Pausanias Analysis

Now, indeed, the remainder of our account of Arcadia concerns the route from Megalopolis to Pallantium and Tegea, a way leading as far as the place called Choma. Along this road lies a locality just outside the city called Ladokeia, named from Ladokos, son of Echemos. After this, there was in ancient times a city named Haemoniae; its founder was Haemon, a son of Lycaon. Even to this day, this place has kept the name Haemoniae.

After Haimoniai, on the right-hand side of the road is the city Oresthasion, with other ruins remaining as memorials, and columns still standing of a sanctuary dedicated to Artemis; the epithet of Artemis there is Hiereia ("Priestess"). Proceeding straight ahead from Haimoniai there is a place called Aphrodision, and following that another place named Athenaios. On the left side of this place stands a temple of Athena, and within it a statue made from stone.

About twenty stades farther from Athenaion lie the ruins of Asea; the hill, formerly its acropolis, still bears traces of its walls to this day. About five stades from Asea, a little distance off the road, lies the source of the Alpheios, whereas the source of the Eurotas is beside the road itself. Near the source of the Alpheios stands a sanctuary of the Mother of the Gods, roofless, and there are two stone lions.

The water of the Eurotas mingles with that of the Alpheios, and for about twenty stadia they flow onwards in a single, common stream; but afterward, descending underground into a chasm, one of them, the Eurotas, comes up again within the land of the Lacedaemonians, while the other, the Alpheios, emerges at Pegae in the territory of Megalopolis. From Asea there is an ascent to the mountain called Boreion, and at its summit there are visible remains of a sanctuary; it is said that Odysseus, after returning home from Troy, founded the sanctuary there for Athena Soteira and Poseidon.

The place called the Mound ("Choma") marks the Megalopolitans’ boundary toward the land of the Tegeans and Pallantians. Turning left from the Mound, one reaches the Pallantian plain. In Pallantium, there is a temple and stone images, one of Pallas and another of Evander; there is also a sanctuary of Kore, the daughter of Demeter, and not far from it a statue of Polybius. On the hill above the city are the remains of what was formerly used as the acropolis; even today, on its summit, there still stands a sanctuary of the gods.

Their epithet, in fact, is "Katharoi" ("Pure Ones"), and among them the most solemn oaths are held sacredly binding. They either do not know the names of the gods, or, if they do know them, refuse to utter them aloud. One might conjecture that they came to be called Katharoi for the following reason: because Pallas did not sacrifice to the Lykaian Zeus in the same manner as his father had.

On the right side of the so-called mound lies the plain named Manthuric. This plain is already within the borders of Tegea, being approximately fifty stadia distant from Tegea itself. On the right side of the road is also a not large mountain called Cresium, upon which is built the sanctuary of Aphneius. For according to the Tegeans, Ares had intercourse there with Aerope, the daughter of Cepheus, son of Aleus. Aerope died during childbirth, but the child survived even though she was already deceased.

He was still clinging to his mother and drawing abundant milk from her breasts. And since these events took place according to the will of Ares, they call the god "Apneios" ("Giver of Plenty"); they also say that the child was named Aeropos. There is a spring called Leukonia along the road to Tegea. Leukone is said to have been a daughter of Apheidas, and not far from the city of the Tegeans is her tomb.