Pausanias Analysis

After Stymphalus is Alea, which also shares in the meetings of the Argolic council. They assert that Aleus, the son of Apheidas, was their founder. The sanctuaries of gods there are dedicated to Artemis Ephesia and Athena Alea, and there is also a temple and statue of Dionysus. In his honor they hold a yearly festival called Skiereia, and during the festival of Dionysus women are scourged in accordance with an oracle from Delphi, just as the Spartan youths are scourged at the altar of Orthia.

I have already explained in my account of the Orchomenians that the straight route first follows alongside the ravine, and after this, lies to the left of the stagnant water. In the plain of the Caphyans stands an earthen embankment, constructed to prevent the water that flows from Orchomenia from causing damage to the cultivated land of the Caphyans. Inside this embankment, another stream of water emerges, abundant enough to constitute a river; it descends underground into a chasm, then rises again near the place called Nasoi. The spot where it reemerges is named Rheunos, and after rising here, the water gives rise from this point onward to the river Tragos, ever-flowing.

The city evidently derived its name originally from Cepheus, the son of Aleus, yet it has come to be known, according to the Arcadian dialect, as Caphyae. The inhabitants of Caphyae say they were originally from Attic territory, but that after being driven out of Athens by Aegeus, they fled into Arcadia and, becoming suppliants of Cepheus, settled there. The town itself lies on a plain at the foot of mountains, which are not very high. The Caphyans possess sanctuaries dedicated to the gods Poseidon and Artemis called Knakalesia.

They have a mountain called Knakalos, where they celebrate an annual rite in honor of Artemis. A little above the city there is a water-spring, and at this spring has grown up a tall and beautiful plane-tree. They call this tree “Menelaïs,” because they say Menelaus came to this place when gathering his army for Troy and planted the plane-tree beside the spring. In our own day, they also call the spring itself Menelaïs, following the name of the plane-tree.

If, following the traditions of the Greeks, I must enumerate how many trees remain that are still alive and flourishing, the oldest among them is the willow growing in the sanctuary of Hera on Samos; after this come the oak at Dodona, and the olive tree on the Acropolis, and also the one among the Delians. Third in antiquity, according to the Syrians themselves, would be their laurel; but of all the others, this plane-tree is the oldest.

About a stade distant from Kaphyai is a place called Kondylea, and there is there a grove and a sanctuary of Artemis, anciently called Kondyleatis. They say the goddess received this change of name because of the following event. Some children—whose exact number is not remembered—were playing around the temple when they found a small cord. After tying this cord about the neck of the statue, they jokingly said that Artemis was being strangled.

When the Kaphyeans discovered what had been done by the children, they stoned them to death. After committing this deed, a disease afflicted their women, causing their unborn offspring to be expelled dead from the womb before delivery. The affliction continued until the Pythia instructed them to bury the children and to offer them annual sacrifices, declaring that the children had perished unjustly. The Kaphyeans continue even now to fulfill all these requirements according to this oracle and, because the oracle also mentioned this, they still call the goddess in Kondyleai "the Hanged Woman."

Going up from Kaphyai for about seven stades, you come down to the place called Nasoi. Fifty stades further on from there is the Ladon river. After crossing over the river, you will arrive at the oak forest called Soron, passing through the places named Argeathai, Lycountes, and Skotane.

Soron leads to Psophis. This mountain and all the other forests that the Arcadians possess produce the following beasts: wild boars, bears, and tortoises remarkable for their great size. From these tortoise-shells one could fashion lyres equal to those made from the shell of the Indian tortoise. Near the borders of Soron are the ruins of the village called Paos, and a little farther off are the so-called Seirai. The Seirai themselves mark the boundary between the Kleitorian territory and that of the Psophidians.