Pausanias Analysis

Going from Lerna toward Temenion—Temenion belongs to the Argives and was named after Temenos, the son of Aristomachos; for Temenos, having seized and fortified the place, waged war from there together with the Dorians against Tisamenos and the Achaeans—in this very Temenion, as one journeys there, the river Phrixos empties into the sea. In Temenion there is a sanctuary of Poseidon and another sanctuary of Aphrodite, as well as the tomb of Temenos, which receives honors from the Dorians who dwell in Argos.

Nauplia lies, as it seems to me, fifty stadia distant from Temenium. In our time it is deserted, but its founder is said to have been Nauplius, who was born from Poseidon and Amymone. Remains of walls still survive, and at Nauplia there is a sanctuary of Poseidon, as well as harbors and a spring called Canathus. Here, according to Argive tradition, Hera bathes each year and thus renews her virginity.

This indeed is the account of secret matters from the ritual they perform in honor of Hera. But the story told by the people of Nauplia concerning the donkey—that by nibbling excessively on a vine-shoot it revealed for future times a more abundant crop (and for this reason they have a donkey made of stone, commemorating how it taught them vine-pruning)—this story I pass over, considering it not worthy of mention.

From Lerna there is another road along the sea leading to a place they call Genesium. By the seaside at Genesium is a sanctuary of Poseidon, small in size. Next to this lies another place called Apobathmoi ("the Landing"), where they say Danaus and his daughters first landed on the soil of Argolis. Continuing from there, the route crosses an area named Anigraia, both narrow and otherwise difficult to pass. On one's left, the land slopes downward toward the sea and produces good trees—especially olive trees.

Inland above the city there is a region where once three hundred chosen Argives fought for possession of the land against an equal number of Spartans, likewise selected men. After they had all fallen except one Spartan and two Argives, tombs were raised there for those who had died. Later, the Lacedaemonians, when they had defeated the Argives in a full-scale engagement, firmly secured possession of this territory. They themselves cultivated it for a time, and subsequently gave it to the Aeginetans, who had been driven out of their island by the Athenians. But in my own time the Argives once again inhabited the Thyreatis, claiming that they had rightfully recovered it by prevailing in a judicial dispute.

As one proceeds from the burial-places, there is Anthene, where once the Aeginetans settled, and another village called Neris; then a third, Eva, the largest of these villages. In Eva is a sanctuary of Polemocrates. This Polemocrates is himself a son of Machaon and a brother of Alexanor; he heals the people of that district, and receives honors from the neighboring inhabitants.

Mount Parnon rises above the villages, and upon it lie boundaries which separate the Lacedaemonians from both the Argives and the Tegeans. At these boundaries stand stone images of Hermes, from which the place takes its name. A river called Tanaus—the only one indeed that descends from Mount Parnon—flows through the Argive land and empties into the Thyreatic Gulf.