A Pausanias Reader in Progress

An ongoing retranslation of the Greek text of Pausanias, with ongoing annotations, primarily by Gregory Nagy from 2014 to 2022, and continued since 2022 by Nagy together with an intergenerational team. Based on an original translation by W. H. S. Jones, 1918 (Scroll 2 with H. A. Ormerod), containing some of the footnotes added by Jones. Editors: Keith DeStone, Elizabeth Gipson, Charles Pletcher Editor Emerita: Angelia Hanhardt Web Producer: Noel Spencer Consultant for images: Jill Curry Robbins To cite this work, use the following persistent identifier: http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hlnc.prim-src:A_Pausanias_Reader_in_Progress.2018-.

urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0525.tlg001.aprip-en

9.20.1 Within the territory of Tanagra is what is called Delium on Sea. In it are images of Artemis and Leto. The people of Tanagra say that their founder was Poimandros, the son of Khairesilaos, the son of Iasios, the son of Eleuther, who, they say, was the son of Apollo by Aethusa, the daughter of Poseidon. It is said that Poimandros married Tanagra, a daughter of Aeolus. But in a poem of Corinna she is said to be a daughter of Asopos.

9.20.2 There is a story that, as she reached extreme old age, her neighbors ceased to call her by this name, and gave the name of Graea (old woman), first to the woman herself, and in course of time to the city. The name, they say, persisted so long that even Homer says in the Catalogue:

9.20.3 There is in Tanagra the tomb of Orion, and Mount Kerykion, the reputed birthplace of Hermes, and also a place called Polos. Here they say that Atlas sat and meditated deeply upon the things of the underworld and the things of the sky [ourania] , as Homer* says of him:

9.20.4 In the temple of Dionysus the image too is worth seeing, being of Parian marble and a work of Kalamis. But a greater marvel still is the Triton. The grander of the two versions of the tale [logos] about Triton tells how the women of Tanagra before the orgies of Dionysus went down to the sea to be purified, were attacked by the Triton as they were swimming, and prayed that Dionysus would come to their aid. The god, it is said, heard their cry and overcame the Triton in the fight.

9.20.5 The other version is less grand but more credible. It says that the Triton would waylay and lift all the cattle that were driven to the sea. He used even to attack small vessels, until the people of Tanagra set out for him a bowl of wine. They say that, attracted by the smell, he came at once, drank the wine, flung himself on the shore and slept, and that a man of Tanagra struck him on the neck with an axe and chopped off his head. For this reason the image has no head. And because they caught him drunk, it is supposed that it was Dionysus who killed him.

1 Odyssey 1.52.