1. Aristophanes, Peace, 211-212, 371, 204 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
| 204. ̔́Ελλησιν ὀργισθέντες. εἶτ' ἐνταῦθα μὲν | |
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2. Herodotus, Histories, 8.64, 8.138 (5th cent. BCE - 5th cent. BCE)
| 8.64. After this skirmish of words, since Eurybiades had so resolved, the men at Salamis prepared to fight where they were. At sunrise on the next day there was an earthquake on land and sea, ,and they resolved to pray to the gods and summon the sons of Aeacus as allies. When they had so resolved, they did as follows: they prayed to all the gods, called Ajax and Telamon to come straight from Salamis, and sent a ship to Aegina for Aeacus and his sons. 8.138. So they departed, but one of those who sat nearby declared to the king what this was that the boy had done and how it was of set purpose that the youngest of them had accepted the gift offered. When the king heard this, he was angered, and sent riders after them to slay them. There is, however, in that land a river, to which the descendants from Argos of these men offer sacrifice as their deliverer. ,This river, when the sons of Temenus had crossed it, rose in such flood that the riders could not cross. So the brothers came to another part of Macedonia and settled near the place called the garden of Midas son of Gordias, where roses grow of themselves, each bearing sixty blossoms and of surpassing fragrance. ,In this garden, according to the Macedonian story, Silenus was taken captive. Above it rises the mountain called Bermius, which none can ascend for the wintry cold. From there they issued forth when they had won that country and presently subdued also the rest of Macedonia. |
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3. Demosthenes, Orations, 24.121 (4th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
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4. Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, 2.2.2 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 2.2.2. καὶ γίνεται Ἀκρισίῳ μὲν ἐξ Εὐρυδίκης τῆς Λακεδαίμονος Δανάη, Προίτῳ δὲ ἐκ Σθενεβοίας Λυσίππη καὶ Ἰφινόη καὶ Ἰφιάνασσα. αὗται δὲ ὡς ἐτελειώθησαν, ἐμάνησαν, ὡς μὲν Ἡσίοδός φησιν, ὅτι τὰς Διονύσου τελετὰς οὐ κατεδέχοντο, ὡς δὲ Ἀκουσίλαος λέγει, διότι τὸ τῆς Ἥρας ξόανον ἐξηυτέλισαν. γενόμεναι δὲ ἐμμανεῖς ἐπλανῶντο ἀνὰ τὴν Ἀργείαν ἅπασαν, αὖθις δὲ τὴν Ἀρκαδίαν καὶ τὴν Πελοπόννησον 1 -- διελθοῦσαι μετʼ ἀκοσμίας ἁπάσης διὰ τῆς ἐρημίας ἐτρόχαζον. Μελάμπους δὲ ὁ Ἀμυθάονος καὶ Εἰδομένης τῆς Ἄβαντος, μάντις ὢν καὶ τὴν διὰ φαρμάκων καὶ καθαρμῶν θεραπείαν πρῶτος εὑρηκώς, ὑπισχνεῖται θεραπεύειν τὰς παρθένους, εἰ λάβοι τὸ τρίτον μέρος τῆς δυναστείας. οὐκ ἐπιτρέποντος δὲ Προίτου θεραπεύειν ἐπὶ μισθοῖς τηλικούτοις, ἔτι μᾶλλον ἐμαίνοντο αἱ παρθένοι καὶ προσέτι μετὰ τούτων αἱ λοιπαὶ γυναῖκες· καὶ γὰρ αὗται τὰς οἰκίας ἀπολιποῦσαι τοὺς ἰδίους ἀπώλλυον παῖδας καὶ εἰς τὴν ἐρημίαν ἐφοίτων. προβαινούσης δὲ ἐπὶ πλεῖστον τῆς συμφορᾶς, τοὺς αἰτηθέντας μισθοὺς ὁ Προῖτος ἐδίδου. ὁ δὲ ὑπέσχετο θεραπεύειν ὅταν ἕτερον τοσοῦτον τῆς γῆς ὁ ἀδελφὸς αὐτοῦ λάβῃ Βίας. Προῖτος δὲ εὐλαβηθεὶς μὴ βραδυνούσης τῆς θεραπείας αἰτηθείη καὶ πλεῖον, θεραπεύειν συνεχώρησεν ἐπὶ τούτοις. Μελάμπους δὲ παραλαβὼν τοὺς δυνατωτάτους τῶν νεανιῶν μετʼ ἀλαλαγμοῦ καί τινος ἐνθέου χορείας ἐκ τῶν ὀρῶν αὐτὰς εἰς Σικυῶνα συνεδίωξε. κατὰ δὲ τὸν διωγμὸν ἡ πρεσβυτάτη τῶν θυγατέρων Ἰφινόη μετήλλαξεν· ταῖς δὲ λοιπαῖς τυχούσαις καθαρμῶν σωφρονῆσαι συνέβη. καὶ ταύτας μὲν ἐξέδοτο Προῖτος Μελάμποδι καὶ Βίαντι, παῖδα δʼ ὕστερον ἐγέννησε Μεγαπένθην. | |
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5. Pliny The Elder, Natural History, 36.32 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
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6. Plutarch, Cimon, 8.3-8.6 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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7. Plutarch, Themistocles, 15.1 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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8. Plutarch, Theseus, 35.5 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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9. Apuleius, The Golden Ass, 11.8-11.13 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 11.8. Behold, then more and more there appeared the parades and processions. The people were attired in regal manner and singing joyfully. One was girded about the middle like