Pausanias · Description of Greece Ἑλλάδος Περιήγησις

Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.5.1–5: Athens: the Rotunda and the eponymous heroes of the tribes

Near the Council House is the Rotunda, where the presidents sacrifice, and above it stand statues of the heroes who gave their names to the Athenian tribes, among them Hippothoon, Antiochus, Ajax, Leos, Erechtheus, Aegeus, Oeneus and Acamas. Pausanias distinguishes two kings called Cecrops and two called Pandion, and tells of Pandion’s exile at Megara and of Tereus, Procne and Philomela. He adds the later tribes named after Attalus, Ptolemy and the Emperor Hadrian, and mentions Hadrian’s benefactions.

Sections 1.5.1–5 · 541 words · click a number to copy its link

τοῦ βουλευτηρίου τῶν πεντακοσίων πλησίον Θόλος ἐστὶ καλουμένη, καὶ θύουσί τε ἐνταῦθα οἱ πρυτάνεις καί τινα καὶ ἀργύρου πεποιημένα ἐστὶν ἀγάλματα οὐ μεγάλα. ἀνωτέρω δὲ ἀνδριάντες ἑστήκασιν ἡρώων, ἀφʼ ὧν Ἀθηναίοις ὕστερον τὰ ὀνόματα ἔσχον αἱ φυλαί· ὅστις δὲ κατεστήσατο δέκα ἀντὶ τεσσάρων φυλὰς εἶναι καὶ μετέθετό σφισι τὰ ὀνόματα ἀντὶ τῶν ἀρχαίων, Ἡροδότῳ καὶ ταῦτά ἐστιν εἰρημένα.

τῶν δὲ ἐπωνύμων—καλοῦσι γὰρ οὕτω σφᾶς—ἔστι μὲν Ἱπποθόων Ποσειδῶνος καὶ Ἀλόπης θυγατρὸς Κερκυόνος, ἔστι δὲ Ἀντίοχος τῶν παίδων τῶν Ἡρακλέους, γενόμενος ἐκ Μήδας Ἡρακλεῖ τῆς Φύλαντος, καὶ τρίτος Αἴας ὁ Τελαμῶνος, ἐκ δὲ Ἀθηναίων Λεώς· δοῦναι δὲ ἐπὶ σωτηρίᾳ λέγεται κοινῇ τὰς θυγατέρας τοῦ θεοῦ χρήσαντος. Ἐρεχθεύς τέ ἐστιν ἐν τοῖς ἐπωνύμοις, ὃς ἐνίκησεν Ἐλευσινίους μάχῃ καὶ τὸν ἡγούμενον ἀπέκτεινεν Ἰμμάραδον τὸν Εὐμόλπου· Αἰγεύς τέ ἐστι καὶ Οἰνεὺς Πανδίονος υἱὸς νόθος καὶ τῶν Θησέως παίδων Ἀκάμας.

Κέκροπα δὲ καὶ Πανδίονα—εἶδον γὰρ καὶ τούτων ἐν τοῖς ἐπωνύμοις εἰκόνας—οὐκ οἶδα οὓς ἄγουσιν ἐν τιμῇ· πρότερός τε γὰρ ἦρξε Κέκροψ, ὃς τὴν Ἀκταίου θυγατέρα ἔσχε, καὶ ὕστερος, ὃς δὴ καὶ μετῴκησεν ἐς Εὔβοιαν, Ἐρεχθέως υἱὸς τοῦ Πανδίονος τοῦ Ἐριχθονίου. καὶ δὴ καὶ Πανδίων ἐβασίλευσεν ὅ τε Ἐριχθονίου καὶ ὁ Κέκροπος τοῦ δευτέρου· τοῦτον Μητιονίδαι τῆς ἀρχῆς ἐξελαύνουσι, καί οἱ φυγόντι ἐς Μέγαρα—θυγατέρα γὰρ εἶχε Πύλα τοῦ βασιλεύσαντος ἐν Μεγάροις—συνεκπίπτουσιν οἱ παῖδες. καὶ Πανδίονα μὲν αὐτοῦ λέγεται νοσήσαντα ἀποθανεῖν, καί οἱ πρὸς θαλάσσῃ μνῆμά ἐστιν ἐν τῇ Μεγαρίδι ἐν Ἀθηνᾶς Αἰθυίας καλουμένῳ σκοπέλῳ·

οἱ δὲ παῖδες κατίασί τε ἐκ τῶν Μεγάρων ἐκβαλόντες Μητιονίδας, καὶ τὴν ἀρχὴν τῶν Ἀθηναίων Αἰγεὺς πρεσβύτατος ὢν ἔσχεν. θυγατέρας δὲ οὐ σὺν ἀγαθῷ δαίμονι ἔθρεψεν ὁ Πανδίων, οὐδέ οἱ τιμωροὶ παῖδες ἀπʼ αὐτῶν ἐλείφθησαν· καίτοι δυνάμεώς γε ἕνεκα πρὸς τὸν Θρᾷκα τὸ κῆδος ἐποιήσατο. ἀλλʼ οὐδεὶς πόρος ἐστὶν ἀνθρώπῳ παραβῆναι τὸ καθῆκον ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ· λέγουσιν ὡς Τηρεὺς συνοικῶν Πρόκνῃ Φιλομήλαν ᾔσχυνεν, οὐ κατὰ νόμον δράσας τὸν Ἑλλήνων, καὶ τὸ σῶμα ἔτι λωβησάμενος τῇ παιδὶ ἤγαγεν ἐς ἀνάγκην δίκης τὰς γυναῖκας. Πανδίονι δὲ καὶ ἄλλος ἀνδριάς ἐστιν ἐν ἀκροπόλει θέας ἄξιος.

