DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0305
THE KEPOI—CYNOSARGES. 285
nasia were mere adjuncts to the city walls, like the Praetorian camp
at Eome, requires no serious refutation.
Pausanias next arrives at the gymnasium of Cynosabges (c. 19,
2, 3). He is proceeding along the right bank of the Ilissus in a
northerly direction, and as Cynosarges is the next object that he
comes to after the gardens, we may infer that it stood nearly oppo-
site the Stadium, or perhaps a little lower down. There is here room
enough between the walls and the river for the site of a gymnasium;
for we know that it stood at no great distance from a gate that lay
here;' and therefore could not have adjoined the wall, as Forchhammer
asserts. Pausanias does not mention its being a gymnasium. He
speaks of it only as an enclosure sacred to Heracles, and says that
it had altars of that hero, of Hebe, daughter of Zeus, whom he was
said to have married; also of Alcmene, and of Iolaiis, who was the
companion of many of his labours. And he just adverts to the
legend of its origin, which ran as follows, and seems to have been
taken from an oracle inscribed in the temple: as Diomus was sacri-
ficing to Heracles, a white bitch seized the thigh of the victim and
ran off with it. On consulting the oracle, Diomus was ordered to
erect an altar to Heracles at the spot where the bitch had deposited
her prey. Thus arose the Cynosarges, from kvwv and 0/3709, either
white or swift of foot; or rather, perhaps, thus was concocted the
legend from the name.2
It seems probable that it had anciently been only a temple of
Heracles, and that the gymnasium was a later addition. Thus we fre-
quently find it called a Heracleium.3 But we learn also from other
passages that there was a gymnasium connected with it, and a grove.4
It must have existed as a gymnasium at least as early as the time
of Solon; for he made a law that whoever stole the most trifling
1 (UKpbvaira>8evTS>virv\a>i/.—Diog.Laiirt. s Herod, vi. 116 ; Athen. vi. 26, &c.
vi. s. 13, fls Kvvoa-apyes .. . tovto S* tarty * " Castra ad Cynosarges (templum Her-
eto) mi\S>v yvpvaoiov 'Hpaickcovs.—Plut. culis gymnasiumque, et lucus erat circum-
Them. 1. jectus) posuit (Philippus)."—Liv. xxxi. 24;
2 Hesych. in voc.; schol. ad Demosth. also the passages cited above from Plutarch
adv. Timocr. 736 (t. ii. p. 182, Eeiske). and Diogenes Laertius.
nasia were mere adjuncts to the city walls, like the Praetorian camp
at Eome, requires no serious refutation.
Pausanias next arrives at the gymnasium of Cynosabges (c. 19,
2, 3). He is proceeding along the right bank of the Ilissus in a
northerly direction, and as Cynosarges is the next object that he
comes to after the gardens, we may infer that it stood nearly oppo-
site the Stadium, or perhaps a little lower down. There is here room
enough between the walls and the river for the site of a gymnasium;
for we know that it stood at no great distance from a gate that lay
here;' and therefore could not have adjoined the wall, as Forchhammer
asserts. Pausanias does not mention its being a gymnasium. He
speaks of it only as an enclosure sacred to Heracles, and says that
it had altars of that hero, of Hebe, daughter of Zeus, whom he was
said to have married; also of Alcmene, and of Iolaiis, who was the
companion of many of his labours. And he just adverts to the
legend of its origin, which ran as follows, and seems to have been
taken from an oracle inscribed in the temple: as Diomus was sacri-
ficing to Heracles, a white bitch seized the thigh of the victim and
ran off with it. On consulting the oracle, Diomus was ordered to
erect an altar to Heracles at the spot where the bitch had deposited
her prey. Thus arose the Cynosarges, from kvwv and 0/3709, either
white or swift of foot; or rather, perhaps, thus was concocted the
legend from the name.2
It seems probable that it had anciently been only a temple of
Heracles, and that the gymnasium was a later addition. Thus we fre-
quently find it called a Heracleium.3 But we learn also from other
passages that there was a gymnasium connected with it, and a grove.4
It must have existed as a gymnasium at least as early as the time
of Solon; for he made a law that whoever stole the most trifling
1 (UKpbvaira>8evTS>virv\a>i/.—Diog.Laiirt. s Herod, vi. 116 ; Athen. vi. 26, &c.
vi. s. 13, fls Kvvoa-apyes .. . tovto S* tarty * " Castra ad Cynosarges (templum Her-
eto) mi\S>v yvpvaoiov 'Hpaickcovs.—Plut. culis gymnasiumque, et lucus erat circum-
Them. 1. jectus) posuit (Philippus)."—Liv. xxxi. 24;
2 Hesych. in voc.; schol. ad Demosth. also the passages cited above from Plutarch
adv. Timocr. 736 (t. ii. p. 182, Eeiske). and Diogenes Laertius.