a man of arms. Another was bare and spare, and had a cloak and high shoes like a hunter! Another was attired in a robe of silk and socks of gold, having his hair laid out and dressed like a woman! There was another who wore leg harnesses and bore a shield, a helmet, and a spear like a martial soldier. After him marched one attired in purple, with vergers before him like a magistrate! After him followed one with a cloak, a staff, a pair of sandals, and a gray beard, signifying that he was a philosopher. After him came one with a line, betokening a fowler. Another came with hooks, declaring him a fisherman. I saw there a meek and tame bear which, dressed like a matron, was carried on a stool. An ape, with a bonnet on his head and covered with a Phrygian garment, resembled a shepherd, and bore a cup of gold in his hand. There was an ass, which had wings glued to his back and followed an old man: you would judge the one to be Pegasus, and the other Bellerophon. 11.9. Amongst the pleasures and popular delights which wandered hither and thither, you might see the procession of the goddess triumphantly marching forward. The women, attired in white vestments and rejoicing because they wore garlands and flowers upon their heads, bedspread the road with herbs which they bare in their aprons. This marked the path this regal and devout procession would pass. Others carried mirrors on their backs to testify obeisance to the goddess who came after. Other bore combs of ivory and declared by the gesture and motions of their arms that they were ordained and ready to dress the goddess. Others dropped balm and other precious ointments as they went. Then came a great number of men as well as women with candles, torches, and other lights, doing honor to the celestial goddess. After that sounded the musical harmony of instruments. Then came a fair company of youths, appareled in white vestments, singing both meter and verse a comely song which some studious poet had made in honor of the Muses. In the meantime there arrived the blowers of trumpets, who were dedicated to the god Serapis. Before them were officers who prepared room for the goddess to pass. 11.11. By and by, after the goddess, there followed gods on foot. There was Anubis, the messenger of the gods infernal and celestial, with his face sometimes black, sometimes faire, lifting up the head of a dog and bearing in his left hand his verge, and in his right hand the branches of a palm tree. After whom followed a cow with an upright gait, representing the figure of the great goddess. He who guided her marched on with much gravity. Another carried the secrets of their religion closed in a coffer. There was one who bore on his stomach a figure of his god, not formed like any beast, bird, savage thing or humane shape, but made by a new invention. This signified that such a religion could not be discovered or revealed to any person. There was a vessel wrought with a round bottom, having on the one side pictures figured in the manner of the Egyptians, and on the other side was an ear on which stood the serpent Aspis, holding out his scaly neck. 11.12. Finally came he who was appointed to my good fortune, according to the promise of the goddess. For the great priest, who bore the restoration of my human shape by the command of the goddess, approached ever closer bearing in his left hand the rattle, and in the other a garland of roses to give me. This was to deliver me from cruel fortune, which was always my enemy after I had suffered so much calamity and pain and had endured so many perils. I did not approach hastily, though I was seized by sudden joy, lest I disturb the quiet procession by my eagerness. But going softly through the press of the people (which gave way to me on every side) I went up to the priest. 11.13. The priest, having been advised the night before, stood still and holding out his hand, and thrust out the garland of roses into my mouth. I (trembling) devoured it with a great eagerness. And as soon as I had eaten them, I found that the promise made to me had not been in vain. For my deformed face changed, and first the rugged hair of my body fell off, my thick skin grew soft and tender, the hooves of my feet changed into toes, my hands returned again, my neck grew short, my head and mouth became round, my long ears were made little, my great and stony teeth grew more like the teeth of men, and my tail, which had burdened me most, disappeared. Then the people began to marvel. The religious honored the goddess for so evident a miracle. They wondered at the visions which they saw in the night, and the ease of my restoration, whereby they rendered testimony of so great a benefit that I had received from the goddess. |
