CHAPTER XXV

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One may learn not only from this ruin of Helice but also from other cases that the vengeance of heaven for outrages upon suppliants is sure. Thus the god at Dodona plainly exhorted men to respect suppliants. For to the Athenians in the days of Aphidas came the following message from Zeus at Dodona.

“Think of the Areopagus and the smoking altars of the Eumenides, for you must treat as suppliants the Lacedæmonians conquered in battle. Slay them not with the sword, harm not suppliants. Suppliants are inviolable.”

This the Greeks remembered when the Peloponnesians came to Athens, in the reign of Codrus the son of Melanthus. All the rest of the Peloponnesian army retired from Attica, when they heard of the death of Codrus and the circumstances attending it. For they did not any longer expect victory, as Codrus had devoted himself in accordance with the oracle at Delphi. But some of the Lacedæmonians got stealthily into the city by night, and at daybreak perceived that their friends had retired, and, as the Athenians began to muster against them, fled for safety to the Areopagus and to the altars of the goddesses called the August.[14] And the Athenians allowed the suppliants to depart scot-free on this occasion, but some years later the authorities destroyed the suppliants of Athene, those of Cylo’s party who had occupied the Acropolis, and both the murderers and their children were considered accursed by the goddess. Upon the Lacedæmonians too who had killed some suppliants in the temple of Poseidon at Tænarum came an earthquake so long-continued and violent, that no house in Lacedæmon could stand against it. And the destruction of Helice happened when Asteus was Archon at Athens, in the 4th year of the 101st Olympiad, in which Damon of Thuria was victor. And as there were none left remaining at Helice the people of Ægium occupied their territory.

And next to Helice, as you turn from the sea to the right, you will come to the town of Cerynea, built on a hill above the high-road. It got its name either from some local ruler or from the river Cerynites, which rises in Arcadia in the Mountain Cerynea, and flows through the district of those Achæans, who came from Argolis and dwelt there through the following mischance. The fort of Mycenæ could not be captured by the Argives owing to its strength, (for it had been built by the Cyclopes as the wall at Tiryns also), but the people of Mycenæ were obliged to evacuate their city because their supplies failed, and some of them went to Cleonæ, but more than half took refuge with Alexander in Macedonia, who had sent Mardonius the son of Gobryas on a mission to the Athenians, and the rest went to Cerynea, and Cerynea became more powerful through this influx of population, and more notable in after times through this coming into the town of the people of Mycenæ. And at Cerynea is a temple of the Eumenides, built they say by Orestes. Whatever wretch, stained with blood or any other defilement, comes into this temple to look round, he is forthwith driven frantic by his fears. And for this reason people are not admitted into this temple indiscriminately. The statues of the goddesses in the temple are of wood and not very large: but the statues of some women in the vestibule are of stone and artistically carved: the natives say that they are some priestesses of the Eumenides.

And as you return from Cerynea to the high road, and proceed along it no great distance, the second turn to the right from the sea takes you by a winding road to Bura, which lies on a hill. The town got its name they say from Bura the daughter of Ion, the Son of Xuthus by Helice. And when Helice was totally destroyed by the god, Bura also was afflicted by a mighty earthquake, so that none of the old statues were left in the temples. And those that happened to be at that time away on military service or some other errand were the only people of Bura preserved. There are temples here to Demeter, and Aphrodite, and Dionysus, and Ilithyia. Their statues are of Pentelican marble by the Athenian Euclides. Demeter is robed. There is also a temple to Isis.

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.

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