Pausanias, Description of Greece

Laconia

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XVII.

Not far from the Orthia is a sanctuary of Eileithyia. They say that they built it, and came to worship Eileithyia as a goddess, because of an oracle from Delphi.

The Lacedaemonians have no citadel rising to a conspicuous height like the Cadmea at Thebes and the Larisa at Argos. There are, however, hills in the city, and the highest of them they call the citadel.

[2] Here is built a sanctuary of Athena, who is called both City-protecting and Lady of the Bronze House. The building of the sanctuary was begun, they say, by Tyndareus. On his death his children were desirous of making a second attempt to complete the building, and the resources they intended to use were the spoils of Aphidna. They too left it unfinished, and it was many years afterwards that the Lacedaemonians made of bronze both the temple and the image of Athena. The builder was Gitiadas, a native of Sparta, who also composed Dorian lyrics, including a hymn to the goddess.¹

[3] On the bronze are wrought in relief many of the labours of Heracles and many of the voluntary exploits he successfully carried out, besides the rape of the daughters of Leucippus and other achievements of the sons of Tyndareus. There is also Hephaestus releasing his mother from the fetters. The legend about this I have already related in my history of Attica.² There are also represented nymphs bestowing upon Perseus, who is starting on his enterprise against Medusa in Libya, a cap and the shoes by which he was to be carried through the air. There are also wrought the birth of Athena, Amphitrite, and Poseidon, the largest figures, and those which I thought the best worth seeing.

[4] There is here another sanctuary of Athena; her surname is the Worker. As you go to the south portico there is a temple of Zeus surnamed Cosmetas (Orderer), and before it is the tomb of Tyndareus. The west portico has two eagles, and upon them are two Victories. Lysander dedicated them to commemorate both his exploits; the one was off Ephesus, when he conquered Antiochus, the captain of Alcibiades, and the Athenian warships and the second occurred later, when he destroyed the Athenian fleet at Aegospotami.

[5]

On the left of the Lady of the Bronze House they have set up a sanctuary of the Muses, because the Lacedaemonians used to go out to fight, not to the sound of the trumpet, but to the music of the flute and the accompaniment of lyre and harp. Behind the Lady of the Bronze House is a temple of Aphrodite Areia (Warlike). The wooden images are as old as any in Greece.

[6] On the right of the Lady of the Bronze House has been set up an image of Zeus Most High, the oldest image that is made of bronze. It is not wrought in one piece. Each of the limbs has been hammered separately; these are fitted together, being prevented from coming apart by nails. They say that the artist was Clearchus of Rhegium, who is said by some to have been a pupil of Dipoenus³ and Scyllis, by others of Daedalus himself. By what is called the Scenoma (Tent) there is a statue of a woman, whom the Lacedaemonians say is Euryleonis. She won a victory at Olympia with a two-horse chariot.

[7]

By the side of the altar of the Lady of the Bronze House stand two statues of Pausanias, the general at Plataea. His history, as it is known, I will not relate. The accurate accounts of my predecessors suffice; I shall content myself with adding to them what I heard from a man of Byzantium. Pausanias was detected in his treachery, and was the only suppliant of the Lady of the Bronze House who failed to win security, solely because he had been unable to wipe away a defilement of bloodshed.

[8] When he was cruising about the Hellespont with the Lacedaemonian and allied fleets, he fell in love with a Byzantine maiden. And straightway at the beginning of night Cleonice --that was the girl's name--was brought by those who had been ordered to do so. But Pausanias was asleep at the time and the noise awoke him. For as she came to him she unintentionally dropped her lighted lamp. And Pausanias, conscious of his treason to Greece, and therefore always nervous and fearful, jumped up then and struck the girl with his sword.

[9] From this defilement Pausanias could not escape, although he underwent all sorts of purifications and became a suppliant of Zeus Phyxius (God of Flight), and finally went to the wizards at Phigalia in Arcadia but he paid a fitting penalty to Cleonice and to the god. The Lacedaemonians, in fulfillment of a command from Delphi, had the bronze images made and honor the spirit Bountiful, saying that it was this Bountiful that turns aside the wrath that the God of Suppliants shows because of Pausanias.

¹  c. 500 B.C

² See Paus. 1.20.3.

³ See Paus. 2.15.1 and Paus. 2.32.5.

Cross references from Andrew Stewart, One Hundred Greek Sculptors: Their Careers and Extant Works:
2, 1, 4 [Gitiadas]: The builder of the Brazen House at Sparta was Gitiadas a local man who also composed Dorian lyrics including a hymn to the goddess Athena On the bronze are wrought in relief many of Herakles' Labors and many of his voluntary exploits together with the rape of the daughter of Leukippos and other achievements of the sons of Tyndareus There is also Hephaistos releasing his mother from her fetters ... There too are the Nymphs giving gifts to Perseus as he sets out against Medusa in Libya a cap and the shoes that would bear him through the sky Also wrought there are the birth of Athena and Amphitrite and Poseidon too -- the largest figures and in my opinion the best worth seeing
2, 1, 2 [The Daidalidai]: On the right of the Lady of the Bronze House at Sparta has been set up an image of Zeus Most High the oldest image of bronze in existence It is not wrought in one piece Each of the limbs has been hammered separately these are fitted together being prevented from coming apart by nails They say that the artist was Klearchos of Rhegion who is said by some to have been a pupil of Dipoinos and Skyllis by others of Daidalos himself

Cross references from W. W. How, J. Wells, A Commentary on Herodotus:
5, 92G, 2 [BOOK V]

Cross references from Thomas W. Allen, E. E. Sikes, Commentary on the Homeric Hymns:
* [HYMN TO APOLLO]
* [HYMN TO APOLLO]

Cross references from Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898):
tisamenus [Tisamĕnus]

This text is based on the following book(s):
Pausanias. Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918.
OCLC: 10818363
ISBN: 0674991044, 0674992075, 0674993004, 0674993284

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