Pausanias Analysis

In the market-place of Phigaleia there is also a common tomb of the picked warriors of Oresthasion, and every year they offer sacrifices to them as heroes.

The river called Lymax flows into the Neda, passing right by Phigalia. They say that the river acquired its name from the purifications associated with Rhea. For when Rhea had given birth to Zeus, the nymphs cleansed her after her labor and cast the impurities into this river; the ancients used to call such impurities "lymata." Homer, too, bears witness to this usage when he speaks of the Greeks purifying themselves to end the plague and throwing their impurities, which he calls "lymata," into the sea.

The springs of the Neda are located on Mount Kerausion, which is part of Lykaion. Because the Neda flows very close to the city of Phigaleia, the youths of Phigaleia cut their hair in honour of the river. Near the sea, the Neda is navigable by small vessels. Among all rivers we know, the Maeander has by far the most winding course, with many bends and frequent twists that turn back upon themselves; second to the Maeander in meandering flows the Neda.

About twelve stades beyond Phigalia there are hot baths, and not far from them the river Lymax flows down into the Neda. At the junction of these streams stands the sanctuary of Eurynome, holy from ancient times and difficult of access due to the ruggedness of the place; around it grow many cypress trees, closely clustered together.

The people of Phigalia believe that Eurynome is an epithet of Artemis; but those among them who have inherited ancient traditions say that Eurynome was a daughter of Oceanus, whose name is also mentioned by Homer in the Iliad, where she, along with Thetis, is described as having received Hephaestus. Each year, on one specific day, they open the sanctuary of Eurynome; at all other times, it is their custom not to open it.

And at this time both the community and private individuals perform sacrifices. I myself did not arrive in time for the festival, nor did I see the statue of Eurynome. However, I heard from the people of Phigaleia that the wooden image is bound with golden chains and is shaped as a woman down to the hips, while below that point it has the form of a fish. Indeed, the fish feature might suitably serve as a distinguishing mark for a daughter of Ocean who dwells with Thetis in the depths of the sea; however, no rational argument could plausibly connect Artemis to such a form.

Phigalia is surrounded by mountains: on the left side by the mountain called Kotilion, while on the right another mountain, Elaion, stretches forth. Kotilion lies about forty stades from the city. In the same place is a locality called Bassai, and here also is the temple of Apollo the Helper, built entirely of stone, including its roof.

Among all the temples in the Peloponnese, next to the one at Tegea, this temple would be most esteemed both for the beauty of its stone and for the harmony of its construction. It acquired its name because Apollo gave assistance against a plague epidemic, just as among the Athenians he took the surname Alexikakos ("Averter of Evil") for having turned away disease from them also.

The war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians also brought an end to the hostilities of the Phigalians, and at no other time than this. Evidence for this is provided both by the epithets of Apollo in the two places, which seem to point to something similar, and by the fact that Ictinus, the architect who built the temple at Phigalia, was contemporary with Pericles, and also constructed for the Athenians the temple called the Parthenon. My inquiry has already informed me that the statue stands in the marketplace of the Megalopolitans and represents Apollo.

There is on Mount Kotilion a spring of water, and whoever has maintained that the stream of the river Lymakos begins from this spring, has written neither from his own eyewitness account nor hearing from someone who had actually seen it. Both these conditions were present for me: for we saw in fact the stream flowing as a river, whereas the water from the spring on Mount Kotilion does not extend very far at all, but disappears altogether shortly after emerging. Moreover, I did not investigate precisely the spring that the Arcadians ascribe to the Lymakos. Above the sanctuary of Apollo Epikourios is a place named Kotilon, and in Kotilon there is a sanctuary of Aphrodite; her temple still stood, though it no longer had its roof, and a statue of her had been fashioned there.