The other mountain, Elaion, is about 30 stades from Phigalia, and
there is a cave there sacred to Black Demeter. All the traditions
that the people of Thelpusa tell about the amour of Poseidon with
Demeter are also believed by the people of Phigalia. But the latter
differ in one point: they say Demeter gave birth not to a foal but to
her that the Arcadians call Despœna. And after this they say, partly
from indignation with Poseidon, partly from sorrow at the rape of
Proserpine, she dressed in black, and went to this cave and nobody
knew of her whereabouts for a long time. But when all the fruits of
the earth were blighted, and mankind was perishing from famine, and
none of the gods knew where Demeter had hidden herself but Pan, who
traversed all Arcadia, hunting in various parts of the mountains, and
had seen Demeter dressed as I have described on Mount Elaion, then
Zeus learning all about this from Pan sent the Fates to Demeter, and
she was persuaded by them to lay aside her anger, and to wean herself
from her grief. And in consequence of her abode there, the Phigalians
say that they considered this cave as sacred to Demeter, and put in it
a wooden statue of the goddess, fashioned as follows. The goddess is
seated on a rock, like a woman in all respects but her head, which is
that of a mare with a mare’s mane, and figures of dragons and other
monsters about her head, and she has on a tunic which reaches to the
bottom of her feet. In one hand she has a dolphin, in the other a dove.
Why they delineated the goddess thus is clear to everybody not without
understanding who remembers the legend. And they call her Black Demeter
because her dress is black. They do not record who this statue was by
or how it caught fire. But when the old one was burnt the Phigalians
did not offer another to the goddess, but neglected her festivals
and sacrifices, till a dearth came over the land, and when they went
to consult the oracle the Pythian Priestess gave them the following
response:
“Arcadians, acorn-eating Azanes who inhabit Phigalia, go to the secret
cave of the horse-bearing Demeter, and inquire for alleviation from
this bitter famine, you that were twice Nomads living alone, living
alone feeding upon roots. Demeter taught you something else besides
pasture, she introduced among you the cultivation of corn, though you
have deprived her of her ancient honours and prerogatives. But you
shall eat one another and dine off your children speedily, if you do
not propitiate her wrath by public libations, and pay divine honours to
the recess in the cave.”
When the Phigalians heard this oracular response, they honoured Demeter
more than before, and got Onatas of Ægina, the son of Mico, for a great
sum of money to make them a statue of the goddess. This Onatas made a
brazen statue of Apollo for the people of Pergamus, most wonderful both
for its size and artistic merit. And he having discovered a painting
or copy of the ancient statue, but perhaps chiefly, so the story goes,
from a dream he had, made a brazen statue of Demeter for the people
of Phigalia, a generation after the Persian invasion of Greece. Here
is the proof of the correctness of my date. When Xerxes crossed into
Europe Gelon the son of Dinomenes was ruler of Syracuse and the rest
of Sicily, and after his death the kingdom devolved upon his brother
Hiero, and as Hiero died before he could give to Olympian Zeus the
offerings he had vowed for the victories of his horses, Dinomenes his
son gave them instead. Now Onatas made these, as the inscriptions at
Olympia over the votive offering show.
“Hiero having been formerly victor in your august contests, Olympian
Zeus, once in the fourhorse chariot, and twice with a single horse,
bestows on you these gifts: his son Dinomenes offers them in memory of
his Syracusan father.”
And the other inscription is as follows,
“Onatas the son of Mico made me, a native of Ægina.” Onatas was
therefore a contemporary of the Athenian Hegias and the Argive
Ageladas.
I went to Phigalia chiefly to see this Demeter, and I sacrificed to
the goddess in the way the people of the country do, no victim but
the fruit of the vine and other trees, and honeycombs, and wool in an
unworked state with all its grease still on it, and these they lay on
the altar built in front of the cave, and pour oil over all. This
sacrifice is held every year at Phigalia both publicly and privately.
A priestess conducts the ritual, and with her the youngest of the
three citizens who are called Sacrificing Priests. Round the cave is
a grove of oak trees, and warm water bubbles up from a spring. The
statue made by Onatas was not there in my time, nor did most people at
Phigalia know that it had ever existed, but the oldest of those I met
with informed me that 3 generations before his time some stones from
the roof fell on to it, and that it was crushed by them and altogether
smashed up, and we can see plainly even now traces in the roof where
the stones fell in.