Pausanias Analysis

But to those who have maintained that the tusks protruding from the mouth of certain creatures are teeth and not horns, it is worth considering the elks—animals found in Celtic lands—and the Ethiopian bulls. The male elks have horns upon their brows, whereas the female does not grow them at all; but the Ethiopian bulls grow horns upon their noses. Who, then, would still regard it as exceedingly strange that an animal might grow horns from its mouth?

Further evidence may also be drawn from these examples: horns are shed by certain animals annually and subsequently grow again—this occurs among deer and gazelles, and likewise elephants experience the same. Yet no mature animal regenerates its teeth a second time. If the protrusions from elephants' mouths were teeth, not horns, how could they regrow once more? Moreover, teeth by nature do not soften under fire, whereas horns of both cattle and elephants can be heated and shaped from round forms into flat or other contoured shapes. And indeed, the lower jaw of river-horses and boars supports tusks, but we never see horns growing from the jaws.

The horns of an elephant, then, one should know, come downwards from above through the temples and then curve outwards. This description I do not write from hearsay, having myself seen an elephant's skull in the sanctuary of Artemis in the country of the Campanians. This sanctuary lies about thirty stades from Capua, which is the chief city of the Campanians. Now the elephant, compared to other animals, possesses a remarkable peculiarity in the position of these horns, just as its size and appearance altogether resemble no other creature. It appears to me that the Greeks have always been exceedingly eager for distinction, willingly spending lavishly on the honour of their gods, as indeed elephants were brought to them from India and Ethiopia for the making of statues.

At Olympia, Antiochus dedicated a woolen curtain embellished with Assyrian embroidery and Phoenician purple dye. He also gave the golden aegis with the Gorgon upon it, placed above the theater in Athens. This curtain was not pulled upward towards the roof, as is done at the temple of Artemis at Ephesus, but was lowered to the ground by cords that drew it down.

Of votive offerings placed within or in the fore-temple, there is the throne of Arimnestus, king among the Tyrrhenians, who was the first barbarian to dedicate an offering to Zeus at Olympia. There are also the bronze horses of Cynisca, commemorative monuments of her Olympic victory. These are smaller than life-size horses, and stand in the fore-temple, on the right as one enters. There is also a bronze-coated tripod, upon which it was customary in earlier times to set out the crowns for victors, before the table was made.

Statues of the emperors were dedicated there. Those cities in Achaia subject to Hadrian dedicated a statue of him made of Parian marble, and all the Greeks dedicated one of Trajan. This emperor subdued the Getae beyond Thrace and waged war against Osroes, the descendant of Arsaces, and the Parthians. Among his constructions, the most notable are the baths that bear his name, a great theatre shaped as a complete circle open on all sides, a building stretching out for horse-races about two stadia in length, and the Roman market-place, remarkable both for its ornamentation and for the rest of its features, most notably its roof, which was made of bronze.

The statues placed within the movable structures, one of amber, represent Augustus, emperor of the Romans, and another one, made of ivory, is said to depict Nicomedes, king of Bithynia. From him also the greatest of the cities in Bithynia received a change of name, having previously been called Astakos. Its original founder was Zypoites, who, judging from his name, was likely of Thracian descent. Now this amber from which the statue of Augustus was fashioned—the sort that occurs naturally, found in the sands of Eridanus—is exceedingly rare and especially valued by men for various reasons; but that other amber is gold intermixed with silver.

In the temple at Olympia there are offerings of Nero: three olive wreaths, while the fourth is a copy in oak leaves. There are also twenty-five bronze shields there, carried by soldiers for the armed race. Several stone inscriptions also stand there, among them one bearing the oath sworn by the Eleans to the Athenians, Argives, and Mantineans, establishing an alliance for a hundred years.