Pausanias Analysis

In the marketplace of Troezen there is a temple and statues of Artemis Soteira ("the Saviour"). It was said that Theseus built the temple and gave her the name Soteira after he had defeated Asterion, the son of Minos, and returned safely from Crete. Among Theseus' feats, Pausanias thought this was especially noteworthy—not so much, it seems to me, because Asterion surpassed in courage those whom Theseus had slain in the past, but rather because the escape from the labyrinth was so difficult, and the secret flight afterwards so stealthy, that it naturally gave rise to the belief that Theseus and his companions were saved by divine providence.

In this temple there are altars of the gods who are said to rule beneath the earth. They say that Semele was brought up here from Hades by Dionysus, and that Heracles also brought up the hound of Hades. For my part, I cannot believe from the outset that Semele, being the wife of Zeus, ever died; as for the so-called hound of Hades, I will elsewhere make clear my own thoughts on the matter.

Behind the temple is the tomb of Pittheus, and upon it rest three chairs of white stone. They say that Pittheus used to sit upon these chairs, along with two others, to render judgment. Not far away there is a sanctuary of the Muses, which they relate was founded by Ardalus, son of Hephaestus. They also believe that this same Ardalus invented the flute, and from his name they call the Muses "Ardalides." Here, it is said, Pittheus taught the art of speaking. I myself have read a treatise written by Pittheus, published by a man from Epidaurus. Near the sanctuary of the Muses is an ancient altar, also said to have been dedicated by this same Ardalus; upon it they sacrifice to the Muses and to Sleep, claiming Sleep to be the deity most beloved by the Muses.

Near the theater is a shrine of Artemis, called Lykeia, built by Hippolytus. Regarding the surname Lykeia, I could obtain no explanation from the local guides; but it seemed to me either that Hippolytus had destroyed wolves ravaging the Troezenian land, or else that the epithet derived from the Amazons, from whom he inherited through his mother, for it is known as one of Artemis’s titles among them. Or possibly the name might have another meaning unknown to me. In front of the temple they show a stone called sacred, upon which, they say, Orestes once sat and was purified by nine men of Troezen for murdering his mother.

Not far from the sanctuary of Artemis Lykeia are altars standing at short intervals from each other. The first of these altars is dedicated to Dionysus, who is surnamed Saotes ("the Savior") according to an oracle; the second, it is said, was set up by Pittheus and is called the altar of the Themidai. The altar to Helios Eleutherios ("Sun the Liberator"), it seems to me, they built with very good reason, having freed themselves from slavery under Xerxes and the Persians.

The temple of Apollo Thearios was said to have been built by Pittheus, and it is the most ancient, as far as I know. Now, ancient also is the temple of Athena among the Phocaeans in Ionia, which Harpagus the Mede once burned down; and ancient, too, is the temple of Apollo Pythios among the Samians. Yet these temples were built much later than the one belonging to the Troezenians. The present-day statue was dedicated by Auliskos, and is the work of Hermon of Troezen. This Hermon also crafted the wooden images (xoana) of the Dioscuri.

In the colonnade of the Agora stand images carved in stone depicting women and their children. These figures represent those women and children whom the Athenians entrusted to the Troezenians for shelter when they resolved to abandon their city rather than confront the approaching Persian onslaught by land. It is said that images were set up not of all of the women—since indeed they were not many—but only of those who were recognized as distinguished in rank.

In front of the temple of Apollo stands a building known as "the booth of Orestes." For before he was purified from the guilt of his mother's blood, none among the Troezenians wished to receive him into their home; instead, intending to cleanse him, they placed him here and entertained him while performing rites of purification until he was freed from pollution. Even now, the descendants of those who purified him take their meals there on appointed days. They say that after the purification rites were buried a short distance from this booth, a laurel sprang up from them, and this very laurel still grows in front of the booth even today.

They say that Orestes was purified both by rites of purification and especially by the water from the Hippocrene spring. For also among the Troezenians there is a spring named Hippocrene, though the account about it differs from that of the Boeotians. They too say that the water burst forth from the ground when the horse Pegasus struck the soil with his hoof. But they claim Bellerophon came to Troezen in order to seek from Pittheus Aethra for a wife, yet before the marriage could take place it happened that he fled from Corinth.

Here too is Hermes, called Polygius ("Giver of many blessings"). Beside this statue, they say Heracles once laid down his club; this club, being made of wild olive, immediately took firm root in the earth, sprouted again, and the olive tree still grows from it to this day. They say that afterward Heracles found another wild olive growing near the Saronic gulf and from this he cut himself a new club. There is also a temple of Zeus surnamed Soter ("Savior"), built, according to tradition, by Aetius, the son of Anthas, while he was king. The local people name a river Chrysoroas ("Flowing with gold"); when a drought occurred for nine years, during which the god granted no rain, they claim all other waters dried away, whereas the stream Chrysoroas alone continued to flow just as before.