Pausanias Analysis

From Messene to the mouth of the Pamisos River is a journey of eighty stades. The Pamisos flows clearly through cultivated fields, and ships can sail up it from the sea for roughly ten stades. At the beginning of spring, the fish from the sea also swim upstream into it. Fish behave similarly in the Rhine and the Maeander rivers, but particularly in the current of the Acheloos, which empties into the sea by the Echinades islands.

Fish of unusually varied appearance ascend the Pamisus, since its waters are clear and differ from those of the aforementioned rivers, whose streams are muddy. Grey mullets, however, being fish that prefer muddy habitats, favor rivers whose waters are cloudier. Greek rivers by nature do not produce wild animals destructive to humans, as do the rivers of India and the Egyptian Nile, as well as the Rhine, the Danube, the Euphrates, and the Phasis. These indeed nurture animals that are among the most dangerous man-eaters, resembling the catfish found in the Hermus and Maeander rivers in shape, but considerably darker in color and greater strength—qualities in which the catfish are lacking.

Both the Indus and the Nile produce crocodiles, and the Nile also brings forth hippopotamuses, a creature no less harmful to humans than the crocodile. The rivers of the Greeks, however, contain no terrors arising from beasts. Even the beasts found in the Aoös, which flows through Thesprotian territory on the mainland, are not river dwellers but creatures that enter it from the sea.

Korone is a city situated to the right of the Pamisos River, near the sea and below Mount Mathia. On this route, beside the sea, there is a place believed to be sacred to Ino. They say the goddess herself came ashore here from the sea, already regarded as divine and called Leukothea instead of Ino. Not far ahead, the river Bias flows into the sea; it is said to be named after Bias, the son of Amythaon. The spring of Plataniston lies about twenty stades off the road; its water flows from a broad plane tree, hollow within. The width of the tree is particularly narrow within a small cave-like hollow, from where drinking water flows down towards Korone.

The ancient name of the place was indeed Aipeia. But after they had been brought down into the Peloponnese by the Thebans, they say that Epimelides, who had been sent as founder, gave it the name Koroneia, as he himself was from Koroneia in Boeotia. The Messenians, however, did not approve this name from the very beginning, and over time they succeeded still more in rejecting this mistaken naming. Another story is also told, namely that while digging the foundations of the city-wall they came upon a bronze crow ("korone").

In this place there is a temple of the gods—Artemis, called Paidotrophos ("Child-nurturer"), Dionysus, and Asclepius. The statues of Asclepius and Dionysus are made of stone, but there is a bronze image of Zeus Soter in the marketplace. On the acropolis, an open-air bronze statue of Athena stands, holding a crow in her hand. I saw also the tomb of Epimelides, but for what reason the harbor is called "Achaean," I do not know.

About eighty stadia beyond Korone, beside the sea, is a sanctuary dedicated to Apollo, held in considerable honor; for according to Messenians, it is their most ancient temple, and the god heals sicknesses there. They call him Apollo Korynthos. Now, this image is wooden, but the statue of Apollo Argeotas is of bronze; it is said to have been dedicated by those who sailed on the ship Argo.

Next to the territory of Korone lies the town of Kolonides. The inhabitants here assert that they are not Messenians; rather, they say they were guided from Attica by Kolainos. According to an oracle, Kolainos was led to the colony by a crested lark, his chosen bird. Nevertheless, through time they inevitably altered both their dialect and customs to those of the Dorians. The settlement of Kolonides stands upon a height, a short distance from the sea.

The Asinaeans originally dwelt around Mount Parnassus, neighboring the Lycoreans. They had received the name Dryopes from their founder, which they preserved even after migrating into the Peloponnesus. Later, during the third generation, when Phylas was king, the Dryopes were defeated by Heracles in battle, brought as an offering to Apollo to Delphi, and then transported to the Peloponnesus by Heracles, following an oracle from the god. There they first occupied Asine near Hermione; but driven out from there by the Argives, they settled in Messenia, with the Spartans granting them land after the Messenians eventually had been reduced—though the original city had not been destroyed by them.

The Asinaeans themselves relate their story as follows: they admit having been defeated in battle by Heracles and that their city on Parnassus was taken, but they deny that they became prisoners or were taken to Apollo. Rather, they say that when the city walls were being captured by Heracles, they abandoned their town and fled to the heights of Parnassus. Afterwards they crossed by ships into the Peloponnese, became suppliants of Eurystheus, and Eurystheus, because of his hatred for Heracles, gave them Asine in Argolis.

Among the Dryopian race, only the people of Asine boast of the name down to our time; the city of Styra in Euboea does not do so similarly. Indeed, the Styrians too were originally Dryopes, those who had not joined battle against Heracles and whose abodes were distant from the city. Yet the Styrians disdain the designation "Dryopes," just as the people of Delphi have avoided being called "Phocians." But the people of Asine, on the contrary, especially delight in being called Dryopes, and clearly maintain their holiest sanctuaries in memory of those once established upon Parnassus. For they have here a temple of Apollo and there a sanctuary of Dryops and an ancient image. Every year they hold a religious festival in his honor, claiming Dryops as the son of Apollo.

Asine also lies by the sea and occupies a position similar to that formerly held by Asine in Argolis. The journey from Kolonides to Asine is forty stades; a similarly long road runs from Asine to the headland called Akritas. Akritas projects into the sea, and before it lies an uninhabited island named Theganoussa. Beyond Akritas are the harbor Phoinikous and the islands called Oinoussai, lying opposite it.