Pausanias Analysis

Passage 4.19.5

← 4.19.4 4.19.6 →

Passage 4.19.5: Messenian girl's vision freeing a bound, clawless lion that then slays wolves.

Mythic Non-skeptical

Greek Text

ἑσπέρα γὰρ ἐπῄει. δύο μὲν οὖν ἐς Σπάρτην ἀπʼ αὐτῶν ἐλθόντες Λακεδαιμονίοις Ἀριστομένην εὐηγγελίζοντο ἡλωκέναι· οἱ λοιποὶ δὲ ἀποχωροῦσιν ἐς ἀγρὸν τῶν ἐν τῇ Μεσσηνίᾳ. ἐνταῦθα ᾤκει κόρη σὺν μητρὶ παρθένος, πατρὸς ὀρφανή. τῇ δὲ προτέρᾳ νυκτὶ εἶδεν ὄψιν ἡ παῖς· λέοντα ἐς τὸν ἀγρὸν λύκοι σφίσιν ἤγαγον δεδεμένον καὶ οὐκ ἔχοντα ὄνυχας, αὐτὴ δὲ τοῦ δεσμοῦ τὸν λέοντα ἀπέλυσε καὶ ἀνευροῦσα ἔδωκε τοὺς ὄνυχας, οὕτω τε διασπασθῆναι τοὺς λύκους ἔδοξεν ὑπὸ τοῦ λέοντος.

English Translation

For evening was approaching. Therefore two of them went to Sparta and announced to the Lacedaemonians the good news that Aristomenes had been captured. The others withdrew to a farmstead within Messenia. There lived there a maiden girl with her mother, orphaned of her father. On the previous night the girl had seen a vision: wolves had brought into their farm a lion that was bound and had no claws; but she herself released the lion from its bonds and having found its claws, gave them back to it. Thus it appeared to her that the lion tore apart the wolves.

Proper Nouns

Lacedaemonians (Λακεδαιμόνιοι) person
Aristomenes (Ἀριστομένης) person
Messenia (Μεσσηνία) place Q1247159
Sparta (Σπάρτη) place Q5690 Pleiades
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