Pausanias Analysis

Beginning from this mountain, the grove extends, chiefly made up of plane trees, all the way down to the sea. Boundaries of the grove are, on one side, the river Pontinus, and on the other side, another river called Amymone, named after Amymone, the daughter of Danaus. Inside the grove are statues of Demeter Prosymne and Dionysus, as well as a small seated statue of Demeter.

These statues are of stone, and elsewhere there is, in a temple, a wooden image of Dionysus Saotes seated, and near the sea a stone statue of Aphrodite. They say that the daughters of Danaus dedicated this image, and that Danaus himself established the sanctuary of Athena by the Pontinus. And they claim that Philammon established the mystic rites of Lerna. Regarding the words spoken during the ritual actions, it is clear that they are not ancient.

But regarding what I have heard was inscribed upon the heart crafted from orichalcum, even these inscriptions were not discovered by Philammon's son, Arriphon. One was found long ago by a certain Triconian from among the people of Aetolia; the other was found in our generation by a Lycian, particularly esteemed and remarkably skilled at uncovering things that no one previously had seen, indeed who detected these inscriptions in this very manner. The verses, and all the prose portions interspersed among them, were composed entirely in the Dorian dialect. Now before the Heraclidae descended into the Peloponnesus, the Argives spoke the same dialect as the Athenians. And it seems to me that, at the time of Philammon, even the name of the Dorians was not yet known among all Greeks.

These then he described as being so. Beside the spring of Amymone there grows a plane-tree; beneath this plane-tree, they say, the Hydra was nurtured. For my part, I am convinced that this beast surpassed other water-serpents in size and had venom so deadly that Heracles used its gall to poison the tips of his arrows. It seems to me that it had only one head, and not several; but Peisander of Camirus, wishing the creature to appear more terrifying and intending thereby to make his poetry more impressive, has given the Hydra many heads instead of one.

I saw also a spring called that of Amphiaraus, and the lake named Alkyonia, through which the Argives say Dionysus descended into Hades to bring back Semele, and that Polymnus showed him this descent. Alkyonia has no known bottom, nor do I know of anyone who by any contrivance whatsoever has succeeded in reaching its extremity. Even Nero, after preparing ropes many stadia long, fastening them together, and attaching lead weights to them—as well as other things useful to his experiment—was unable to discover any limit to its depth.

I also heard this other thing: the water of the lake, to one who sees it, appears calm and gentle; but despite this appearance, it is by nature such that anyone daring to swim across is dragged down—it seizes him, carries him below to the depths, and does not release him again. The circuit of the lake is small, about one-third of a stade, and along its banks grass and reeds grow. Concerning the rites performed yearly at night here in honor of Dionysus, it would not have been proper for me to write openly for everyone.