CHAPTER XIV.
Now Celeæ is about five stades from Phlius, and they sacrifice to Demeter there every fourth year and not annually. Nor is the presiding priest appointed for life, but a different one is chosen on each occasion, who may marry if he chooses. In this respect they differ from the Eleusinian mysteries, though generally speaking, as the Phliasians themselves admit, their mysteries are an imitation of those. They say that Dysaules the brother of Celeus came to their country and established these rites, when he was driven from Eleusis by Ion the son of Xuthus, who had been chosen commander in chief by the Athenians in the war against the people of Eleusis. This statement of the Phliasians I cannot assent to, that an Eleusinian should have been conquered in battle and gone into exile, when before the war was fought out the matter was submitted to arbitration, and Eumolpus remained at Eleusis. But it is quite possible that Dysaules may have gone to Celeæ for some other reason, and not that which the Phliasians allege. Nor indeed had he, as it seems to me, any other relation with the Eleusinian chiefs than as brother of Celeus, for else Homer would not have passed him over in his Hymn to Demeter: where in his list of those who were taught the mysteries by the goddess he ignores Dysaules. These are his lines. “She shewed Triptolemus, and Diocles tamer of horses, and powerful Eumolpus, and Celeus leader of the people, the due performance of her rights and mysteries.”[19] However, according to the Phliasian tradition, this Dysaules established the mysteries here, and also gave the name Celeæ to the place. There is also here as I have said the tomb of Dysaules, but subsequent to the date of the tomb of Aras: for according to the Phliasian account Dysaules came after the days when Aras was king. For they say Aras was a contemporary of Prometheus the son of Iapetus, and lived three generations earlier than Pelasgus the son of Arcas, and those who were called the Autochthons at Athens. And they say the chariot of Pelops is attached to the roof of the temple called the Anactorum. Such are the most important traditions of the Phliasians.