CHAPTER XXXVII.
And the grove of plane-trees beginning at this mountain extends most of the way to the sea, bounded on one side by the river Pontinus, and on the other by the river Amymone, which gets its name from the daughter of Danaus. And inside the grove are statues of Demeter Prosymne and Dionysus, and the statue of Demeter is seated and not a large one. These are of stone: but in another temple there is a wooden one of Dionysus the Saviour seated; and a stone statue of Aphrodite near the sea, which they say was a votive offering of the daughters of Danaus, and Danaus himself erected the temple of Athene near the Pontinus. And they say that Philhammon was the founder of the rites at Lerna. The traditions about these mysteries are manifestly not very ancient. And what I have heard was written on a heart made of orichalcum; this Arriphon could not have got from Philhammon, for Arriphon was a native of Triconium in Ætolia, and held in most repute of all the Lycians in our time, and a clever fellow at finding out what nobody before knew, and who no doubt found this out for himself. The verses and all the prose mixed up with the verses were in Doric: but before the return of the Heraclidæ to the Peloponnese the Argives used the same dialect as the Athenians. And in the days of Philhammon I do not believe that even the name of Dorians was known throughout all Greece. This proves my case.
And near the source of the Amymone grows a plane-tree, under which they say the hydra was reared. I believe that this beast was larger in size than other water-snakes, and that its poison was so venomous that Hercules dipped the points of his arrows in its gall, but I cannot help thinking it had only one head and not more. But Pisander of Camirus, that the beast might appear more formidable and so add lustre to his poem, described it as having many heads. I have seen also the well of Amphiaraus and the Alcyonian marsh, by which the Argives say Dionysus descended to Hades to fetch up Semele, for Polymnus shewed him the descent. There is indeed no end to the depth of the Alcyonian marsh, nor do I know of any man who by any device ever got to the bottom of it, since even Nero, though he got and fastened together ropes many stades long, and put a piece of lead and other apparatus for sounding at the end, never could arrive at an accurate knowledge of its depth. I have also heard that though the water of the marsh, as you would infer from looking at it, is calm and quiet, if anyone ventures to swim in it, it is sure to drag him down and suck him underneath to the bottom. The circuit of the lake is not large, only about a third of a stade, and on its banks are grass and reeds. But the nightly rites which take place near it annually I am not permitted to write for public reading.