About 40 stades from Dyme the river Pirus discharges itself into the sea, near which river the Achæans formerly had a town called Olenus. Those who have written about Hercules and his doings have not dwelt least upon Dexamenus the king of Olenus, and the hospitality Hercules received at his court. And that Olenus was originally a small town is confirmed by the Elegy written by Hermesianax on the Centaur Eurytion. But in process of time they say the people of Olenus left it in consequence of its weakness, and betook themselves to Piræ and Euryteæ.
About 80 stades from the river Pirus is the town of Patræ, not far from which the river Glaucus discharges itself into the sea. The antiquarians at Patræ say that Eumelus, an Autochthon, was the first settler, and was king over a few subjects. And when Triptolemus came from Attica Eumelus received from him corn to sow, and under his instructions built a town called Aroe, which he so called from tilling the soil. And when Triptolemus had gone to sleep they say Antheas, the son of Eumelus, yoked the dragons to the chariot of Triptolemus, and tried himself to sow corn: but he died by falling out of the chariot. And Triptolemus and Eumelus built in common the town Anthea, which they called after him. And a third city called Mesatis was built between Anthea and Aroe. And the traditions of the people of Patræ about Dionysus, that he was reared at Mesatis, and was plotted against by the Titans there and was in great danger, and the explanation of the name Mesatis, all this I leave to the people of Patræ to explain, as I don’t contradict them. And when the Achæans drove the Ionians out later, Patreus the son of Preugenes and grandson of Agenor forbade the Achæans to settle at Anthea and Mesatis, but made the circuit of the walls near Aroe wider so as to include all that town, and called it Patræ after his own name. And Agenor the father of Preugenes was the son of Areus the son of Ampyx, and Ampyx was the son of Pelias, the son of Æginetus, the son of Deritus, the son of Harpalus, the son of Amyclas the son of Lacedæmon. Such was the genealogy of Patreus. And in process of time the people of Patræ were the only Achæans that went into Ætolia from friendship to the Ætolians, to join them in their war against the Galati. But meeting most serious reverses in battle, and most of them suffering also from great poverty, they left Patræ all but a few. And those who remained got scattered about the country and followed the pursuit of agriculture, and inhabited the various towns outside Patræ, as Mesatis and Anthea and Boline and Argyra and Arba. And Augustus, either because he thought Patræ a convenient place on the coast or for some other reason, introduced into it people from various towns. He incorporated also with it the Achæans from Rhypæ, after first rasing Rhypæ to the ground. And to the people of Patræ alone of all the Achæans he granted their freedom, and gave them other privileges as well, such as the Romans are wont to grant their colonists.
And in the citadel of Patræ is the temple of Laphrian Artemis: the goddess has a foreign title, and the statue also is foreign. For when Calydon and the rest of Ætolia was dispeopled by the Emperor Augustus, that he might people with Ætolians his city of Nicopolis near Actium, then the people of Patræ got this statue of Laphrian Artemis. And as he had taken many statues from Ætolia and Acarnania for his city Nicopolis, so he gave to the people of Patræ various spoils from Calydon, and this statue of Laphrian Artemis, which even now is honoured in the citadel of Patræ. And they say the goddess was called Laphrian from a Phocian called Laphrius, the son of Castalius and grandson of Delphus, who they say made the old statue of Artemis. Others say that the wrath of Artemis against Œneus fell lighter upon the people of Calydon when this title was given to the goddess. The figure in the statue is a huntress, and the statue is of ivory and gold, and the workmanship is by Menæchmus and Soidas. It is conjectured that they were not much later than the period of Canachus the Sicyonian or the Æginetan Callon. And every year the people of Patræ hold the festival called Laphria to Artemis, in which they observe their national mode of sacrifice. Round the altar they put wood yet green in a circle, and pile it up about 16 cubits high. And the driest wood lies within this circle on the altar. And they contrive at the time of the festival a smooth ascent to the altar, piling up earth so as to form a kind of steps. First they have a most splendid procession to Artemis, in which the virgin priestess rides last in a chariot drawn by stags, and on the following day they perform the sacrificial rites, which both publicly and privately are celebrated with much zeal. For they place alive on the altar birds good to eat and all other kinds of victims, as wild boars and stags and does, and moreover the young of wolves and bears, and some wild animals fully grown, and they place also upon the altar the fruit of any trees that they plant. And then they set fire to the wood. And I have seen a bear or some other animal at the first smell of the fire trying to force a way outside, some even actually doing so by sheer strength. But they thrust them back again into the blazing pile. Nor do they record any that were ever injured by the animals on these occasions.
CHAPTER XIX.
