Listed 47 sub titles with search on: Monuments reported by ancient authors for wider area of: "MEGALOPOLI Municipality ARCADIA" .
MEGALOPOLIS (Ancient city) ARCADIA
The river Helisson divides Megalopolis and in the north section, on the right as one looks down the river, the townsfolk have made their market-place.
LYKOSSOURA (Ancient city) MEGALOPOLI
From Acacesium it is four stades to the sanctuary of the Mistress. First in this place is a temple of Artemis Leader, with a bronze image, holding torches, which I conjecture to be about six feet high. As you go to the temple there is a portico on the right, with reliefs of white marble on the wall. On the first relief are wrought Fates and Zeus surnamed Guide of Fate, and on the second Heracles wresting a tripod from Apollo. In the portico by the Mistress there is, between the reliefs I have mentioned, a tablet with descriptions of the mysteries. On the third relief are nymphs and Pans; on the fourth is Polybius, the son of Lycortas. On the latter is also an inscription, declaring that Greece would never have fallen at all, if she had obeyed Polybius in everything, and when she met disaster her only help came from him.
When you have gone up a little, beside the temple of Despoina (the Mistress),
on the right is what is called Megaron, where the Arcadians celebrate mysteries
and sacrifice to the Mistress many victims in generous fashion. Every man of them
sacrifices what he possesses. This Mistress the Arcadians worship more than any
other god, declaring that she is a daughter of Poseidon and Demeter. Mistress
is her surname among the many, just as they surname Demeter's daughter by Zeus
the Maid. But whereas the real name of the Maid is Persephone, as Homer and Pamphos
before him say in their poems, the real name of the Mistress I am afraid to write
to the uninitiated. Beyond what is called the Hall is a grove, sacred to the Mistress
and surrounded by a wall of stones, and within it are trees, including an olive
and an evergreen oak growing out of one root, and that not the result of a clever
piece of gardening.
Beyond the grove are altars of Poseidon Hippios, as being the father of the Mistress, and of other gods as well. On the last of them is an inscription saying that it is common to all the gods.
MEGALOPOLIS (Ancient city) ARCADIA
At no great distance is an altar of Ares, and it was said that originally a sanctuary too was built for the god.
KRITEAS (Ancient city) MEGALOPOLI
There is a place on Mount Lycaeus called Cretea, on the left of the grove of Apollo surnamed Parrhasian (Paus. 8,38,2).
LYKOSSOURA (Ancient city) MEGALOPOLI
Thence you will ascend by stairs to a sanctuary of Pan. Within the
sanctuary has been made a portico, and a small image; and this Pan too, equally
with the most powerful gods, can bring men's prayers to accomplishment and repay
the wicked as they deserve. Beside this Pan a fire is kept burning which is never
allowed to go out. It is said that in days of old this god also gave oracles,
and that the nymph Erato became his prophetess, she who wedded Arcas, the son
of Callisto. They also remember verses of Erato, which I too myself have read.
Here is an altar of Ares, and there are two images of Aphrodite in a temple, one
of white marble, and the other, the older, of wood. There are also wooden images
of Apollo and of Athena. Of Athena a sanctuary also has been made.
MEGALOPOLIS (Ancient city) ARCADIA
In the marketplace is an enclosure of stones and a sanctuary of Lycaean Zeus, with no entrance into it. The things inside, however, can be seen --altars of the god, two tables, two eagles, and an image of Pan made of stone. His surname is Sinoeis, and they say that Pan was so surnamed after a nymph Sinoe, who with others of the nymphs nursed him on her own account. There is before this enclosure a bronze image of Apollo worth seeing, in height twelve feet, brought from Phigalia as a contribution to the adornment of Megalopolis. The place where the image was originally set up by the Phigalians is named Bassae. The surname of the god has followed him from Phigalia, but why he received the name of Helper will be set forth in my account of Phigalia. On the right of the Apollo is a small image of the Mother of the Gods, but of the temple there remains nothing save the pillars.
Quite near to the Stoa of Aristander, on the east, is a sanctuary of Zeus, surnamed Saviour. It is adorned with pillars round it. Zeus is seated on a throne, and by his side stand Megalopolis on the right and an image of Artemis Saviour on the left. These are of Pentelic marble and were made by the Athenians Cephisodotus and Xenophon.
