Pausanias, Phocis

CHAPTER XXIX.

Above those I have already mentioned are Perimedes and Enrylochus, 1 the comrades of Odysseus, with the victims which are black rams. And next them is a man seated, whom the inscription states to be Ocnus. He is representing rope-making, and a she-ass near him eats the rope as fast as he makes it. This Ocnus they say was an industrious man, who had an extravagant wife : and whatever he got together by industry was very soon spent by her. This picture therefore of Polygnotus is supposed to be a skit on Ocnus' wife. And I know that the lonians, when they see anyone labouring hard to no profit, say that he is weaving Ocnus' rope. 2 However those who divine by the flight of birds give the name of Ocnus to a very rare kind of heron, both large and handsome. Tityus too is in the picture, no longer being tortured, but worn out by his continuous punishment to a mere shadow. And if you look at the next part of the picture, you will see Ariadne very near the man who is ropemakmg : she is sitting on a rock, and looking at her sister Phaedra, who is suspended to a rock by a rope which she holds in both hands. She is so represented to make her end appear more decorous. And Dionysus took Ariadne from Theseus either by some chance, or purposely preparing an ambush for him, sailing against him with a larger armament. This was the same Dionysus, I take it, who was the first to invade India, and the first to throw a bridge over the river Euphrates ; the place where he built this bridge was called Zeugma, and a rope is preserved to this day, wreathed with tendrils of the vine and ivy, which was used in the construction of the bridge. Both Greeks and Egyptians have many legends about Dionysus. And below Phaedra Chloris is reclining on the knees of Thyia : no one will err who states that there was a great friendship between these two women in their lifetime : and both came from the same neighbourhood, Orchomenus in Boeotia. 3 There are other traditions about them, as that Poseidon had an intrigue with Thyia, and that Chloris was married to Poseidon's son Neleus. And next Thyia is Procris the daughter of Erechtheus, and next her, with her back towards her, is Clymene, who is represented in The Return from Ilium to have been the daughter of Minyas, and the wife of Cephalus the son of Deion, and mother by him of Iphiclus. All the poets agree that Procris was Cephalus' wife before Clymene was, and that she was murdered by her husband. And beyond Clymene in the interior of the painting is the Theban Megara, who was Hercules' wife, but eventually repudiated by him, because he lost all his children by her, and so did not think his marriage with her a lucky one. Above the head of those women I have mentioned is the daughter of Salmoneus sitting on a stone, and beside her Eriphyle is standing, lifting her fingers through her dress to her neck. You may conjecture that she is holding the famous necklace in the hand which is concealed by the folds of her dress. And above Eriphyle is Elpenor, and Odysseus kneeling, holding his sword over a ditch : and Tiresias the prophet is approaching the ditch, and near Tiresias is Anticlea, the mother of Odysseus, sitting on a stone. And Elpenor is wearing the coarse plaited coat usual among sea-faring men. And below Odysseus Theseus and Pirithous are seated on the enchanted rock, Theseus has both his own sword and that of Pirithous, and Pirithous is looking at his like one indignant that swords are useless for their present venture. Panyasis has represented Theseus and Pirithous as not fastened to their seat, but that the rock grew to them instead of fetters. The friendship between Theseus and Pirithous has been alluded to by Homer both in the Iliad and Odyssey. In the latter Odysseus says to the Phseacians,

" I then perhaps had seen the heroes of former times, whom I fain would have seen, as Theseus and Pirithous, the famous sons of the gods.'* 4

And In the Iliad, in his chiding of Agamemnon and Achilles, Nestor uses the following words : 5

" I never before saw such heroes nor shall I e'er again, as Pirithous, and Dryas shepherd of his people, and Caeneus and Exadius and divine Polyphemus, and Theseus son o Aegeus like to the Immortals."

1 Odyssey, xi. 23 sq
2 Propertius has an allusion to this, v, iii. 21, 22.
3 It will be seen that I adopt the suggestion of Siebelis. The reading is doubtful
4 Odyssey, xi. 630, 631. The last line is in brackets in modern editions.
5 Iliad, i. 262-265. The last line here is ia brackets in modern editions.