And as you descend from Bura to the sea is the river called Buraicus, and a not very big Hercules in a cave, surnamed Buraicus, whose oracular responses are ascertained by dice on a board. He that consults the god prays before his statue, and after prayer takes dice, plenty of which are near Hercules, and throws four on the board. And on every dice is a certain figure inscribed, which has its interpretation in a corresponding figure on the board. It is about 30 stades from this temple of Hercules to Helice by the direct road. And as you go on your way from the temple of Hercules you come to a perennial river, that has its outlet into the sea, and rises in an Arcadian mountain, its name is Crathis as also the name of the mountain, and from this Crathis the river near Croton in Italy got its name. And near the Crathis in Achaia was formerly the town Ægæ, which they say was eventually deserted from its weakness. Homer has mentioned this Ægæ in a speech of Hera,
“They bring you gifts to Helice and Ægæ,”[15]
plainly therefore Poseidon had gifts equally at Helice and Ægæ. And at no great distance from Crathis is a tomb on the right of the road, and on it you will find a rather indistinct painting of a man standing by a horse. And the road from this tomb to what is called Gaius is 30 stades: Gaius is a temple of Earth called the Broad-breasted. The statue is very ancient. And the woman who becomes priestess remains henceforth in a state of chastity, and before she must only have been married once. And they are tested by drinking bull’s blood, whoever of them is not telling the truth is detected at once and punished. And if there are several competitors, the woman who obtains most lots is appointed priestess.
[14] A euphemism for the Eumenides.
[15] Iliad, viii. 203.
CHAPTER XXVI.
And the seaport at Ægira (both town and seaport have the same name) is 72 stades from the temple of Hercules Buraicus. Near the sea there is nothing notable at Ægira, from the port to the upper part of the town is 12 stades. In Homer[16] the town is called Hyperesia, the present name was given to it by the Ionian settlers for the following reason. A hostile band of Sicyonians was going to invade their land. And they, not thinking themselves a match for the Sicyonians, collected together all the goats in the country, and fastened torches to their horns, and directly night came on lit these torches. And the Sicyonians, who thought that the allies of the Hyperesians were coming up, and that this light was the campfires of the allied force, went home again: and the Hyperesians changed the name of their city because of these goats, and at the place where the goat that was most handsome and the leader of the rest had crouched down there they built a temple to Artemis the Huntress, thinking that this stratagem against the Sicyonians would not have occurred to them but for Artemis. Not that the name Ægira prevailed at once over Hyperesia. Even in my time there are still some who call Oreus in Eubœa by its old name of Hestiæa. At Ægira there is a handsome temple of Zeus, and his statue in a sitting posture in Pentelican marble by the Athenian Euclides. The head and fingers and toes are of ivory, and the rest is wood gilt and richly variegated. There is also a temple of Artemis, and a statue of the goddess which is of modern art. A maiden is priestess, till she grows to a marriageable age. And the old statue that stands there is, according to the tradition of the people at Ægira, Iphigenia the daughter of Agamemnon: and if they state what is correct, the temple must originally have been built to Iphigenia. There is also a very ancient temple of Apollo, ancient is the temple, ancient are the gables, ancient is the statue of the god, which is naked and of great size. Who made it none of the natives could tell: but whoever has seen the Hercules at Sicyon, would conjecture that the Apollo at Ægira was by the same hand as that, namely by Laphaes of Phlius. And there are some statues of Æsculapius in the temple in a standing position, and of Serapis and Isis apart in Pentelican marble. And they worship most of all Celestial Aphrodite: but men must not enter her temple. But into the temple of the Syrian goddess they may enter on stated days, but only after the accustomed rites and fasting. I have also seen another building in Ægira, in which there is a statue of Fortune with the horn of Amalthea, and next it a Cupid with wings: to symbolize to men that success in love is due to chance rather than beauty. I am much of the opinion of Pindar in his Ode that Fortune is one of the Fates, and more powerful than her sisters. And in this building at Ægira is a statue of a man rather old and evidently in grief, and 3 women are taking off their bracelets, and there are 3 young men standing by, and one has a breastplate on. The tradition about him is that he died after fighting most bravely of all the people of Ægira against the Achæans, and his brothers brought home the news of his death, and his sisters are stripping off their bracelets out of grief at his loss, and the people of the place call the old man his father Sympathetic, because he is clearly grieving in the statue.
And there is a direct road from Ægira starting from the temple of Zeus over the mountains. It is a hilly road, and about 40 stades bring you to Phelloe, not a very important place, nor inhabited at all when the Ionians still occupied the land. The neighbourhood of Phelloe is very good for vine-growing, and in the rocky parts are trees and wild animals, as wild deer and wild boars. And if any places in Greece are well situated in respect of abundance of water, Phelloe is one of them. And there are temples to Dionysus and Artemis, the goddess is in bronze in the act of taking a dart out of her quiver, and Dionysus’ statue is decorated with vermilion. As you go down towards the seaport from Ægira and forward a little there is, on the right of the road, a temple of Artemis the Huntress, where they say the goat crouched down.
And next to Ægira is Pellene: the people of Pellene are the last of the Achæans near Sicyon and Argolis. Their town was called according to their own tradition from Pallas who they say was one of the Titans, but according to the tradition of the Argives from the Argive Pellen, who was they say the son of Phorbas and grandson of Triopas. And between Ægira and Pellene there is a town subject to Sicyon called Donussa, which was destroyed by the Sicyonians, and which they say is mentioned by Homer in his Catalogue of Agamemnon’s forces in the line,
“And those who inhabited Hyperesia and steep Donoessa.”