Here there is a sanctuary of Asclepius, with images of the god and of Health.
Under this hill there is another sanctuary of Boy Asclepius. His image is upright and about a cubit in height, that of Apollo is seated on a throne and is not less than six feet high. Here are also kept bones, too big for those of a human being, about which the story ran that they were those of one of the giants mustered by Hopladamus to fight for Rhea, as my story will relate hereafter. Near this sanctuary is a spring, the water flowing down from which is received by the Helisson.
As you go from Megalopolis to Messene, after advancing about seven stades, there stands on the left of the highway a sanctuary of goddesses. They call the goddesses themselves, as well as the district around the sanctuary, Maniae (Madnesses). In my view this is a surname of the Eumenides; in fact they say that it was here that madness overtook Orestes as punishment for shedding his mother's blood.
Thirteen stades from Megalopolis is a place called Scias, where are ruins of a sanctuary of Artemis Sciatis, said to have been built by Aristodemus the tyrant.
There is also a sanctuary of Athena surnamed Contriver, because the goddess is the inventor of plans and devices of all sorts.
At the other end, the western, of the portico is an enclosure sacred to the Great Goddesses. The Great Goddesses are Demeter and the Maid, as I have already explained in my account of Messenia, and the Maid is called Saviour by the Arcadians.
Within the enclosure of the Great Goddesses is also a sanctuary of Aphrodite. Before the entrance are old wooden images of Hera, Apollo and the Muses, brought, it is said, from Trapezus, and in the temple are images made by Damophon, a wooden Hermes and a wooden Aphrodite with hands, face and feet of stone. The surname Deviser given to the goddess is, in my opinion, a most apt one; for very many are the devices, and most varied are the forms of speech invented by men because of Aphrodite and her works.
To the right of the temple of the Great Goddesses there is also a sanctuary of the Maid. The image is of stone, about eight feet high; ribbons cover the pedestal all over. Women may enter this sanctuary at all times, but men enter it only once every year.
Behind the portico called after Philip of Macedon are two hills, rising to no great height. Ruins of a sanctuary of Athena Polias are on one.
The sanctuary built in common for the Muses, Apollo and Hermes had for me to record only a few foundations, but there was still one of the Muses, with an image of Apollo after the style of the square Hermae.
The sanctuary of Aphrodite too was in ruins, save that there were left the fore-temple mid three images, one surnamed Heavenly, the second Common, and the third without a surname.
Near to the place called Ace is another . . . a sanctuary called . . . because here Orestes cut off his hair on coming to his senses.
Beyond the Aphrodite is built also a race-course, extending on one side to the theater (and here they have a spring, held sacred to Dionysus), while at the other end of the race-course a temple of Dionysus was said to have been struck by lightning two generations before my time, and a few ruins of it were still there when I saw it.
AKAKISSION (Ancient city) MEGALOPOLI
After crossing the river it is two stades from the Alpheius to the ruins of Macareae, from these to the ruins of Daseae seven stades, and seven again from Daseae to the hill called Acacesian Hill. At the foot of this hill used to be a city Acacesium, and even to-day there is on the hill a stone image of Acacesian Hermes, the story of the Arcadians about it being that here the child Hermes was reared, and that Acacus the son of Lycaon became his foster-father.
This extract is from: Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Harvard University Press
Cited Sept. 2002 from Perseus Project URL bellow, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
LYKOSSOURA (Ancient city) MEGALOPOLI
The actual images of the goddesses, Mistress and Demeter, the throne on which
they sit, along with the footstool under their feet, are all made out of one piece
of stone. No part of the drapery, and no part of the carvings about the throne,
is fastened to another stone by iron or cement, but the whole is from one block.
Τhe size of both images just about corresponds to the image of the Mother at Athens.
These too are works of Damophon. Demeter carries a torch in her right hand; her
other hand she has laid upon the Mistress. The Mistress has on her knees a staff
and what is called the box, which she holds in her right hand. On both sides of
the throne are images. By the side of Demeter stands Artemis wrapped in the skin
of a deer, and carrying a quiver on her shoulders, while in one hand she holds
a torch, in the other two serpents; by her side a bitch, of a breed suitable for
hunting, is lying down. By the image of the Mistress stands Anytus, represented
as a man in armour.
