Pausanias Analysis

On this highway there is a place called Teumessos. They say that Europa was hidden here by Zeus. Another story concerns a fox named the Teumessian Fox, asserting that the beast was raised by the wrath of Dionysus for the destruction of the Thebans. It was close to being captured by the dog given by Artemis to Procris, the daughter of Erechtheus, but at the moment of capture, both the fox and the dog were turned into stone. At Teumessos there is also a sanctuary of Athena Telchinia, though it contains no statue. Regarding her epithet, it may be conjectured that some of the Telchines who once lived in Cyprus migrated to Boeotia, establishing there the sacred precinct of Athena named Telchinia.

About seven stades along the road, with Teumessos on the left, there are ruins of Glisas; immediately before them, on the right side of the way, is a low-hilled mound shaded by wild woodland and cultivated trees. Here were buried those who followed Aigialeus in Adrastus' expedition against Thebes, including other Argives of distinguished rank as well as Promachus, son of Parthenopaeus. As for Aigialeus himself, in my account treating of Megaris, I have previously indicated that his tomb lies in Pagae.

On the direct road from Thebes to Glisas, the Thebans identify a certain place enclosed by stones as the head of the serpent, asserting that this serpent—whoever it might have been—once raised its head there from its lair, and that Tiresias came upon it and severed the head with his sword. Thus the place owes its name to this tradition. Above Glisas rises the mountain called Hypatus, and on its summit stands a temple and a statue dedicated to Zeus Hypatus. The stream that flows down from it is named Thermodon. Turning back again toward Teumessos and the road that leads to Chalcis, there is the tomb of Chalkodon, who died at the hands of Amphitryon in the battle fought between the Euboeans and the Thebans.

Next are the ruins of the cities Harma and Mykalessos. Harma, according to the Tanagraeans, was named from the chariot ("harma") of Amphiaraus, which vanished at this place, rather than where the Thebans claim it occurred. It is generally agreed that Mykalessos acquired its name because here the cow guiding Cadmus and his army towards Thebes lowed. How Mykalessos came to devastation, involving events concerning the Athenians, I have already related in my account.

By the sea near Mykalessos is a sanctuary of Demeter Mykalessia. They say that it is closed every night, yet always opened again by Heracles; this Heracles is said to be one of those called the Idaean Daktyloi. A remarkable phenomenon is also shown here: before the feet of the statue they place fruits which ripen naturally in autumn, and these remain fresh throughout the entire year.

At the point where Euboea is separated from Boeotia by the Euripus strait, there lies on the right-hand side the sanctuary of Demeter of Mykalessos; a short distance beyond this stands Aulis. They say it was named after the daughter of Ogygus. Here there is a temple of Artemis and statues made of white stone, one holding torches, the other appearing to shoot an arrow. They say that when the Greeks were about to sacrifice Iphigenia on the altar according to the oracle of Calchas, the goddess substituted a deer as the sacrificial victim in her stead.

They still preserve in the temple a remnant of the wood from the plane tree that Homer also mentioned in the Iliad. It is said that the Greeks at Aulis lacked favorable wind, but when suddenly a fair wind appeared, each man sacrificed to Artemis whatever he had at hand, both male and female victims alike. Ever since then it has remained customary at Aulis that every sacrificial victim is acceptable. They also show the spring beside which the plane tree once grew, and on a nearby hill a bronze threshold of the tent of Agamemnon.

In front of the sanctuary palms are growing, which do not yield fruit entirely edible as those in Palestine, though the fruit of palms in Ionia is riper than these. Few people dwell in Aulis, and these inhabit a clayey region. The Tanagraeans control this land, as well as the territory around Mykalessos and Harma.