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10. Maximus of Tyre, Dialexeis, 5.1 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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11. Pausanias, Description of Greece, 1.4.5, 3.16.7-3.16.11, 6.20.3 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 1.4.5. The greater number of the Gauls crossed over to Asia by ship and plundered its coasts. Some time after, the inhabitants of Pergamus, that was called of old Teuthrania, drove the Gauls into it from the sea. Now this people occupied the country on the farther side of the river Sangarius capturing Ancyra, a city of the Phrygians, which Midas son of Gordius had founded in former time. And the anchor, which Midas found, A legend invented to explain the name “ Ancyra,” which means anchor. was even as late as my time in the sanctuary of Zeus, as well as a spring called the Spring of Midas, water from which they say Midas mixed with wine to capture Silenus. Well then, the Pergameni took Ancyra and Pessinus which lies under Mount Agdistis, where they say that Attis lies buried. 3.16.7. The place named Limnaeum (Marshy) is sacred to Artemis Orthia (Upright). The wooden image there they say is that which once Orestes and Iphigenia stole out of the Tauric land, and the Lacedaemonians say that it was brought to their land because there also Orestes was king. I think their story more probable than that of the Athenians. For what could have induced Iphigenia to leave the image behind at Brauron ? Or why did the Athenians, when they were preparing to abandon their land, fail to include this image in what they put on board their ships? 3.16.8. And yet, right down to the present day, the fame of the Tauric goddess has remained so high that the Cappadocians dwelling on the Euxine claim that the image is among them, a like claim being made by those Lydians also who have a sanctuary of Artemis Anaeitis. But the Athenians, we are asked to believe, made light of it becoming booty of the Persians. For the image at Brauron was brought to Susa, and afterwards Seleucus gave it to the Syrians of Laodicea, who still possess it. 3.16.9. I will give other evidence that the Orthia in Lacedaemon is the wooden image from the foreigners. Firstly, Astrabacus and Alopecus, sons of Irbus, son of Amphisthenes, son of Amphicles, son of Agis, when they found the image straightway became insane. Secondly, the Spartan Limnatians, the Cynosurians, and the people of Mesoa and Pitane, while sacrificing to Artemis, fell to quarreling, which led also to bloodshed; many were killed at the altar and the rest died of disease. 3.16.10. Whereat an oracle was delivered to them, that they should stain the altar with human blood. He used to be sacrificed upon whomsoever the lot fell, but Lycurgus changed the custom to a scourging of the lads, and so in this way the altar is stained with human blood. By them stands the priestess, holding the wooden image. Now it is small and light 3.16.11. but if ever the scourgers spare the lash because of a lad's beauty or high rank, then at once the priestess finds the image grow so heavy that she can hardly carry it. She lays the blame on the scourgers, and says that it is their fault that she is being weighed down. So the image ever since the sacrifices in the Tauric land keeps its fondness for human blood. They call it not only Orthia, but also Lygodesma (Willow-bound), because it was found in a thicket of willows, and the encircling willow made the image stand upright. 6.20.3. In the front part of the temple, for it is built in two parts, is an altar of Eileithyia and an entrance for the public; in the inner Part Sosipolis is worshipped, and no one may enter it except the woman who tends the god, and she must wrap her head and face in a white veil. Maidens and matrons wait in the sanctuary of Eileithyia chanting a hymn; they burn all manner of incense to the god, but it is not the custom to pour libations of wine. An oath is taken by Sosipolis on the most important occasions. |
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