Pausanias Analysis

Going forward by the straight road in the direction of Mases, after about seven stades, and turning aside to the left, there is a road leading to Halike. In my time Halike is deserted, but it was once inhabited. Mention of Halike occurs on the Epidaurians' stone tablets, which contain inscriptions of the cures effected by Asclepius; this aside, I know of no other writing worthy of consideration that makes reference either to the city Halike or to its inhabitants, the Halikians. Nevertheless, there is also a road to this city, situated between Mount Pron and another mountain originally named Thornax; it is said that this latter mountain received a new name due to the event in which Zeus changed into the bird known as the cuckoo.

Sanctuaries even today stand on the summits of the mountains: on Mount Coccygius a sanctuary of Zeus, while at Pron is one of Hera. At the boundary of Coccygius there is also a temple, though it has neither doors nor roof, nor does it contain any statue. This temple was said to be dedicated to Apollo. Beside it, a path leads to Mases for those turning aside from the straight road. Mases was once a city, as Homer indicates within his Catalogue of the Argives, but in our time the Hermionians used it as their harbor.

From Masetos there is a road on the right leading to a promontory called Strouthous. From this promontory it is two hundred and fifty stades, following along the mountain peaks, to a place called Philanorion and to the cairns called Boleoi; these same Boleoi are heaps of gathered stones. Another place, called Didymoi, lies twenty stades distant from there; here are sanctuaries of Apollo, of Poseidon, and, above these, of Demeter, containing upright statues of white stone.

Next to this lies the place belonging to the Argives which was once called Asinaea, and on the coast are the ruins of Asine. Now, when the Lacedaemonians, under their king Nicander son of Charillus son of Polydectes son of Eunomus son of Prytanis son of Eurypon, invaded Argolis with an army, the people of Asine joined forces with them, and together they laid waste the land of the Argives. But when the Lacedaemonian forces had withdrawn homeward, the Argives and their king Eratus marched against Asine.

For a time the Asinaeans defended their walls and killed, among others, Lysistratus, one of the most distinguished of the Argives. But when the walls were captured, they embarked their women and children onto ships and abandoned their city. The Argives razed Asine to the ground, annexed the territory to their own, and spared only the sanctuary of Apollo Pythaeus—which remains visible even now—and buried Lysistratus near it.

The sea at Lerna is distant from the city of the Argives forty stadia and no more. As one descends toward Lerna, first along the road is the Erasinus river, which flows into the Phrixus, and the Phrixus then empties into the sea between Temenium and Lerna. About eight stadia to the left after crossing the Erasinus is a sanctuary of the Dioscuri, named the Anakes; their wooden images here are fashioned exactly like those in the city.

Turning back to the main road, you cross the Erasinus, and arrive at the river Cheimarron. Near it is an enclosure of stones, and here, they say, Pluto descended to the underworld, when he carried off Kore, the daughter of Demeter; this place is considered the entrance to the subterranean realm. Lerna, as my previous account stated, lies near the sea, and here they perform the festival Lernaia in honor of Demeter.

There is there a sacred grove, beginning from a mountain called Pontinos. This Mount Pontinos does not permit the water from the god to flow away, but takes it into itself. A river called Pontinos also flows from it. On the summit of the mountain are a sanctuary of Athena Saitis—now only ruins remain—and the foundations of the house of Hippomedon, who came to Thebes to give aid to Polyneices, the son of Oedipus.