LP0054 - The Birds & The Boar - Stymphalus & Erymanthus, from Pausanias' Description of Greece

Legendary Passages #0054 - The Birds & The Boar - Stymphalus & Erymanthus, from Pausanias' Description of Greece. Last time we reviewed the early labors of Heracles. This time we explore the regions of Stymphalus, Alea, Condylea, Psophis, and Mount Erymanthus. Stymphalus is a land of many legends, including Temenus, the son of Pelasgus; Heracles and the Stymphalian Birds; and a great chasm that floods and drains the Stymphalian plain. Alea was named after Aleus, son of Apheidas. Condylea, the Strangled Lady, is so named because some children tied a rope around an image of Artemis. Psophis was named after a grandson of Erymanthus, or a daughter of Eryx who had relations with Heracles. Lastly, Erymanthus was descended from Aristas, Parthaon, Periphetes, and Nyctimus. In the sanctuary of Apollo, the Cumae People claim to still have the tusks of the Eyrmanthian Boar. Next time, from beginning to end, the complete Fables of Hercules. http://www.theoi.com/Text/Pausanias8B.html#5 The Birds & The Boar, a Legendary Passage, from Pausanias' Description of Greece, translated by W. H. S. Jones. [8.22.1] - [8.24.5] STYMPHALUS My narrative returns to Stymphalus and to Geronteium, as it is called, the boundary between Stymphalus and Pheneus. The Stymphalians are no longer included among the Arcadians, but are numbered with the Argive League, which they joined of their own accord. That they are by race Arcadians is testified by the verses of Homer, and Stymphalus their founder was a grandson of Arcas, the son of Callisto. It is said that it was originally founded on another site, and not on that of the modern city. The story has it that in the old Stymphalus dwelt Temenus, the son of Pelasgus, and that Hera was reared by this Temenus, who himself established three sanctuaries for the goddess, and gave her three surnames when she was still a maiden, Girl; when married to Zeus he called her Grown-up; when for some cause or other she quarrelled with Zeus and came back to Stymphalus, Temenus named her Widow. This is the account which, to my own knowledge, the Stymphalians give of the goddess. The modern city contains none of these sanctuaries, but I found the following notable things. In the Stymphalian territory is a spring, from which the emperor Hadrian brought water to Corinth. In winter the spring makes a small lake in Stymphalus, and the river Stymphalus issues from the lake; in summer there is no lake, but the river comes straight from the spring. This river descends into a chasm in the earth, and reappearing once more in Argolis it changes its name, and is called Erasinus instead of Stymphalus. There is a story current about the water of the Stymphalus, that at one time man-eating birds bred on it, which Heracles is said to have shot down. Peisander of Camira, however, says that Heracles did not kill the birds, but drove them away with the noise of rattles. The Arabian desert breeds among other wild creatures birds called Stymphalian, which are quite as savage against men as lions or leopards. These fly against those who come to hunt them, wounding and killing them with their beaks. All armour of bronze or iron that men wear is pierced by the birds; but if they weave a garment of thick cork, the beaks of the Stymphalian birds are caught in the cork garment, just as the wings of small birds stick in bird-lime. These birds are of the size of a crane, and are like the ibis, but their beaks are more powerful, and not crooked like that of the ibis. Whether the modern Arabian birds with the same name as the old Arcadian birds are also of the same breed, I do not know. But if there have been from all time Stymphalian birds, just as there have been hawks and eagles, I should call these birds of Arabian origin, and a section of them might have flown on some occasion to Arcadia and reached Stymphalus. Originally they would be called by the Arabians, not Stymphalian, but by another name. But the fame of Heracles, and the superiority of t