MEGALOPOLIS (Ancient city) ARCADIA
A little lower down there are gods, also of square shape, surnamed Workers, Athena Worker and Apollo, God of Streets (Paus. 8,32,4). Athena was the patron of housework and Apollo the patron of agricultural works (Ekd. Athinon, Pausaniou Periegissis, vol. 4, p. 319, note 5).
Near the city (of Megalopolis) is a temple of Poseidon Overseer. I found the head of the image still remaining.
Near it (the Philippeium Stoa) I found a temple of Hermes Acacesius in ruins, with nothing remaining except a tortoise of stone.
Behind the government offices is a temple of Fortune with a stone image not less than five feet high.
There is also in this district a hill to the east, and on it a temple of Artemis Huntress this too was dedicated by Aristodemus. To the right of the Huntress is a precinct.
Passing through the gate at Megalopolis named the Gate to the Marsh, and proceeding by the side of the river Helisson towards Maenalus, there stands on the left of the road a temple of the Good God. If the gods are givers of good things to men, and if Zeus is supreme among gods, it would be consistent to infer that this surname is that of Zeus.
Before the temple of the Mother is no statue, but I found still to be seen the pedestals on which statues once stood. An inscription in elegiacs on one of the pedestals says that the statue was that of Diophanes, the son of Diaeus, the man who first united the whole Peloponnesus into what was named the Achaean League.
Within the precinct is a temple of Zeus Friendly. Polycleitus of Argos made the image; it is like Dionysus in having buskins as footwear and in holding a beaker in one hand and a thyrsus in the other, but an eagle sitting on the thyrsus does not fit in with the received accounts of Dionysus. Behind this temple is a small grove of trees surrounded by a wall; nobody may go inside, and before it are images of Demeter and the Maid some three feet high.
Behind the portico called after Philip of Macedon are two hills, rising to no great height. Ruins of a sanctuary of Athena Polias are on one, while on the other a temple of Hera Full-grown, this too being in ruins.
The temple near the race-course shared by Heracles and Hermes was no longer there, only their altar was left.
After it comes a temple of Demeter styled in the Marsh and her grove, which is five stades away from the city, and women only may enter it.
The southern portion, on the other side of the river, can boast of the largest theater in all Greece, and in it is a spring which never fails.
A short distance farther on is a mound of earth which is the grave of Aristodemus, whom in spite of his being a tyrant they could not help calling the Good.
Next is the tomb of Oicles, the father of Amphiaraus, if indeed he met his end in Arcadia, and not after he had joined Heracles in his campaign against Laomedon.
Not far from the sanctuary is a mound of earth, of no great size, surmounted by a finger made of stone; the name, indeed, of the mound is the Tomb of the Finger. Here, it is said, Orestes on losing his wits bit off one finger of one of his hands.
On the right of the road there has been made a precinct to the North Wind, and the Megalopolitans offer sacrifices every year, holding none of the gods in greater honor than the North Wind, because he proved their saviour from the Lacedaemonians under Agis.
The portico of the marketplace, called the Philippeium, was not made by Philip, the son of Amyntas, but as a compliment to him the Megalopolitans gave his name to the building. Near it I found a temple of Hermes Acacesius in ruins, with nothing remaining except a tortoise of stone. Adjoining this Philippeium is another portico, smaller in size, where stand the government offices of Megalopolis, six rooms in number. In one of them is an image of Ephesian Artemis, and in another a bronze Pan, surnamed Scoleitas, one cubit high. Behind the government offices is a temple of Fortune with a stone image not less than five feet high.
The portico called Myropolis, situated in the market-place, was built from the spoils taken when the Lacedaemonians fighting under Acrotatus, the son of Cleomenes, suffered the reverse sustained at the hands of Aristodemus, then tyrant of Megalopolis.
The portico called "Aristander's" in the market-place was built, they say, by Aristander, one of their townsfolk.
On the left of the portrait-statue of Polybius is the Council Chamber.
Adjoining the market-place on the west there is built a gymnasium.
Council House of Arcadian Ten Thousand.
By the house is an image of Ammon, like the square images of Hermes, with a ram's horns on his head.
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