Pausanias Analysis

Passage 7.5.7

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Passage 7.5.7: Phormion's vision orders Erythrae's women to cut hair to make a rope.

Historical Non-skeptical

Greek Text

τέλος δὲ Ἐρυθραῖος ἄνθρωπος, ᾧ βίος μὲν ἦν ἀπὸ θαλάσσης γεγονὼς καὶ ἄγρας ἰχθύων, διέφθαρτο δὲ ὑπὸ νόσου τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς, ὄνομα δέ οἱ Φορμίων ἦν, οὗτος ὁ ἁλιεὺς εἶδεν ὄψιν ὀνείρατος ὡς τὰς Ἐρυθραίων γυναῖκας ἀποκείρασθαι δέοι τὰς κόμας καὶ οὕτω τοὺς ἄνδρας πλεξαμένους κάλον ἐκ τῶν τριχῶν τὴν σχεδίαν παρὰ σφᾶς κατάξειν. αἱ μὲν δὴ ἀσταὶ τῶν γυναικῶν οὐδαμῶς ὑπακούειν τῷ ὀνείρατι ἐβούλοντο·

English Translation

At last, a man from Erythrae, who earned his living by the sea and the catching of fish, but whose eyes had been destroyed by disease—his name was Phormion—this fisherman saw a vision in a dream that required the women of Erythrae to cut off their hair, so that the men might weave from the hair a rope and thus draw the raft to their shores. But the citizen women were by no means willing to obey the dream's command.

Proper Nouns

Phormion (Φορμίων) person
Erythraios (Ἐρυθραῖος) person
Erythraians (Ἐρυθραῖοι) place
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