Tegea

“ The entire plain was well adapted for pasturage and corn-growing, but was liable to floods owing to the lack of free outlets for its water-courses. Hence the regulation of the zerethra or subterranean conduits which drained away the overflow southward was a matter of vital importance both to Tegea and to Mantineia, and a cause of frequent quarrels. By its vicinity to the watersheds of the Eurotas and Alpheus, and its command over the main roads from Laconia to Argos and the Isthmus, Tegea likewise was brought into conflict with Sparta. ”

“ Like many other cities of ancient Greece, Tegea was formed by the union of a population which had previously lived dispersed in villages. The people were divided into four tribes,—the Clareotis, Hippothœtis, Apolloniatis, and Athaneatis. Tegea offered a stubborn resistance to the encroachments of Lacedæmon, and on more than one occasion defeated its ambitious neighbour. About 560 B.C., however, the Lacedæmonians found the bones of Orestes in Tegea and conveyed them to Sparta ”

“ When this was brought back to the ears of the Lacedaemonians, they let the rest of the Arcadians be, and marched against the men of Tegea carrying fetters with them; for they trusted in the quibbling oracle and thought they would enslave the Tegeans. But they were worsted in the encounter, and those of them who were taken captive were made to till the Tegean plain, wearing the fetters which they themselves had brought and measuring the land with a line. These fetters, in which they were bound, were still in my time kept safe at Tegea, where they were hung round the temple of Athene Alea. ”

“ And the people of Tegea were the first Arcadians who beat the Lacedæmonians who fought against them, and took most of them captive.
The ancient temple at Tegea of Athene Alea was built by Aleus, but in after times the people at Tegea built the goddess a great and magnificent temple. For the former one was entirely consumed by fire which spread all over it, when Diophantus was Archon at Athens, in the second year of the 96th Olympiad, in which Eupolemus of Elis won the prize in the course. The present one far excels all the temples in the Peloponnese for beauty and size. ”

“ Echemus is the chief heroic ornament of Tegea. When Hyllus, the son of Hêraklês, conducted the Hêrakleids on their first expedition against Peloponnêsus, Echemus commanded the Tegean troops who assembled along with the other Peloponnêsians at the isthmus of Corinth to repel the invasion: it was agreed that the dispute should be determined by single combat, and Echemus, as the champion of Peloponnêsus, encountered and killed Hyllus. ”

“ For according to the legend of the people of Tegea Ares had an intrigue with Aerope, the daughter of Cepheus the son of Aleus, and she died in childbirth, and the baby still clung to his mother though she was dead, and sucked from her breasts a plentiful supply of milk, and as Ares had caused this they called the god Aphneus, and the boy was called they say Aeropus. And on the road to Tegea is the well called Leuconius, so called from Leucone, (who they say was a daughter of Aphidas) , whose tomb is not far from Tegea. ”

“ Charillus and the Lacedæmonians first invaded the district round Tegea, and were beaten in battle by the men of Tegea, and also by the women who put on armour, and Charillus and his army were taken prisoners. ”

“ I also saw in Tegea: — the house of Aleus, the tomb of Echemus, and the fight between Echemus and Hyllus carved in relief upon a slab.
====TEGEA - LACONIA ROAD 8.53.11 On the left of the road as you go from Tegea to Laconia there is an altar of Pan, and likewise one of Lycaean Zeus. The foundations, too, of sanctuaries are still there. These altars are two stades from the wall; and about seven stades farther on is a sanctuary of Artemis, surnamed Limnatis, with an image of ebony. The fashion of the workmanship is what the Greeks call Aeginetan. ”

“ The story goes on to say that he was set free without ransom, swore to the Tegeans that the Lacedemonians would never again attack Tegea, and then broke his oath; that the women offered to Ares a sacrifice of victory on their own account without the men, and gave to the men no share in the meat of the victim. For this reason Ares got his surname.
8.48.6 There is also an altar of Zeus Teleius (Full-grown) , with a square image, a shape of which the Arcadians seem to me to be exceedingly fond. There are also here tombs of Tegeates, the son of Lycaon, and of Maera, the wife of Tegeates. ”

