Can I Forgive Him? The Afterlife of Hippolytus, Pausanias, Desc. Graec. 2.27.4

Can I Forgive Him? The Rebirth of Virbius

Name:  Pausanias Date:        110 – 180 CE Region:    Lydia [modern Turkey] Citation:      Description of Greece 2.27.4

[There are columns within the temple that are inscribed with the names of people healed]. Separate from these is an old column with an inscription stating that Hippolytus dedicated twenty horses to the god [Asclepius]. The Aricians say something similar to the story posted on this column. They say that after Hippolytus was killed by Theseus, Asclepius brought him back from the dead. As soon as Hippolytus was revived, he was unable to forgive his father, and rejected his apologies. Instead he went to Italy, where he ruled among the Aricians and dedicated a temple to Artemis.

χωρὶς δὲ ἀπὸ τῶν ἄλλων [στῆλων] ἐστὶν ἀρχαία στήλη: ἵππους δὲ Ἱππόλυτον ἀναθεῖναι τῷ θεῷ φησιν εἴκοσι. ταύτης τῆς στήλης τῷ ἐπιγράμματι ὁμολογοῦντα λέγουσιν Ἀρικιεῖς, ὡς τεθνεῶτα Ἱππόλυτον ἐκ τῶν Θησέως ἀρῶν ἀνέστησεν Ἀσκληπιός: ὁ δὲ ὡς αὖθις ἐβίω, οὐκ ἠξίου νέμειν τῷ πατρὶ συγγνώμην, ἀλλὰ ὑπεριδὼν τὰς δεήσεις ἐς Ἰταλίαν ἔρχεται παρὰ τοὺς Ἀρικιεῖς, καὶ ἐβασίλευσέ τε αὐτόθι καὶ ἀνῆκε τῇ Ἀρτέμιδι τέμενος.

Seorsum est ab aliis antiqua pila. In ea incisum, dicasse Aesculapio Hippolytum equos XX.  Huius pilae inscriptioni consentanea Aricini dicunt, discerptum ob Thesei imprecationes Hippolytum, in vitam ab Aesculapio revocatum: neque postea patri unquam ignoscere voluisse [1]; verum omni eius deprecatione spreta, in Italiam venisse, ibique dicato Aricinae Dianae templo regnasse. Translated into Latin by Romulus Amaseus

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[1] According to myth, Theseus had his son Hippolytus condemned to death after believing the false rumor that he had attacked his stepmother Phaedra.

Pausanias [110 -180 CE, modern Turkey] was a Greek writer from Lydia 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.