Geography

​After the Samian strait, which is near Mycale, to those sailing to Ephesus there is on the right hand the coast of the Ephesians; and the Samians also hold a certain part of it. First on the coast is the Panionium, situated three stadia above the sea, where the Panionia, a common festival of the Ionians, is celebrated, and a sacrifice is performed to Heliconian Poseidon; and the Prienians serve as priests; but concerning them it has been spoken of in my Peloponnesian chapters. Next is Neapolis, which formerly belonged to the Ephesians but now belongs to the Samians, who exchanged it for Marathesium—the nearer for the more distant. Next is Pygela, a small town having a temple of Munychian Artemis, a foundation of Agamemnon, and inhabited by a part of his forces; for it is said that a certain pain in the buttocks befell them, from which they received this name, and those suffering from the affliction remained there, and that the place obtained this appropriate name. Then comes a harbor called Panormus, having a temple of Ephesian Artemis; then the city. And on the same coast, a little above the sea, is also Ortygia, a magnificent grove of all kinds of trees, but of cypress for the most part. Through it flows the river Cenchrius, where they say Leto washed herself after her labor. For here they place the myth of the birth, and the nurse Ortygia, and the inner shrine where the birth took place, and the neighboring olive tree, under which they say the goddess first rested after being delivered from her pangs. Above the grove lies Mount Solmissus, where they say the Curetes stood and by the noise of their weapons terrified Hera, who was jealously watching, and thus helped to conceal the birth for Leto. Since there are several temples in the place, some ancient and others built later, in the ancient ones there are ancient wooden images, but in the later ones there are works of Scopas; Leto holding a scepter, and Ortygia standing by her, holding a child in each hand. A festival is celebrated here annually, and by a certain custom the young men make a great display of rival beauty, especially in connection with the banquets there; and at that time the college of the Curetes also gathers banquets and performs certain mystic sacrifices.

​The city was inhabited by Carians and Leleges, but Androclus, having expelled most of them, settled those who had gathered with him around the Athenaeum and the Hypelaeum, and also included the mountain-slope around Coressus. Until the time of Croesus, indeed, it was inhabited in this manner, but later, descending from the mountain-slope, they inhabited the area around the present temple until the time of Alexander. But when Lysimachus walled the present city, since the people were reluctant to move, he waited for a downpour of rain, and indeed co-operated himself by stopping up the gutters so as to flood the city; and they moved gladly. He called the city Arsinoe, after his wife, but the ancient name prevailed. There was a registered senate, and with them the so-called Epicleti assembled and managed all affairs.