“ And Aphidas got Tegea and the neighbouring country, and so the poets call Tegea the lot of Aphidas. And Elatus had Mount Cyllene, which had no name then, and afterwards he migrated into what is now called Phocis, and aided the [Pg 66] Phocians who were pressed hard in war by the Phlegyes, and built the city Elatea. And Azan had a son Clitor, and Aphidas had a son called Aleus, and Elatus had five sons, Æpytus and Pereus and Cyllen and Ischys and Stymphelus. And when Azan died funeral games were first established, I don’t know whether any other but certainly horseraces. ”

“ The western and best half of Laconia had been wrested from them; Messênê had been constituted as a free city on their frontier; a large proportion of their Periœki and Helots had been converted into independent Greeks bitterly hostile to them; moreover the Arcadian population had been emancipated from their dependence, and organized into self-acting jealous neighbors in the new city of Megalopolis, as well as in Tegea and Mantinea. The once philo-Laconian Tegea was now among the chief enemies of Sparta ”

“ In 423 they broke out into open war with the Mantineians, and when the latter rebelled against Sparta and allied themselves with Argos and Athens, the Tegeans stood firmly by Sparta's side: in the decisive battle of Mantineia (418) their troops hadalarge share in the overthrow of the coalition. During the early 4th century before Christ Tegea continued to support Sparta against the Mantineians and other malcontents. ”

“ In our time the grave is no longer within the gates. By the road flows also the river Garates. Crossing the Garates and advancing ten stades you come to a sanctuary of Pan, by which is an oak, like the sanctuary sacred to Pan.
TEGEA - ARGOS ROAD 8.54.5 The road from Tegea to Argos is very well suited for carriages, in fact a first-rate highway. On the road come first a temple and image of Asclepius. Next, turning aside to the left for about a stade, you see a dilapidated sanctuary of Apollo surnamed Pythian which is utterly in ruins. ”

“ This valley or table-land stretches from north to south, nearly divided in two by the approach of the mountains from east and west. Thus the valley takes the shape rudely of the figure eight; the southern part, through one corner of which we had passed before, being occupied by Tegea, the northern by Mantinea. Tripolitza, to the northwest of Tegea, represents the ancient Pallantium, the birthplace of Evander. Here Dhemetri brought us bad news. We had intended to go to Mantinea, thence north through Orchomenus, Stymphalus, and Sicyon, to Corinth ”

“ It appears to have been numerously attended; for we hear of one place, Eutæa (in the district of Mount Mænalus, [446] and near the borders of Laconia) , from whence every single male adult went to the assembly. It was here that the consummation of the Pan-Arcadian confederacy was finally determined; though Orchomenus and Heræa still stood aloof. [447]
There could hardly be a more fatal blow to Sparta than this loss to herself, and transfer to her enemies, of Tegea, the most powerful of her remaining allies. ”

“ When Sextus andConference at Tegea. Critolaus contrives to avoid a settlement. his colleagues arrived at Tegea, and invited the 523 attendance of the Lacedaemonians, in order to arrange terms between them and the Achaeans, both as to the satisfaction to be given for previous complaints and for putting a stop to the war, until the Romans should send commissioners to review the whole question, Critolaus and his party, having held a conference, decided that all the rest should avoid the meeting, and that Critolaus should go alone to Tegea. ”

“ Respecting the site of Sellasia, Colonel Leake thinks, and advances various grounds for supposing, that Sellasia was on the road from Sparta to the north-east, towards the Thyreatis; and that Karyæ was on the road from Sparta northward, towards Tegea. The French investigators of the Morea, as well as Professor Ross and Kiepert, hold a different opinion, and place Sellasia on the road from Sparta northward towards Tegea (Leake, Peloponnesiaca, p. 342-352; Ross, Reisen im Peloponnes. p. 187; Berlin, 1841) . ”

“ Some ten stades farther on are the ruins of a temple of Artemis Cnaceatis.
8.54.1 The boundary between the territories of Lacedemon and Tegea is the river Alpheius. Its water begins in Phylace, and not far from its source there flows down into it another water from springs that are not large, but many in number, whence the place has received the name Symbola (Meetings) .
8.54.2 It is known that the Alpheius differs from other rivers in exhibiting this natural peculiarity; it often disappears beneath the earth to reappear again. ”

