Book 3
24.11
But at the beginning of his poem Homer says that Achilles came to Troy as a favour to the sons of Atreus,Hom. Il. 1.158 and not because he was bound by the oaths which Tyndareus exacted; and in the Games he makes Antilochus say that Odysseus was a generation older than he,Hom. Il. 23.790 whereas Odysseus, telling Alcinous of his descent to Hades and other adventures, said that he wished to see Theseus and Peirithous, men of an earlier age.Hom. Od. 11.630 We know that Theseus carried off Helen, so that it is quite impossible that Achilles could have been her suitor.
25.1
Beyond the tomb a river named Scyras enters the sea. Formerly it was without a name, but was so called, because Pyrrhus the son of Achilles put in here when he sailed from Scyros to wed Hermione. Across the river is an ancient shrine . . . further from an altar of Zeus. Inland, forty stades from the river, lies Pyrrhichus, the name of which is said to be derived from Pyrrhus the son of Achilles;
25.2
but according to another account Pyrrhichus was one of the gods called Curetes. Others say that Silenus came from Malea and settled here. That Silenus was brought up in Malea is clear from these words in an ode of Pindar:The mighty one, the dancer, whom the mount of Malea nurtured, husband of Nais, Silenus.Pind. Frag. 156 (Schröder)Not that Pindar said his name was Pyrrhichus; that is a statement of the men of Malea.
25.3
At Pyrrhichus there is a well in the market-place, considered to be the gift of Silenus. If this were to fail, they would be short of water. The sanctuaries of the gods, that they have in the country, are of Artemis, called Astrateia, because the Amazons stayed their advance (strateia) here, and an Apollo Amazonius. Both gods are represented by wooden images, said to have been dedicated by the women from Thermodon.
