Pausanias Analysis

Passage 7.25.3

← 7.25.2 7.25.4 →

Passage 7.25.3: Killing of Cylon's suppliants on the Acropolis and its divine pollution.

Historical Non-skeptical

Greek Text

Ἀθηναῖοι δὲ τότε μὲν διδόασι τοῖς ἱκέταις ἀπελθεῖν ἀζημίοις, χρόνῳ δὲ ὕστερον αὐτοὶ οἱ ἔχοντες τὰς ἀρχὰς διέφθειραν τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς ἱκέτας τῶν Κύλωνι ὁμοῦ τὴν ἀκρόπολιν κατειληφότων· καὶ αὐτοί τε οἱ ἀποκτείναντες ἐνομίσθησαν καὶ οἱ ἐξ ἐκείνων ἐναγεῖς τῆς θεοῦ. Λακεδαιμονίοις δέ, ἀποκτείνασι καὶ τούτοις ἄνδρας ἐς τὸ ἱερὸν καταπεφευγότας τὸ ἐπὶ Ταινάρῳ τοῦ Ποσειδῶνος, οὐ μετὰ πολὺ ἐσείσθη σφίσιν ἡ πόλις συνεχεῖ τε ὁμοῦ καὶ ἰσχυρῷ τῷ σεισμῷ, ὥστε οἰκίαν μηδεμίαν τῶν ἐν Λακεδαίμονι ἀντισχεῖν.

English Translation

The Athenians at that time permitted the suppliants to depart without harm. But later, those who held power themselves slew suppliants of Athena, who had seized and held the Acropolis together with Cylon. Both those who carried out the killings and their descendants were regarded as polluted in the sight of the goddess. Similarly, when the Lacedaemonians also killed men who had fled for refuge into the sanctuary of Poseidon at Taenarum, not long afterward their city suffered from an earthquake so violent and continuous that not one dwelling in Sparta remained standing.

Proper Nouns

Poseidon (Ποσειδῶν) deity
Athena (Ἀθηνᾶ) deity
Cylon (Κύλων) person
Lacedaemonian (Λακεδαιμόνιος) person
Athenian (Ἀθηναῖος) person
Lacedaemon (Λακεδαίμων) place Q5690 Pleiades
Tainaron (Ταίναρος) place Q849911
Also in: 3.25.8 3.25.9
← 7.25.2 7.25.4 →