Pausanias Analysis

The god within the chest is called by the title Aesymnetes, and those who render him the greatest devotion are nine men, whom the people choose from all citizens according to their worth, and an equal number of women corresponding to the men. During one night of the festival, the priest carries the chest outside. This night has received the special honor, and also children of the native inhabitants descend to the sanctuary of Meilichos, crowned upon their heads with wreaths of ears of grain. Indeed, this same decoration was used of old for those who were led forth to be sacrificed to Artemis.

In my time, they place crowns of grain stalks before the goddess, and then having bathed in the river, they put on crowns of ivy and proceed to the sanctuary of Aesymnetes. This is their established custom. Within the enclosure of Lafria stands also a temple of Athena, surnamed Panachais; her image is made of ivory and gold.

Descending into the lower city, there is a sanctuary of the Mother Dindymene, within which Attis also receives honors. They display no statue of this Attis, but the image of the Mother is made of stone. In the marketplace is a temple of Olympian Zeus; Zeus himself seated on a throne, and Athena standing beside his throne. Beyond the sanctuary of Olympian Zeus is a statue of Hera, as well as a sanctuary dedicated to Apollo, and a bronze Apollo made without clothing. Beneath his feet lie sandals, and with one foot he stands upon the skull of an ox.

That Apollo delights especially in cattle was stated clearly by Alcaeus in his hymn to Hermes, where he writes that Hermes stole Apollo's cattle. And even earlier than Alcaeus' time, Homer had composed that Apollo herded the cattle of Laomedon as payment, though in the Iliad he attributes these verses to Poseidon.

"Indeed I myself built a wall around the city for the Trojans, wide and exceedingly fine, so that the city would become impregnable; Phoebus, but you were pasturing the curved-horned cattle with their rolling gait." (Hom. Il. 21.446–448) Such is about the way one might conjecture the skull of the ox to have been made. In the open area of the market-place there is a statue of Athena, and before it is the tomb of Patreus.

Next to the marketplace stands the Odeion, where also is set up a statue of Apollo, worthy of viewing. It was made from spoils taken when the people of Patrai, alone among the Achaians, aided the Aitolians against the army of the Gauls. The Odeion is adorned with other notable decorations as well, making it among the most remarkable in Greece, except, of course, the one in Athens. For the Athenian Odeion surpasses all in both size and general magnificence; it was built by Herodes, an Athenian citizen, in memory of his deceased wife. In my account of Attica I omitted mention of this Odeion, as my work on Athens had already been completed before Herodes had begun its construction.

In Patrae, as you go from the market-place toward the sanctuary of Apollo, there is a gate at that exit, and set upon this gate are gilded statues: Patreus, Preugenes, and Atherion—the last two being boys of the same age as Patreus, who himself is represented as a child. Directly opposite the market-place, along this road, is a precinct sacred to Artemis and a temple of Artemis Limnatis.

After Lacedaemon and Argos had come into the hands of the Dorians, they say that Preugenes removed the statue from Limnatis following the vision of a dream sent from Sparta, confiding his plan to the most trustworthy of his slaves. This statue from Lacedaemon they ordinarily keep at Mesoa, for it had first been brought there by Preugenes. But when they hold the festival in honor of Limnatis, one of the household slaves brings the ancient wooden image from Mesoa to the sanctuary of the goddess within the city.

Within this precinct, the Patrenses possess also other sacred shrines; these are not placed in the open air, but one approaches them through porticoes. The statue of Asklepios is entirely of stone except the garments; Athena is fashioned from ivory and gold. In front of the temple of Athena is the tomb of Preugenes, and they offer solemn sacrifices annually to Preugenes, as they do also to Patreus, celebrating the feast dedicated to Limnatis. Not far from the theater are a shrine of Nemesis and another of Aphrodite; both statues are large in size and made of white marble.