Mt. Lykaion, its religious significance, and its quadrennial athletic games appear with some frequency in the ancient literary sources. The 2nd-century Greek geographer
Pausanias provides the greatest amount of information in the eighth book of his
Description of Greece, where he discusses Lykaion's mythological, historical, and physical characteristics in detail. More isolated references occur, however, in sources ranging from
Plato to
Virgil.
Legendary period Pausanias states that the
Arcadians claimed
Cretea atop Mt. Lykaion as the birthplace of Zeus, although tradition had handed down at least two other locations for Zeus’ birth.
Lycaon, son of
Pelasgus, the mythical founder of the Greek race, is said to have instituted the worship of Zeus at Mt. Lykaion, giving the god the epithet Lykaios and establishing games in his honor. The
Bibliotheca, a Roman-era mythological compendium, adds the story that Lycaon attempted to test Zeus’ omniscience by tricking him into eating a sacrifice mixed with human flesh. In punishment, Zeus slew Lycaon and his fifty sons. Other sources, including the Roman poet
Ovid, claim instead that Lycaon's punishment was transformation into a wolf, an early example of
lycanthropy.
Historical events According to Pausanias and the Greek historian
Polybius, an inscribed pillar (
stele) was erected near the altar of Zeus on Mt. Lykaion during the
Second Messenian War, a revolt against the
Spartans. The inscription supposedly commemorated the execution of Aristocrates of Arcadia, who had betrayed the Messenian hero
Aristomenes at the battle of the Great Trench.
Thucydides, a Greek historian of the
Peloponnesian War, writes that the Spartan king
Pleistoanax lived on Mt. Lykaion while in exile from the mid-440s BC until 427, where he built a house straddling the sacred region (
temenos) of Zeus to avoid further persecution. In his
Stratagems, the 2nd-century
Macedonian rhetorician
Polyaenus describes a battle between the Spartans and
Demetrius of Macedon in 294 BC. Mt. Lykaion extended between the camps of the two sides, causing some consternation among the Macedonians due to their unfamiliarity with the terrain. Nevertheless, Demetrius’ forces won the battle with relative ease. Polybius and
Plutarch, a Greek author writing under the Roman empire, cite a battle at Mt. Lykaion in 227 BC between the
Achaean League under
Aratus and the Spartans under
Cleomenes III. Although the details are vague, both authors make it clear that the Achaeans were defeated and that Aratus was believed (mistakenly) to have been killed.
Religious worship Pan Mt. Lykaion was an important site of religious worship in ancient Greece. Pausanias describes a sanctuary of
Pan surrounded by a grove of trees. At the sanctuary were bases of statues, which by Pausanias’ time had been deprived of the statues themselves, as well as a
hippodrome, where the athletic games had once been held. References to Lykaian Pan are especially abundant in Latin poetry, as for instance in Virgil's epic, the
Aeneid: “
Lupercal / Parrhasio dictum Panos de more Lycaei,” “...the
Lupercal, named after the
Parrhasian worship of Lykaian Pan,” and in
Horace's Odes: “
Velox amoenum saepe Lucretilem / mutat Lycaeo Faunus,” “Often swift Faunus [Pan] exchanges Lykaion for pleasant
Lucretilis.”
Zeus Lykaios Pausanias records the presence of a mound of earth on the highest point of the mountain, an altar to Zeus Lykaios. He describes two pillars near the altar which had once been topped by golden eagles. Although Pausanias alludes to secret sacrifices which took place on this altar, he explains that he was reluctant to inquire into these rites due to their extreme antiquity. Pausanias also discusses the
temenos of Zeus, a sacred precinct which humans were forbidden to enter. He notes the common belief that any person entering the
temenos would die within a year, along with the legend that all creatures, human and animal alike, cast no shadow while inside the sacred area.
Games The athletic competitions at Lykaion, held every four years, receive occasional mention in the literary record. Authors are in disagreement as to when exactly the games were first instituted: Aristotle is said to have ranked the Lykaion games fourth in order of institution after the
Eleusinia, the
Panathenaia, and the
Argive games, while Pausanias argues for the Lykaian competition's priority to the Panathenaia. The ancient Greek lyric poet
Pindar records the victories of several athletes in his
Victory Odes, and two inscribed
stelae recently excavated from the Lykaian hippodrome provide information about the events, participants, and winners at the games. ==Modern study==