M/M: We Both Go Down Together: The Toxic Relationship of Meles & Timagoras

 

 In front of the entrance to the Academy, there is an altar to Love with the inscription “Charmos the Athenian first dedicated this to Love [Eros].” 

In the city there is also an altar to “Avenger of Love” [Anteros], dedicated by local immigrants.

Meles the Athenian, dishonoring the love that the immigrant Timagoras bore for him, ordered his lover to climb the tallest point of the peak and throw himself off it. Timagoras, who cherished every one of his lover’s commands, complied with his request, and without hesitation took his own life.  Meles was so overcome by the news of Timagoras’ death that he too threw himself off of the cliff. And so the local immigrants dedicated that spot to the worship of Anteros, the Avenger of Timagoras’ death.

In primo Academiae aditu, Amoris est ara, cum inscriptione, Charmum Atheniensium primum Amori dedicasse. Eam enim aram quae intra urbem est, quam appellant Anterotis, inquilinorum donum fuisse dicunt, ac dedicationis huiusmodi cuasa extitisse: Meles Atheniensis amatorem suum Timagoram inquilinum hominem fastidiens, per contemptum, ut de summo saxo se abiiceret, iussit. Timagoras, qui semper omnia quae puer imperaret facienda putasset, aniam etiam ipsam facile profudit: unde enim iussus erat, impigre se praecipitem dedit. Meletem vero re cognita suae in illum acerbitatis adeo poenituit, ut ex eode seipsum etiam saxo deicerit. Ex eo tam atroci rei eventu ab iniquilinis, ut in eo ipso loco Anteros genius, Timagorae Amoris vindex, coleretur, institutum.

 

πρὸ δὲ τῆς ἐσόδου τῆς ἐς Ἀκαδημίαν ἐστὶ βωμὸς Ἔρωτος ἔχων ἐπίγραμμα ὡς Χάρμος Ἀθηναίων πρῶτος Ἔρωτι ἀναθείη. τὸν δὲ ἐν πόλει βωμὸν καλούμενον Ἀντέρωτος ἀνάθημα εἶναι λέγουσι μετοίκων, ὅτι Μέλης Ἀθηναῖος μέτοικον ἄνδρα Τιμαγόραν ἐρασθέντα ἀτιμάζων ἀφεῖναι κατὰ τῆς πέτρας αὑτὸν ἐκέλευσεν ἐς τὸ ὑψηλότατον αὐτῆς ἀνελθόντα: Τιμαγόρας δὲ ἄρα καὶ ψυχῆς εἶχεν ἀφειδῶς καὶ πάντα ὁμοίως κελεύοντι ἤθελε χαρίζεσθαι τῷ μειρακίῳ καὶ δὴ καὶ φέρων ἑαυτὸν ἀφῆκε: Μέλητα δέ, ὡς ἀποθανόντα εἶδε Τιμαγόραν, ἐς τοσοῦτο μετανοίας ἐλθεῖν ὡς πεσεῖν τε ἀπὸ τῆς πέτρας τῆς αὐτῆς καὶ οὕτως ἀφεὶς αὑτὸν ἐτελεύτησε. καὶ τὸ ἐντεῦθεν δαίμονα Ἀντέρωτα τὸν ἀλάστορα τὸν Τιμαγόρου κατέστη τοῖς μετοίκοις νομίζειν.

 

--Pausanias, Descriptio Graeciae, I.xxx.1; Translated into Latin by Romulus Amaseus (1696)

 Pausanias was a Greek writer who lived during the era of the “Five Good Emperors.” His work, the Description of Greece, is an important source for geographical, historical, archaeological, and cultural information about ancient Greece.