκα ἀφέστηκεν ἡ καλουμένη Βασιλίς· About ten stades from the place called Bathos is the site named Basilis. Purely geographical description giving distances and place names; no mythic or historical event.
8.29.5 2 mythic medium ταύτης ἐγένετο οἰκιστὴς Κύψελος ὁ Κρεσφόντῃ τῷ Ἀριστομάχου τὴν θυγατέρα ἐκδούς· Cypselus was its founder, having given his daughter in marriage to Cresphontes, the son of Aristomachus. Cypselus is linked here through the mythic genealogical context of Cresphontes and Aristomachus, figures from the Heraclid tradition.
8.29.5 3 other high ἐπʼ ἐμοῦ δὲ ἐρείπια ἡ Βασιλὶς ἦν καὶ Δήμητρος ἱερὸν ἐν αὐτοῖς ἐλείπετο Ἐλευσινίας. In my time Basilis was in ruins, and among these ruins there still remained a temple of Demeter Eleusinia. A present-day ruin and surviving temple are descriptive antiquarian observation, not a mythic or historical event.
8.29.5 4 mythic high ἐντεῦθεν δὲ προϊὼν τὸν Ἀλφειὸν αὖθις διαβήσῃ καὶ ἐπὶ Θωκνίαν ἀφίξῃ, τὸ ὄνομα ἀπὸ Θώκνου τοῦ Λυκάονος ἔχουσαν, ἐς ἅπαν δὲ ἐφʼ ἡμῶν ἔρημον· Proceeding from there, you again cross the Alpheios and reach Thoknia, named after Thoknos, the son of Lycaon, but wholly deserted by our day. The place is said to be named after Thoknos, son of Lycaon, a mythic genealogy.
8.29.5 5 mythic medium ἐλέγετο δὲ ὁ Θῶκνος ἐν τῷ λόφῳ κτίσαι τὴν πόλιν. Thoknos was said to have built the city on a hill. Founding a city by a named figure is an aetiological mythic tradition.
8.29.5 6 other high ποταμὸς δὲ ὁ Ἀμίνιος ῥέων παρὰ τὸν λόφον ἐς τὸν Ἑλισσόντα ἐκδίδωσι, καὶ οὐ πολὺ ἄπωθεν ἐς τὸν Ἀλφειὸν ὁ Ἑλισσών. The river Aminius flows by this hill and empties into the Helisson, and not far away the Helisson itself joins the Alpheios. Purely geographical description of rivers and their confluences, with no mythic or post-500 BC historical event.