Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 3.12.1-4 and 3.13.6: footraces for the hand Penelope and others

Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 3.12.1-4 and 3.13.6: footraces for the hand Penelope and others

mid 2nd century CE

Travel Writing

Literary source

3.12.1: As you go from the market-place by the road they name the Aphetaid Road, you come to the so-called Booneta (Office of the Ox-buyers). But my narrative must first explain why the road has this name. It is said that Icarius proposed a foot-race for the wooers of Penelope; that Odysseus won is plain, but they say that the competitors were let go (aphethenai) for the race along the Aphetaid Road. In my opinion, Icarius was imitating Danaus when he held the running-race. For Danaus contrived the following plan to solve the difficulty about his daughters. Nobody would take a wife from among them because of their pollution so Danaus sent round a notice that he would give away his daughters without bride-gifts, and that each suitor could choose the one whose beauty pleased him most. A few men came, among whom he held a foot-race the first comer was allowed to choose before all the others, after him the second, and so on to the last. The daughters that were left had to wait until other suitors arrived and competed in another foot-race. [...] On the opposite side of the office of the Bidiaeans is a sanctuary of Athena. Odysseus is said to have set up the image and to have named it Keleuthea (Lady of the Road), when he had beaten the suitors of Penelope in the foot-race. Of Keleuthea he set up sanctuaries, three in number, at some distance from each other.

Paus. 3.13.6: Not far from Carneus is what is called the image of Aphetaeus. Here they say was the starting-place of the race run by the suitors of Penelope. There is a place having its porticoes in the form of a square, where of old stuff used to be sold to the people. By this is an altar of Zeus Counsellor and of Athena Counsellor, also of the Dioscuri, likewise surnamed Counsellors.

William H. S. Jones/Henry A. Ormerod, Pausanias, Description of Greece, vol. 2, Books 3-5 (= Loeb Classical Library; 188), London 1926.

3.12.1-4 : ἰόντι δὲ ἐκ τῆς ἀγορᾶς κατὰ τὴν ὁδὸν ἣν Ἀφεταΐδα ὀνομάζουσι, τὰ καλούμενα Βοώνητά ἐστι: καί με ὁ λόγος ἀπαιτεῖ πρότερα εἰπεῖν τὰ ἐς τὴν ἐπίκλησιν τῆς ὁδοῦ. τοῖς μνηστῆρσιν Ἰκάριον τῆς Πηνελόπης φασὶν ἀγῶνα προθεῖναι δρόμου: καὶ ὅτι μὲν Ὀδυσσεὺς ἐκράτει, δῆλά ἐστιν, ἀφεθῆναι δὲ αὐτοὺς λέγουσιν ἐς τὸν δρόμον διὰ τῆς ὁδοῦ τῆς Ἀφεταΐδος. δοκεῖν δ᾽ ἐμοὶ δρόμου Ἰκάριος τὸ ἀγώνισμα ἐποίησε μιμούμενος Δαναόν. Δαναῷ γὰρ τοῦτο ἐπὶ ταῖς θυγατράσιν εὑρέθη, καὶ ὡς γυναῖκα οὐδεὶς ἤθελεν ἐξ αὐτῶν διὰ τὸ μίασμα ἀγαγέσθαι, διέπεμπε δὴ ὁ Δαναὸς ἕδνων ἄνευ δώσειν ᾗ ἂν ἕκαστος κατὰ κάλλος ἀρέσκηται: ἀφικομένοις δὲ ἀνδράσιν οὐ πολλοῖς ἀγῶνα δρόμου κατέστησε, καὶ πρώτῳ τε ἐλθόντι ἐγένετο ἑλέσθαι πρώτῳ τῶν ἄλλων καὶ μετ᾽ ἐκεῖνον τῷ δευτέρῳ καὶ ἤδη κατὰ τὰ αὐτὰ ἄχρι τοῦ τελευταίου: τὰς δὲ ὑπολειφθείσας μένειν ἔφοδον ἄλλην μνηστήρων ἔδει καὶ ἀγῶνα ἄλλον δρόμου. [...] τοῦ δὲ τῶν Βιδιαίων ἀρχείου πέραν ἐστὶν Ἀθηνᾶς ἱερόν: Ὀδυσσεὺς δὲ ἱδρύσασθαι τὸ ἄγαλμα λέγεται καὶ ὀνομάσαι Κελεύθειαν, τοὺς Πηνελόπης μνηστῆρας τῷ δρόμῳ νικήσας. ἱδρύσατο δὲ τῆς Κελευθείας ἱερὰ ἀριθμῷ τρία διεστηκότα ἀπ᾽ ἀλλήλων.

Paus. 3.13.6: τοῦ Καρνείου δὲ οὐ πόρρω καλούμενόν ἐστιν ἄγαλμα Ἀφεταίου: τοῖς δὲ Πηνελόπης μνηστῆρσί φασιν ἐντεῦθεν γενέσθαι τοῦ δρόμου τὴν ἀρχήν. ἔστι δέ τι χωρίον ἔχον στοὰς ἐν τετραγώνῳ τῷ σχήματι, ἔνθα σφίσιν ἐπιπράσκετο ὁ ῥῶπος τὸ ἀρχαῖον: πρὸς τούτῳ Διὸς Ἀμβουλίου καὶ Ἀθηνᾶς ἐστιν Ἀμβουλίας βωμὸς καὶ Διοσκούρων καὶ τούτων Ἀμβουλίων.

Frederick Spiro (ed.), Pausaniae Graeciae Descriptio, vol. 1, Leipzig 1903.