CHAPTER XLI

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Of all the works indeed of Hephæstus, that poets sing of and that have been famous among men, there is none but this sceptre of Agamemnon certainly his. The Lycians indeed show at Patara in the temple of Apollo a brazen bowl (which they say was by Hephæstus), the votive offering of Telephus, but they are probably ignorant that the Samians Theodorus and Rhœcus were the first brass-founders. And the Achæans of Patræ say that the chest which Eurypylus brought from Troy was made by Hephæstus, but they do not allow it to be seen. In Cyprus is the city Amathus, where is an ancient temple of Adonis and Aphrodite, and here they say is the necklace which was originally given to Harmonia, but is called the necklace of Eriphyle, because she received it as a gift from her husband, and the sons of Phegeus dedicated it at Delphi. How they got it I have already related in my account of Arcadia. But it was carried off by the Phocian tyrants. I do not however think that the necklace in the temple of Adonis at Amathus is Eriphyle’s, for that is emeralds set in gold, but the necklace given to Eriphyle is said by Homer in the Odyssey to have been entirely gold, as in the line,

“Who sold for gold her husband dear.”[81]

And Homer knew very well that there are different kinds of necklaces, for in the conversation between Eumæus and Odysseus, before Telemachus returned from Pylos and visited the swineherd’s cottage, are the following lines,

“Came to my father’s house a knowing man, With golden necklace, which was set in amber.”[82]

And among the gifts which Penelope received from the suitors he has represented Eurymachus giving her a necklace.

“Eurymachus brought her a splendid necklace, Golden and set in amber, like a sun.”[83]

But he does not speak of Eriphyle’s necklace as adorned with gold and precious stones. So it is probable that this sceptre is the only work of Hephæstus still extant.

Above Chæronea is a crag called Petrachos. They say that it was here that Cronos was deceived by Rhea with a stone instead of Zeus, and there is a small statue of Zeus on the summit of the mountain. At Chæronea they make unguents by boiling down together lilies and roses narcissuses and irises. These unguents relieve pain. Indeed if you anoint wooden statues with unguent made from roses, it preserves them from rottenness. The iris grows in marshy, places, and is in size about as big as the lily, but is not white, and not so strong-scented as the lily.

[81] Odyssey, xi. 327.

[82] Odyssey, xv. 459, 460.

[83] Odyssey, xviii. 295, 296.

## BOOK X.--PHOCIS.

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