Hide browse bar Your current position in the text is marked in blue. Click anywhere in the line to jump to another position:
This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
Table of Contents:
Leipephilene, like in form to the Olympian goddesses;
She bore him in the halls a son Hippotes,
And lovely Thero, like to the moonbeams.
Thero, falling into the embrace of Apollo,
Bore mighty Chaeron, tamer of horses.
”The Great Eoeae, unknown location.Homer, I think, though he knew that Chaeroneia and Lebadeia were already so called, yet uses their ancient names, just as he speaks of the river Aegyptus, not the Nile.2 [7] In the territory of Chaeroneia are two trophies, which the Romans under Sulla set up to commemorate their victory over the army of Mithridates under Taxilus. But Philip, son of Amyntas, set up no trophy, neither here nor for any other success, whether won over Greeks or non-Greeks, as the Macedonians were not accustomed to raise trophies. [8] The Macedonians say that Caranus, king of Macedonia, overcame in battle Cisseus, a chieftain in a bordering country. For his victory Caranus set up a trophy after the Argive fashion, but it is said to have been upset by a lion from Olympus, which then vanished. [9] Caranus, they assert, realized that it was a mistaken policy to incur the undying hatred of the non-Greeks dwelling around, and so, they say, the rule was adopted that no king of Macedonia, neither Caranus himself nor any of his successors, should set up trophies, if they were ever to gain the good-will of their neighbors. This story is confirmed by the fact that Alexander set up no trophies, neither for his victory over Dareius nor for those he won in India. [10] As you approach the city you see a common grave of the Thebans who were killed in the struggle against Philip. It has no inscription, but is surmounted by a lion, probably a reference to the spirit of the men. That there is no inscription is, in my opinion, because their courage was not favoured by appropriate good fortune. [11] Of the gods, the people of Chaeroneia honor most the scepter which Homer says3 Hephaestus made for Zeus, Hermes received from Zeus and gave to Pelops, Pelops left to Atreus, Atreus to Thyestes, and Agamemnon had from Thyestes. This scepter, then, they worship, calling it Spear. That there is something peculiarly divine about this scepter is most clearly shown by the fame it brings to the Chaeroneans. [12] They say that it was discovered on the border of their own country and of Panopeus in Phocis, that with it the Phocians discovered gold, and that they were glad themselves to get the scepter instead of the gold. I am of opinion that it was brought to Phocis by Agamemnon's daughter Electra. It has no public temple made for it, but its priest keeps the scepter for one year in a house. Sacrifices are offered to it every day, and by its side stands a table full of meats and cakes of all sorts.
1 See Hom. Il. 18.590 foll.
2 See Hom. Il. 2.507 and Hom. Od. 4.477 and Hom. Od. 4.581, Hom. Od. 14.258.
3 Hom. Il. 2.101 foll.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
Purchase a copy of this text (not necessarily the same edition) from Amazon.com
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.
View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.
Click on a place to search for it in this document.
Phocis (Greece) (2)
Macedonia (Macedonia) (2)
Thessaly (Greece) (1)
Thebes (Greece) (1)
Sicily (Italy) (1)
Olympus (Greece) (1)
Nile (1)
India (India) (1)
Gela (Italy) (1)
Egypt (Egypt) (1)
Delphi (Greece) (1)
Delos (Greece) (1)
Crete (Greece) (1)
Cnossus (Greece) (1)
Boeotia (Greece) (1)
Arne (1)
Argive (Greece) (1)
Download Pleiades ancient places geospacial dataset for this text.
- Cross-references to this page (4):
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), DAE´DALA
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), ORA´CULUM
- Smith's Bio, Amyntas I.
- Smith's Bio, Cara'nus
- Cross-references in notes from this page (6):