Pausanias Analysis

The wrath of Hikesios serves as a lesson, both for the people of Helike and for many others as well, highlighting that it cannot be averted. Indeed, even the god of Dodona appears to advise reverence towards suppliants. For during the time of Apheidas, the Athenians received the following oracle from Zeus at Dodona: "Consider the Areios Pagos and the fragrant altars of the Eumenides, where you must accept the Lacedaemonians when, oppressed by the spear, they seek your mercy as suppliants. Do not slay them with iron, nor wrong those who take refuge, for suppliants are both sacred and pure."

These events came to the memory of the Greeks when the Peloponnesians marched against Athens during Codrus, son of Melanthus, who was then king of the Athenians. Now the main part of the Peloponnesian army withdrew from Attica upon learning of Codrus's death and the manner in which it had occurred; for they no longer hoped for victory, according to the oracle which had come from Delphi. But some of the Lacedaemonians, who had entered secretly inside the city walls by night, only at daybreak became aware that their own forces had departed; and noticing the Athenians gathering against them, they fled for refuge to the Areopagus and to the altars of the goddesses whom they call Semnai.

The Athenians at that time permitted the suppliants to depart without harm. But later, those who held power themselves slew suppliants of Athena, who had seized and held the Acropolis together with Cylon. Both those who carried out the killings and their descendants were regarded as polluted in the sight of the goddess. Similarly, when the Lacedaemonians also killed men who had fled for refuge into the sanctuary of Poseidon at Taenarum, not long afterward their city suffered from an earthquake so violent and continuous that not one dwelling in Sparta remained standing.

The destruction of Helice took place when Asteius was still archon at Athens, in the fourth year of the hundred and first Olympiad, in which Damon of Thurii won for the first time. Since the inhabitants of Helice no longer existed, the Aegians occupied their territory.

After Helice you will turn away from the sea to the right, and you will come to the town of Ceryneia. It was built above the highway on a mountain, and took its name either from a local ruler or from the river Cerynites, which flows down from Arcadia and Mount Ceryneia and passes out through the territory of the Achaeans here. Living alongside the inhabitants there are some Mycenaeans, who came here because of a disaster which drove them from Argolis. The Argives, having been unable to seize the wall of Mycenae in its strongest parts—for it was fortified in the same manner—

Because they were compelled by necessity, when provisions failed, the Mycenaeans abandoned the city built in Tiryns by those called Cyclopes. Some withdrew to Cleonae, but more than half of the populace sought refuge in Macedonia with Alexander, whom Mardonius, son of Gobryas, had trusted to carry his message to the Athenians. The rest of the people came to Ceryneia, and through this cohabitation with the Mycenaeans, Ceryneia thereafter grew in both population and importance.

In Ceryneia there is a sanctuary of the Eumenides, which they say was founded by Orestes. Anyone who enters this place either stained by blood or defilement of another kind, or even who is impious and yet desires to look upon it, is immediately said to become driven out of his senses by terrors. For this reason, entrance is not permitted to everyone, nor casually. The statues, which are of wood, are not large in size, but at the entrance to the sanctuary there are images of women carved from stone and skillfully crafted. The locals say that these women were priestesses of the Eumenides.

Returning from Ceryneia to the main road and travelling a short distance along it, one may take another turning towards Boura. The sea is to the right, while Boura itself lies upon a mountain. They say that the city took its name from Boura, a woman who was the daughter of Ion son of Xuthus and of Helice. When the god rendered Helice invisible to human sight, Boura too was visited by a vehement earthquake, such that not even the ancient statues within the sanctuaries were preserved.

But all those inhabitants who were at that time abroad, either serving in war or for some other reason, were the only ones who survived among the people of Boura, and these became themselves the founders of the new city of Boura. Here there is a temple of Demeter, and another one sacred to Aphrodite and Dionysus, and yet another dedicated to Eileithyia. Their images are made of Pentelic marble, the work of the Athenian artist Eucleides; Demeter's image is adorned with clothing. A sanctuary has also been built here for Isis.

When one descends from Boura toward the sea, there is a river called the Bouraïkos, and close by it a small statue of Heracles located within a cave. This Heracles is also surnamed Buraïkos, and here one can receive oracular answers by means of a tablet and dice. The person consulting the god first prays before the statue, and after prayer takes up four dice—an abundant supply of these lies ready beside Heracles—and casts them upon a table. For each combination turning up on the dice, there is set forth upon a special tablet the interpretation of that particular form.

The straight road from Helice to the sanctuary of Heracles is about thirty stadia. When one proceeds beyond the sanctuary of Heracles, a perennial river flows from an Arcadian mountain down to the sea. The name of both the river and the mountain where the river has its springs is Crathis. From this Crathis the river near Croton in Italy also derived its name.

Beside the Achaian Crathis once stood the Achaian city of Aegae; it is said to have gradually become deserted through weakness. Homer, too, made mention of this Aegae in his account of Hera, saying: "they bring gifts to Helice and Aegae," clearly indicating that Poseidon enjoyed equal honors in both Helice and Aegae.

Not far beyond the Krathis river, you will find on the right side of the road a tomb and, depicted upon the monument, a man standing beside a horse, though the painting is faint. The road from the tomb continues about thirty stades to the place called Gaios. This Gaios is a sanctuary of Earth, with the surname Eurysternos; the wooden cult-image here is ancient indeed and exceptionally similar to the oldest representations. The woman who at any time receives the priesthood must remain chaste thereafter, nor may she, even previously, have had relations with more than one man. They test the women by making them drink the blood of a bull; if any one of them is found to be untruthful, she immediately suffers punishment because of it. Should several women present themselves as claimants for the priesthood, precedence is given to the one chosen by lot.