And between the temple of Laphria and the altar is the sepulchre of Eurypylus. Who he was and why he came into this country I shall relate, when I have first described the condition of things when he came into these parts. Those of the Ionians who dwelt at Aroe and Anthea and Mesatis had in common a grove and temple of Artemis Triclaria, and the Ionians kept her festival annually all night long. And the priestess of the goddess was a maiden, who was dismissed when she married. They have a tradition that once the priestess of the goddess was one Comætho, a most beautiful maiden, and that Melanippus was deeply in love with her, who in all other respects and in handsomeness of appearance outdid all of his own age. And as Melanippus won the maiden’s love as well, he asked her in marriage of her father. It is somehow common to old age to be in most respects the very antipodes to youth, and especially in sympathy with love, so that Melanippus, who loved and was beloved, got no encouragement either from his own parents or from the parents of Comætho. And it is evident from various other cases as well as this that love is wont to confound human laws, and even to upset the honour due to the gods, as in this case, for Melanippus and Comætho satisfied their ardent love in the very temple of Artemis, and afterwards made the temple habitually their bridal-chamber. And forthwith the wrath of Artemis came on the people of the country, their land yielded no fruit, and unusual sicknesses came upon the people, and the mortality was much greater than usual. And when they had recourse to the oracle at Delphi, the Pythian Priestess laid the blame on Melanippus and Comætho, and the oracle ordered them to sacrifice to Artemis annually the most handsome maiden and lad. It was on account of this sacrifice that the river near the temple of Triclaria was called Amilichus (Relentless): it had long had no name. Now all these lads and maidens had done nothing against the goddess but had to die for Melanippus and Comætho, and they and their relations suffered most piteously. I do not put the whole responsibility for this upon Comætho and Melanippus, for to human beings alone is love felt worth life. These human sacrifices are said to have been stopped for the following reason. The oracle at Delphi had foretold that a foreign king would come to their country, and that he would bring with him a foreign god, and that he would stop this sacrifice to Artemis Triclaria. And after the capture of Ilium, when the Greeks shared the spoil, Eurypylus the son of Euæmon got a chest, in which there was a statue of Dionysus, the work some say of Hephæstus, and a gift of Zeus to Dardanus. But there are two other traditions about this chest, one that Æneas left it behind him when he fled from Ilium, the other that it was thrown away by Cassandra as a misfortune to any Greek who found it. However this may be, Eurypylus opened the chest and saw the statue, and was driven out of his mind by the sight. And most of his time he remained mad, though he came to himself a little at times. And being in that condition he did not sail to Thessaly, but to Cirrha and the Cirrhæan Gulf; and he went to Delphi and consulted the oracle about his disorder. And they say the oracle told him, where he should find people offering a strange sacrifice, to dedicate his chest and there dwell. And the wind drove Eurypylus’ ships to the sea near Aroe, and when he went ashore he saw a lad and maiden being led to the altar of Artemis Triclaria. And he saw at once that the oracle referred to this sacrifice, the people of the place also remembered the oracle, seeing a king whom they had never before seen, and as to the chest they suspected that there was some god in it. And so Eurypylus got cured of his disorder, and this human sacrifice was stopped, and the river was now called Milichus (Mild). Some indeed have written that it was not the Thessalian Eurypylus to whom what I have just recorded happened, but they want people to think that Eurypylus (the son of Dexamenus who was king at Olenus), who accompanied Hercules to Ilium, received the chest from Hercules. The rest of their tradition is the same as mine. But I cannot believe that Hercules was ignorant of the contents of this chest, or that if he knew of them he would have given the chest as a present to a comrade. Nor do the people of Patras record any other Eurypylus than the son of Euæmon, and to him they offer sacrifices every year, when they keep the festival to Dionysus.
CHAPTER XX.
The name of the god inside the chest is Æsymnetes. Nine men, who are chosen by the people for their worth, look after his worship, and the same number of women. And one night during the festival the priest takes the chest outside the temple. That night has special rites. All the lads in the district go down to the Milichus with crowns on their heads made of ears of corn: for so used they in old time to dress up those whom they were leading to sacrifice to Artemis. But in our day they lay these crowns of ears of corn near the statue of the goddess, and after bathing in the river, and again putting on crowns this time of ivy, they go to the temple of Æsymnetes. Such are their rites on this night. And inside the grove of Laphrian Artemis is the temple of Athene called Pan-Achæis, the statue of the goddess is of ivory and gold.
And as you go to the lower part of the city you come to the temple of the Dindymene Mother, where Attes is honoured. They do not show his statue, but there is one of the Mother wrought in stone. And in the market-place there is a temple of Olympian Zeus, he is on his throne and Athene is standing by it. And next Olympian Zeus is a statue of Hera, and a temple of Apollo, and a naked Apollo in brass, and sandals are on his feet, and one foot is on the skull of an ox. Alcæus has shown that Apollo rejoices especially in oxen in the Hymn that he wrote about Hermes, how Hermes filched the oxen of Apollo, and Homer still earlier than Alcæus has described how Apollo tended the oxen of Laomedon for hire. He has put the following lines in the Iliad into Poseidon’s mouth.
“I was drawing a spacious and handsome wall round the city of the Trojans, that it might be impregnable, while you, Phœbus, were tending the slow-paced cows with the crumpled horns.”[10]
That is therefore one would infer the reason why the god is represented with his foot on the skull of an ox. And in the market-place in the open air is a statue of Athene, and in front of it is the tomb of Patreus.