The people of Tegea say that their district got its name in the days of
Tegeates the son of Lycaon, and that the inhabitants were distributed
into 8 parishes, Gareatæ, Phylaces, Caryatæ, Corythes, Potachidæ, Œatæ,
Manthyres, and Echeuethes, and that in the reign of Aphidas a ninth
parish was formed, called after him Aphidas. The founder of the town
in our day was Aleus. The people of Tegea besides the public events
which they had a share in in common with all the Arcadians, as the
war against Ilium, and the war with the Persians, and the battle with
the Lacedæmonians at Dipæa, had special renown of their own from the
following circumstances. Ancæus the son of Lycurgus, though wounded,
sustained the attack of the Calydonian boar, and Atalanta shot at it
and was the first to hit it, and for this prowess its head and hide
were given her as trophies. And when the Heraclidæ returned to the
Peloponnese, Echemus of Tegea, the son of Aeropus, had a combat with
Hyllus and beat him. And the people of Tegea were the first Arcadians
who beat the Lacedæmonians who fought against them, and took most of
them captive.
The ancient temple at Tegea of Athene Alea was built by Aleus, but
in after times the people at Tegea built the goddess a great and
magnificent temple. For the former one was entirely consumed by fire
which spread all over it, when Diophantus was Archon at Athens, in the
second year of the 96th Olympiad, in which Eupolemus of Elis won the
prize in the course. The present one far excels all the temples in the
Peloponnese for beauty and size. The architecture of the first row of
pillars is Doric, that of the second row is Corinthian, and that of the
pillars outside the temple is Ionic. The architect I found on inquiry
was Scopas the Parian, who made statues in various parts of old Greece,
and also in Ionia and Caria. On the gables is represented the hunting
of the boar of Calydon, on one side of the boar, nearly in the centre
of the piece, stand Atalanta and Meleager and Theseus and Telamon and
Peleus and Pollux and Iolaus, the companion of Hercules in most of his
Labours, and the sons of Thestius, Prothous and Cometes, the brothers
of Althæa: and on the other side of the boar Ancæus already wounded and
Epochus supporting him as he drops his weapon, and near him Castor,
and Amphiaraus the son of Œcles, and besides them Hippothous the son
of Cercyon, the son of Agamedes, the son of Stymphelus, and lastly
Pirithous. On the gables behind is a representation of the single
combat between Telephus and Achilles on the plain of Caicus.