CHAPTER XVIII
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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.
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