Antiquity · Ancient Lerna · Travellers
Pausanias visits Lerna and Mount Pontinos
c. 160 Proven
The Greek travel writer Pausanias describes the sacred grove of plane trees that began at Mount Pontinos, the mysteries held there for Lernaean Demeter, the spring of Amymone and the bottomless Alcyonian lake. On the summit of Pontinos he saw a sanctuary of Athena Saitis, already in ruins, and the foundations of the house of Hippomedon, one of the Seven against Thebes. He is the first eyewitness to describe the place in detail.
- Who
- Pausanias
- Threads
- Ancient Lerna, Travellers
- Certainty
- Proven confirmed by primary sources
Pictures
Pausanias’ own words about Lerna and Mount Pontinos (Description of Greece 2.36–37), in Greek, from an old printed edition. Visit Myloi collection
Sources
- Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.36.8–2.37.6
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