Description of Greece

​The Eleans also say that a verse of Homer applies to this Pylos: “His descent was from the river Alpheus, which flows broadly through the land of the Pylians,” and they convinced me by saying so. For the Alpheus indeed flows through this country, and it is not possible to apply the verse to the other Pylos; for the Alpheus does not by nature at all pass through the land of the Pylians who live above the island of Sphacteria, nor indeed do we know of any city in the land of the Arcadians that was ever called Pylos.

​About fifty stades from Olympia is a village of the Eleans called Heracleia, and near it is the river Cytherus; there is a spring flowing into the river, and a sanctuary of the nymphs is upon the spring. The individual names of each of the nymphs are Calliphaeia, Synallasis, Pegaea, and Iasis, but their common surname is Ionides. For those who bathe in the spring there are cures for all kinds of weariness and pains. They say that the nymphs were named after Ion, the son of Gargettus, who migrated here from Athens.

​If you should wish to go to Elis through the plain, you will have a hundred and twenty stades to Letrini, and a hundred and eighty from Letrini to Elis. Originally Letrini was a small town, and Letreus, the son of Pelops, had been its founder; but in my time only a few buildings were left, and an image of Alpheiaean Artemis in a temple.

​They say that the surname was given to the goddess for the following reason: Alpheus fell in love with Artemis, and when he realized that the marriage would not be brought about for him by persuasion and entreaty, he dared to attempt to force the goddess, and came himself to Letrini to a night-festival which was being celebrated by Artemis herself and the nymphs with whom she was playing. But she—for she had a suspicion of the plot of Alpheus—smeared her own face and those of all the nymphs who were present with mud, so that Alpheus, when he entered, could not distinguish Artemis from the others, and being unable to recognize her, departed with his attempt unaccomplished.

​The Letreans indeed called the goddess Alpheiaean because of the love of Alpheus for her; but the Eleans—for they had an ancient friendship with the Letreans—transferred the honors established among themselves for Artemis under the name of Elaphiaean to Letrini, and accustomed themselves to perform them for Alpheiaean Artemis, and so in course of time it prevailed for the Alpheiaean goddess to be called Elaphiaean.

​The Eleans, in my opinion, called Artemis Elaphiaean because of the hunting of deer; but they themselves say that Elaphius was the name of a local woman, and that Artemis was reared by her. About six stades beyond Letrini is a perennial lake, about three stades in diameter.