οἵδε μέν εἰσιν Ἀθηναίοις ἐπώνυμοι τῶν ἀρχαίων· ὕστερον δὲ καὶ ἀπὸ τῶνδε φυλὰς ἔχουσιν, Ἀττάλου τοῦ Μυσοῦ καὶ Πτολεμαίου τοῦ Αἰγυπτίου καὶ κατʼ ἐμὲ ἤδη βασιλέως Ἀδριανοῦ τῆς τε ἐς τὸ θεῖον τιμῆς ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ἐλθόντος καὶ τῶν ἀρχομένων ἐς εὐδαιμονίαν τὰ μέγιστα ἑκάστοις παρασχομένου. καὶ ἐς μὲν πόλεμον οὐδένα ἑκούσιος κατέστη, Ἑβραίους δὲ τοὺς ὑπὲρ Σύρων ἐχειρώσατο ἀποστάντας· ὁπόσα δὲ θεῶν ἱερὰ τὰ μὲν ᾠκοδόμησεν ἐξ ἀρχῆς, τὰ δὲ καὶ ἐπεκόσμησεν ἀναθήμασι καὶ κατασκευαῖς ἢ δωρεὰς πόλεσιν ἔδωκεν Ἑλληνίσι, τὰς δὲ καὶ τῶν βαρβάρων τοῖς δεηθεῖσιν, ἔστιν οἱ πάντα γεγραμμένα Ἀθήνῃσιν ἐν τῷ κοινῷ τῶν θεῶν ἱερῷ.

Near the Council House of the Five Hundred is the so-called Rotunda. Here the Presidents sacrifice, and here, too, are certain silver images of no great size. Higher up stand statues of the heroes from whom the Athenian tribes afterwards got their names. Herodotus has told who it was that established ten tribes instead of four and replaced their old names by new ones.

The eponymous heroes, for so they call them, are, first, Hippothoon, son of Poseidon by Alope, daughter of Cercyon; second, Antiochus, one of the children of Hercules, who had him by Meda, daughter of Phylas ; third, Ajax, son of Telamon; and the following Athenians, to wit, Leos, who is said to have given his daughters for the public safety at the bidding of the oracle; Erechtheus, who vanquished the Eleusinians in battle, and slew their leader Immaradus, son of Eumolpus ; Aegeus ; Oeneus, bastard son of Pandion ; and Acamas, one of the sons of Theseus. 3. I saw also the statues of Cecrops and Pandion amongst the eponymous heroes, but which Cecrops and which Pandion they hold in honour I do not know. For there were two kings of the name of Cecrops: the first married the daughter of Actaeus, and the second migrated to Euboea; the latter was the son of Erechtheus, who was the son of Pandion, who was the son of Erichthonius. Similarly there were two kings called Pandion: one was the son of Erichthonius, the other was the son of Cecrops the second. The latter Pandion was driven from the throne by the Metionids, and fled with his children to Megara; for his wife was a daughter of Pylas, king of Megara. It is said that Pandion fell sick and died there, and his tomb is by the sea-shore in the land of Megara, on a bluff, which is called the bluff of Diver-bird Athena.

His sons drove out the Metionids and returned from Megara; and Aegeus, being the eldest, obtained the kingdom of Athens. But in respect of his daughters Pandion was unlucky, and they left no children to avenge him, although it was for the sake of power that he had connected himself by marriage with the Thracian prince. However, there is no way whereby man can evade the decrees of heaven. They say that Tereus, though wedded to Procne, outraged Philomela in defiance of Greek law; and having moreover mutilated the damsel, he impelled the women to take vengeance. There is another statue of Pandion on the Acropolis which is worth seeing.

These are the old eponymous heroes of Athens. But in later times there were tribes called after Attalus the Mysian and Ptolemy the Egyptian; and in my time there was also a tribe called after the Emperor Hadrian, the prince who did most for the glory of God and the happiness of his subjects. He never made war of his own free will, but he quelled the revolt of the Hebrews who dwell over above the Syrians. The sanctuaries that he either built or adorned with votive offerings and other fittings, and the gifts that he bestowed on Greek cities and the barbarians who sought his bounty, are all recorded at Athens in the common sanctuary of the gods.

People and places in this passage

English translation by Sir James George Frazer (1898). Original text: Friedrich Spiro (ed.), Pausaniae Graeciae descriptio, 3 vols., Leipzig: Teubner, 1903 (Greek text as digitised by Perseus).

Greek text and translation from the Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Perseus Digital Library, Greek text); translation public domain (OCR from the Internet Archive scan). Introductions, summaries and notes © GreekMythology.com.