That is the inscription at Tegea. And the statues erected to Apollo
Aguieus by the people of Tegea were dedicated they say for the
following reason. Apollo and Artemis punished they say in every place
all persons who, when Leto was pregnant and wandering about Arcadia,
neglected and took no account of her. And when Apollo and Artemis
came into the district of Tegea, then they say Scephrus, the son of
Tegeates, went up to Apollo and had a private conversation with him.
And Limon his brother, thinking Scephrus was making some charge against
him, ran at his brother and slew him. But swift vengeance came upon
Limon, for Artemis at once transfixed him with an arrow. And Tegeates
and Mera forthwith sacrificed to Apollo and Artemis, and afterwards
when a mighty famine came upon the land the oracle at Delphi told them
to mourn for Scephrus. Accordingly they pay honours to him at the
festival of Apollo Aguieus, and the priestess of Artemis pursues some
one, pretending that she is Artemis pursuing Limon. And the remaining
sons of Tegeates, Cydon and Archedius and Gortys, migrated they say of
their own accord to Crete, and gave their names to the towns Cydonia
and Gortys and Catreus. But the Cretans do not accept the tradition of
the people of Tegea, they say that Cydon was the son of Acacallis the
daughter of Minos and Hermes, and that Catreus was the son of Minos,
and Gortys the son of Rhadamanthus. About Rhadamanthus Homer says, in
the conversation between Proteus and Menelaus, that Menelaus went to
the Elysian fields, and before him Rhadamanthus: and Cinæthon in his
verses represents Rhadamanthus as the son of Hephæstus, and Hephæstus
as the son of Talos, and Talos as the son of Cres. The traditions of
the Greeks are mostly different and especially in genealogies. And
the people of Tegea have 4 statues of Apollo Aguieus, one erected by
each tribe. And the names of the tribes are Clareotis, Hippothœtis,
Apolloniatis, and Atheneatis, the two former so called from the lots
which Arcas made his sons cast for the land, and from Hippothous the
son of Cercyon.
There is also at Tegea a temple to Demeter and Proserpine, the
goddesses whom they call Fruit-giving, and one near to Paphian
Aphrodite, which was erected by Laodice, who was, as I have stated
before, a daughter of that Agapenor who led the Arcadians to Troy, and
dwelt at Paphos. And not far from it are two temples to Dionysus, and
an altar to Proserpine, and a temple and gilt statue of Apollo, the
statue by Chirisophus, a Cretan by race, whose age and master we do not
know. But the stay of Dædalus at Minos’ court in Crete, and the statues
which he made, has brought much greater fame to Crete. And near Apollo
is a stone statue of Chirisophus himself.
And the people of Tegea have an altar which they call common to all
Arcadians, where there is a statue of Hercules. He is represented as
wounded in the thigh with the wound he received in the first fight
which he had with the sons of Hippocoon. And the lofty place dedicated
to Zeus Clarius, where most of the altars at Tegea are, is no doubt so
called from the lots which the sons of Arcas cast. And the people of
Tegea have an annual festival there, and they say the Lacedæmonians
once invaded their territory at the time of the festival, and the god
sent snow, and they were cold, and weary from the weight of their
armour, and the people of Tegea unbeknown to the enemy lit a fire, (and
so they were not incommoded with the cold), and put on their armour,
and went out against them, and overcame them in the action. I have also
seen at Tegea the following sights, the house of Aleus, and the tomb of
Echemus, and a representation on a pillar of the fight between Echemus
and Hyllus.
As you go from Tegea towards Laconia, there is an altar of Pan on the
left of the road, and another of Lycæan Zeus, and there are ruins of
temples. Their altars are about 2 stades from the walls, and about
seven stades further is a temple of Artemis called Limnatis, and a
statue of the goddess in ebony. The workmanship is called Æginætan by
the Greeks. And about 10 stades further are ruins of the temple of
Artemis Cnaceatis.