Pausanias Analysis

In the marketplace, which most resembles a brick in shape, there is a temple of Aphrodite called "in the Brick," and within it a stone image. On carved reliefs, one represents Antiphanes, Crisus, Tyronidas, and Pyrrhias, who, having established laws for the Tegeans, are even now honored by them. On another stele is carved Iasius, holding a horse and carrying in his right hand a palm branch; they say that Iasius won a victory in the horse race at Olympia during the festival which Heracles the Theban founded.

At Olympia, the victor is awarded a crown of wild olive, while at Delphi it is made of laurel. The reason for the former I have already explained in my account of Elis, and I shall clarify the latter also in what follows. At the Isthmus the pine tree was chosen, and at Nemea celery, both selections associated with the sufferings of Palaemon and Archemorus. Most other games crown victors with palm; moreover, the palm branch is everywhere placed into the right hand of the victor.

The origin of this custom is said to be as follows: they say that Theseus, when returning from Crete, celebrated athletic contests in Delos in honor of Apollo, and crowned the victors with palm-branches. From this event, they say, originated this practice. Homer too makes mention of the palm in Delos in the passage where Odysseus appeals as a suppliant to the daughter of Alcinous.

There is also a statue of Ares in the marketplace of the Tegeans. This statue is carved upon a stele and is called "Women's Banquet." For during the Laconian war, at the time when Charillus king of the Lacedaemonians first invaded their territory, the women took up arms, set an ambush beneath the hill that in our time is called Phylactris. And when the armies joined battle, with many memorable deeds of valor performed by men on both sides, it is said thus to have become clear to them (the women) the divine manifestation.

It was said that the defeat of the Lacedaemonians was due to women, and among them Marpessa, commonly called Choira, surpassed the other women by her bravery. The Spartan king Charillus himself was captured along with others. Though he was set free without ransom, having sworn an oath to the Tegeans never again to lead the Lacedaemonians on a campaign against Tegea, he nevertheless broke this oath. Meanwhile, the women, independently of the men, offered a victory sacrifice to Ares, refusing to share the sacrificial meat with their husbands. Hence arose the surname given to Ares.

There is also an altar of Zeus Teleios, and his image is square-shaped; indeed, the Arcadians seem to me particularly fond of this particular form. Here also are the tombs of Tegeates, son of Lycaon, and of Maera, the wife of Tegeates. They say Maera was a daughter of Atlas, and Homer himself made mention of her in Odysseus' account to Alcinous concerning his journey to Hades and the souls he beheld there.

The Tegeans call Eileithyia—whose temple and statue also stand in their marketplace—Auge-on-her-knees. They explain this epithet by saying that Aleus entrusted his daughter to Nauplius, commanding him to take her to sea and drown her. However, they say that as she was being led away, she fell onto her knees, and there gave birth on the very spot now occupied by Eileithyia's sanctuary. This account differs from another one, according to which Auge secretly gave birth unbeknownst to her father, and Telephus was exposed on Mount Parthenion, where a deer fed milk to the abandoned child. Nonetheless, this story is no less current among the Tegeans.

Near the sanctuary of Eileithyia is an altar of Earth, and adjoining this altar is a stele of white stone. Upon it is represented Polybius, son of Lycortas, and on another stele is carved Elatus, one of the sons of Arcas.