“ They still remained faithful to the general cause of Greek independence and sent 500 men to fight at Thermopylæ. For centuries after the loss of Greek liberty Tegea continued to be a place of importance. Strabo, writing in the first century A.D., speaks of it as the only city in Arcadia worth mentioning, and when Pausanias visited it he found it in a flourishing condition. There is now little to mark its site, save the scanty ruins of its famous temple and its theatre.{58} The foundations of the temple were discovered in 1879, buried deep underground, to the west of the Church of St. ”

“ Yes truly. And I fear, from some god came
This stroke; how else? if, now his frenzy is ceased,
His mind has no more ease than when it raged.
TECMESSA
'Tis even as I said, rest well assured.
CHORUS
But how did this bane first alight upon him?
To us who share thy grief show what befell.
TECMESSA
Thou shalt hear all, as though thou hadst been present.
In the middle of the night, when the evening braziers
No longer flared, he took a two-edged sword,
And fain would sally upon an empty quest.
But I rebuked him, saying: "What doest thou,
Aias? Why thus uncalled wouldst thou go forth? ”

“ At that instant the priestess Chariclea shone out like some fair star at the end of the course; for she had prevailed with herself, however unfit, to come forth, that she might comply with the custom of her country: and perhaps not without a secret hope of seeing Theagenes. She bore a torch in her left hand, and a branch of palm in her right. At her appearance every eye in the assembly was turned upon her, but none sooner than that of Theagenes; for what is so quick as the glance of a lover? ”

“ It was characteristic of Theodora that she delayed to give no glance at the mirror. Just as she was, with her ruffled hair and in her simple pink morning gown, she ran down the stairway and entered the cool, dark parlor. As she crossed the threshold, the guest rose to greet her,—a guest with a tall, athletic figure, a sunburned face, keen blue eyes, and a mass of reddish golden hair. ”

“ Tegeloo, what is it? are we to take to the boats, after all? Why are they shouting so?"
She rose, and the girls after her. Tegeloo, seemingly deprived of speech, was motioning wildly at the door leading to the saloon. They dashed past him into the roomful of people cheering, shouting, crying, praying, and kissing, in a perfect frenzy of relief.
Some one, with a face far blacker than the Hindu boy's, caught each girl by the hand.
"Girlies," cried a well-known voice. "We are safe—the fire is out!" ”

“ An inscrutable smile curved Theodora's crimson lips.
"Let that be my affair, my lord, but—that everything may be clear between us—know this: when I summoned him, after he had spurned me on the night when I intended to make him the happiest of men, it was to torture him, to make a mock of him, to arouse his passions till they overmastered all else, till in very truth he forgot his God, his honor, and the woman for whose kisses he does such noble penance—but now—"
"But now?" came the echo from Basil's lips.
"Who says I shall not?" Theodora replied with her inscrutable smile. ”

“ Tecmessa hurries in and sends some to fetch Teucer, others to go east and west to seek out her lord. The scene rapidly changes to the shore, where Ajax cries to the gods, imprecates his foes, prays to Death, and after a remembrance of his native land falls on his sword.
The Chorus enter in two bands, but find nothing. Tecmessa discovers the body in a brake, and hides it under her robe. Distracted and haunted by the dread of slavery and ridicule, she gives way to grief. Teucer enters to learn of the tragedy ”

“ But amid all these successes the love scene of the drama triumphed—Theagenes and Chariclea, blooming in youth and beauty, and sparkling with pleasure at having recovered one another, attracted the eyes of every beholder. Nearly the whole city poured out through the gates, and a multitude of every age and sex hurried into the plain. The young men surrounded Theagenes; those in the prime of life, and who had formerly known him, crowded round Thyamis; the maidens who already indulged in dreams of wedlock followed Chariclea ”

“ Theodora gave a little groan of annoyance. "How stupid I am!"
"I don't see why. But come along down and talk to a fellow for a while."
Glimpses of a rosy face, a pale green gown and a pair of tan-colored shoes were beginning to whet his curiosity. He wanted to see what the stranger was like, at shorter range. [Pg 24]
With a rustle and a slide and a bump, Theodora dropped lightly at his side. She caught the placket of her skirt, on the way; but the sound of rending garments was too common an occurrence in her career to call for more than a passing attention. ”