Six Days Hiking in Arcadia
Those who held Arcadia in Cyllene’s shadow
Beside Aepytus’ tomb, where men fight hand to hand,
And those in Pheneos and Orchomenos,
In Rhipe and Stratia and windy Enispe,
Those who held Tegea and Mantinea,
Those who held Stymphalus and lived in Parrhasia—
All these Agapenor led, Ancaeus’s son,
Fifty ships, and each had on board
Many Arcadians who knew how to fight.
Agamemnon himself had given them ships
To cross over the sea’s grey wine,
For the Arcadians knew nothing of sailing the sea.
οἳ δ’ ἔχον Ἀρκαδίην ὑπὸ Κυλλήνης ὄρος αἰπὺ
Αἰπύτιον παρὰ τύμβον ἵν’ ἀνέρες ἀγχιμαχηταί,
οἳ Φενεόν τ’ ἐνέμοντο καὶ Ὀρχομενὸν πολύμηλον
Ῥίπην τε Στρατίην τε καὶ ἠνεμόεσσαν Ἐνίσπην
καὶ Τεγέην εἶχον καὶ Μαντινέην ἐρατεινὴν
Στύμφηλόν τ’ εἶχον καὶ Παρρασίην ἐνέμοντο,
τῶν ἦρχ’ Ἀγκαίοιο πάϊς κρείων Ἀγαπήνωρ
ἑξήκοντα νεῶν· πολέες δ’ ἐν νηῒ ἑκάστῃ
Ἀρκάδες ἄνδρες ἔβαινον ἐπιστάμενοι πολεμίζειν.
αὐτὸς γάρ σφιν δῶκεν ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν Ἀγαμέμνων
νῆας ἐϋσσέλμους περάαν ἐπὶ οἴνοπα πόντον
Ἀτρεΐδης, ἐπεὶ οὔ σφι θαλάσσια ἔργα μεμήλει.
— Homer, Iliad, 2.603-2.614 (Lombardo, trans.)
We just finished hiking the eight stages of the Menalon Trail, in Arcadia, in the center of the Peloponnese. It was great! We are exhausted. Our arrangements were made by the excellent Trekking Hellas.
