Pausanias Analysis

Near the Neistan gates in Thebes is the tomb of Menoikeus, son of Kreon. He willingly killed himself according to an oracle from Delphi, at the time when Polyneikes and the army accompanying him arrived from Argos. Upon the tomb of Menoikeus grows a pomegranate tree; when the fruit is ripe, if you break its outer skin, you will find within it something resembling blood. Such is the nature of the pomegranate tree in question. As for the vine, the Thebans maintain that it first grew among themselves, earlier than among any other men; however, they could produce no further record as evidence for this assertion.

Not far from the tomb of Menoikeus, they say, the sons of Oedipus fought in single combat and slew each other. As a memorial of their battle stands a pillar, upon which rests a stone shield. There is also shown a certain place where, according to the Thebans, Hera, through a deception contrived by Zeus, suckled Heracles as a child. The entire area is called the "Dragging of Antigone." For when she was unable, despite her earnest efforts, to lift the body of Polyneices, she conceived instead the plan of dragging it; and indeed she dragged it and cast it onto the lit pyre of Eteocles.

After crossing a river called Dirce, named after the wife of Lycus—according to tradition, Antiope was abused by this Dirce and therefore Dirce met her death at the hands of Antiope's sons—having thus crossed the Dirce, one sees the ruins of Pindar's house and a sanctuary of the Mother Dindymene. The sanctuary contains an offering dedicated by Pindar himself, a statue whose artists were Aristomedes and Socrates, both Thebans. It is their custom to open the sanctuary only once a year, and no more. It happened that I arrived on precisely that day and thus saw the statue, which, along with its throne, is made of Pentelic marble.

Along the road running from the Neistan gates there is a sanctuary of Themis with a statue of white stone, and next to it a sanctuary of the Fates, then one of Zeus Agoraios. This statue of Zeus is made of stone, but the Fates have no statues. A short distance further on stands Heracles, called Rhinokoloustes ("nose-mutilator"), in the open air. He received this name because, according to the Thebans, he cut off the noses of heralds who had come from the Orchomenians demanding tribute, thus dishonoring them.

About twenty-five stades onward from here is a grove sacred to Demeter Cabeiria and the Maiden, into which only those initiated may enter. About seven stades from this grove stands the sanctuary of the Cabeiri. Who the Cabeiri truly are, and the nature of the rites performed for them and for the Goddess, let me pass over in silence; may those readers who respect such things forgive me.

But nothing at all prevented me from making known at least this much to all people, namely, the origin which the Thebans claim for these rites. For they say that once there was a city in this place, and in it men called Cabeiri; Demeter, arriving at Prometheus—one of the Cabeiri—and Aetnaeus, the son of Prometheus, entrusted something sacred to them. Concerning the nature of this trust and the rites performed in connection with it, I did not consider it lawful for me to write. Nevertheless, the initiation (telete) is Demeter’s gift to the Cabeiri.

But during the expedition of the Epigoni and the capture of Thebes, the Cabeirian sanctuary was demolished by the Argives, and the rites themselves ceased for some time. Later, they say, Pelarge, daughter of Potnieus, along with Isthmiades her husband who lived with her in Pelarge, restored these mysteries once again from the beginning, but subsequently transferred them to a place called Alexiarus.

Because Pelarge initiated individuals outside the prescribed boundaries of ancient custom, Telondes and the remaining members of the Cabeirite lineage returned again to Cabeiraea. Now, Pelarge, according to an oracle from Dodona, was destined to receive other honors, including a particular form of sacrifice—the offering of a pregnant sacrificial victim. Nevertheless, the wrath of the Cabeiri is unavoidable for humans, as has been demonstrated often and in many ways.

Indeed, private individuals in Naupactus ventured to perform rites identical to those done in Thebes, and justice soon overtook them. As for the soldiers from Xerxes' army who were left behind with Mardonius around Boeotia, some of these, having entered the sanctuary of the Cabeiri—likely motivated partly by the expectation of great wealth, but mostly, it seems to me, by their disregard for the divine—immediately became insane and perished, throwing themselves into the sea or from cliffs.

But after Alexander had won the battle and was delivering both Thebes itself and the whole of the Theban territory to fire, some men from Macedonia entered the sanctuary of the Cabeiri, being in a hostile land, and were destroyed by thunderbolts and lightning from heaven.