This road leads to Messene, but another leads from Megalopolis to
Carnasium in Messenia, where the Alpheus has its rise, at the place
where the Malus and the Scyrus mingle their waters with it in one
stream. If you keep the Malus on the right for about thirty stades and
then cross it, you will mount on higher ground till you come to the
place called Phædria, which is about 15 stades from the village called
Hermæum, near the temple of Despœna. Hermæum is the boundary between
the districts of Messenia and Megalopolis, and there are statues not
very large of Despœna and Demeter, Hermes and Hercules: and I think the
wooden statue of Hercules made by Dædalus on the borders of Messenia
and Arcadia once stood here.
The road to Lacedæmon from Megalopolis is 30 stades to the Alpheus, and
then along the riverside till you come to one of its tributaries the
Thius, which you leave on the left and arrive at Phalæsiæ, about 40
stades from the Alpheus. Phalæsiæ is about 20 stades from the temple of
Hermes at Belemina. The Arcadians say that Belemina originally belonged
to them, and that the Lacedæmonians robbed them of it. But their
account is not probable on other grounds, nor is at all likely that
the Thebans would have allowed the Arcadians to be stripped of their
territory in this quarter, could they with justice have righted them.
From Megalopolis are also roads to the interior of Arcadia, as to
Methydrium 170 stades from Megalopolis, and 13 stades further to the
place called Scias, where are ruins of a temple to Sciadian Artemis,
erected tradition says by Aristodemus the tyrant. And 10 stades
further there are the ruins of a place called Charisiæ, and another
10 stades further is Tricoloni, which was formerly a town; and there
is still on the hill a temple and square statue of Poseidon, and a
grove of trees round the temple. Tricoloni was founded by the sons of
Lycaon, and Zœtia about 15 stades from Tricoloni, (not in a direct
line but a little to the left); was founded they say by Zœteus the
son of Tricolonus. And Paroreus, the younger son of Tricolonus,
founded Paroria, which is about 10 stades from Zœtia. Both are without
inhabitants now, but at Zœtia there are temples of Demeter and Artemis.
And there are other towns in ruins, as Thyræum 15 stades from Paroria,
and Hypsus on a hill of the same name above the plain. Between Thyræum
and Hypsus all the country is hilly and abounds with wild beasts. I
have previously shewn that Thyræus and Hypsus were sons of Lycaon.
On the right of Tricoloni is a steep road to a spring called Wells,
as you descend about 30 stades you come to the tomb of Callisto, a
high mound of earth, with many trees growing wild, and some planted.
And on the top of this mound is a temple of Artemis called The Most
Beautiful, and I think when Pamphus in his verses called Artemis The
Most Beautiful he first learnt this epithet from the Arcadians. And
twenty-five stades further, 100 from Tricolonus in the direction of the
Helisson, on the high road to Methydrium, (which is the only town left
to Tricoloni), is a place called Anemosa and the mountain Phalanthum,
on which are ruins of a town of the same name, founded they say by
Phalanthus, the son of Agelaus, and grandson of Stymphelus. Above it
is a plain called Polus, and next to it is Schœnus, so called from the
Bœotian Schœneus. And if Schœneus was a stranger in Arcadia, Atalanta’s
Course near Schœnus may have taken its name from his daughter. And next
is a place called I think * * *, and all agree that this is Arcadian
soil.