C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Xenophon’s Estate at Scillus
By Xenophon (c. 430–c. 350 B.C.)
From the ‘Anabasis’
X
ENOPHON, after causing an offering to be made for Apollo, deposited it in the treasury of the Athenians at Delphi, inscribing on it his own name, and that of Proxenus who was killed with Clearchus; for he had been his guest-friend. The portion designed for Diana of Ephesus he left with Megabyzus, the warden of that goddess’s temple, when he returned with Agesilaus out of Asia on an expedition to Bœotia, because he seemed likely to incur some peril: and enjoined him, if he escaped, to return the money to him; but if he met with an ill fate, to make such an offering as he thought would please the goddess, and dedicate it to her. Afterwards when Xenophon was banished from his country, and was living at Scillus, a colony settled by the Lacedæmonians near Olympia, Megabyzus came to Olympia to see the games, and restored him the deposit. Xenophon, on receiving it, purchased some land as an offering to the goddess where the god had directed him. The river Selinus happens to run through the midst of it; and another river named Selinus runs close by the temple of Diana at Ephesus: and in both there are different kinds of fish, and shell-fish. On the land near Scillus, too, there is hunting of all such beasts as are taken in the chase. He built also an altar and a temple with the consecrated money, and continued afterwards to make a sacrifice every year, always receiving a tenth of the produce of the seasons from the land: and all the people of the town, as well as the men and women of the neighborhood, took part in the festival; while the goddess supplied those in tents there with barley-meal, bread, wine, sweetmeats, and a share of the victims offered from the sacred pastures, and of those caught in hunting: for the sons of Xenophon, and those of the other inhabitants, always made a general hunt against the festival, and such of the men as were willing hunted with them; and there were caught, partly on the sacred lands and partly on Mount Pholoe, boars and antelopes and deer. This piece of ground lies on the road from Lacedæmon to Olympia, about twenty stadia from the temple of Jupiter at Olympia.
There are within the place groves and hills covered with trees, adapted for the breeding of swine, goats, oxen, and horses; so that the beasts of the persons coming to the festival are amply supplied with food. Round the temple itself is planted a grove of cultivated trees, bearing whatever fruits are eatable in the different seasons. The edifice is similar, as far as a small can be to a great one, to that at Ephesus; and the statue is as like to that at Ephesus as a statue of cypress can be to one of gold. A pillar stands near the temple, bearing this inscription:
