Description of Greece

​Of these Locrians there are the following other cities: inland above Amphissa is Myonia, at a distance of thirty stades from Amphissa. These Myanians are the ones who dedicated the shield to Zeus at Olympia. The town lies on a height, and they have a grove and an altar of the Mild Gods. The sacrifices to the Mild Gods are by night, and their custom is to consume the meat on the spot before the sun rises. Above the city is a sanctuary of Poseidon called Poseidonion, and in it a temple of Poseidon; but the image was no longer there in my time.

​These, then, dwell above Amphissa; on the coast is Oeantheia, and neighboring it is Naupactus. Except for Amphissa, the others are ruled by the Achaeans of Patrae, the Emperor Augustus having given them this. In Oeantheia there is a sanctuary of Aphrodite, and a little above the city is a grove of cypress mixed with pine, and in the grove is a temple and image of Artemis; but the paintings on the walls were faded by time, and nothing was left of them to be seen.

​I conjecture that the city got its name from a woman or a nymph, since as for Naupactus, I know it is said that the Dorians with the sons of Aristomachus built there the ships in which they crossed over to the Peloponnese; and they say that because of this the name was given to the place. As for the history of Naupactus, how the Athenians, after taking it from the Locrians, gave it to the Messenians who had revolted to Ithome at the time of the earthquake in Lacedaemon, and how, after the subsequent defeat of the Athenians at Aegospotami, the Lacedaemonians expelled the Messenians from Naupactus also—all this has been detailed by me at greater length in my Messenian history. When the Messenians abandoned it under compulsion, the Locrians thus assembled once more into Naupactus.

​The epic poem called the “Naupactia” by the Greeks is attributed by most to a man of Miletus; but Charon, the son of Pythes, says that Carcinus, a Naupactian, wrote it. I too follow the opinion of the Lampsacene; for what reason would there be for an epic poem about women, written by a man of Miletus, to be given the name “Naupactia”?

​Here there is by the sea a temple of Poseidon and a standing image made of bronze, and there is also a sanctuary of Artemis and an image of white stone; it presents the attitude of a maiden throwing a javelin, and has received the surname Aetolian. Aphrodite has honors in a cave; and they pray to her for various reasons, and women, especially widows, ask the goddess for marriage.

​The sanctuary of Asclepius was in ruins, but originally it was built by a private individual named Phalysius. For when he suffered in his eyes and was almost blind, the god in Epidauros sent to him Anyte, the poetess who wrote the verses, bearing a sealed tablet. This appeared to the woman as a dream-vision, but indeed it became reality immediately; and she found in her own hands a sealed tablet, and having sailed to Naupactus she ordered Phalysius to remove the seal and read what was written. To him indeed it seemed otherwise impossible to see the letters, his eyes being in such a state; but hoping for some good from Asclepius, he removed the seal, and looking into the wax, he was healed, and gave to Anyte what was written in the tablet, two thousand staters of gold.