The Heroon-Mausoleum in the Stadium of Messene belonged most likely to the family of the Saithidai. Distinguished members of this family were buried in it and received a hero's honours from the date of the foundation of the Heroon in the 1st century BC.
Pausanias: I learnt by enquiry that Aethidas was a man older than myself, who gained influence through his wealth and is honored by the Messenians as a hero. There are certain Messenians, who, while admitting that Aethidas was a man of great wealth, maintain that it is not he who is represented on the relief but an ancestor and namesake. The elder Aethidas was their leader, when Demetrius the son of Philip and his force surprised them in the night and succeeded in penetrating into the town unnotice1
See:
- Pausanias, Description of Greece IV.32.2
