Description of Greece

​And the Pheneatians have also a sanctuary of Demeter surnamed Eleusinia, and they perform a rite for the goddess, claiming that the very same things done at Eleusis are established among them; for they say that Naos came to them in accordance with an oracle from Delphi, and that this Naos was a third descendant of Eumolpus. Near the sanctuary of the Eleusinian goddess is made what is called Petroma, two large stones fitted to each other.

​And celebrating every other year a rite which they call the greater one, they open these stones at that time; and taking from them writings that concern the rite and reading them in the hearing of the initiates, they deposit them again on the same night. And I know that most of the Pheneatians also take oaths by the Petroma on the most important matters.

​And there is a circular lid upon it, containing inside a mask of Demeter Kidaria; this mask the priest puts on in the so-called greater rite and, according to some traditional account indeed, strikes the underworld deities with rods. And there is a story among the Pheneatians that even before Naos arrived, Demeter wandered here as well; and to those of the Pheneatians who received her with shelter and hospitality, the goddess gave all other kinds of pulse, but a bean she did not give them.

​Now as for the bean, for what reason they do not consider it a pure pulse, there is a sacred story about it; but those who received the goddess according to the story of the Pheneatians, Trisaules and Damithales, made a temple of Demeter Thesmia under Mount Cyllene, and established a rite for her, which they celebrate even now. And this temple of Demeter Thesmia is about fifteen stades away from the city.

​For one going from Pheneus to Pellene and to Aegeira, a city of the Achaeans, when he has gone forward about fifteen stades, there is a temple of Pythian Apollo; only its ruins were left, and a large altar of white stone. Here even now the Pheneatians still sacrifice to Apollo and Artemis, saying that Heracles made the sanctuary after taking Elis. And there are also tombs of heroes there, as many as shared in the expedition of Heracles against the Eleans and did not return home safe from the battle.

​And Telamon is buried closest to the river Aroanius, a little further off than where the sanctuary of Apollo is, and Chalcodon not far from the spring called Oinoe. Now as for the father of Elephenor, who led the Euboeans to Ilium, and the father of Ajax and Teucer, no one would accept that these fathers fell in this contest; for how could Chalcodon have taken part in the deed with Heracles, whom they witness to have killed Amphitryon even earlier in Thebes, which is worthy of belief?

​And how would Teucer have founded the city of Salamis in Cyprus, since no one cast him out from his home when he returned from Troy? And who else would have driven him out but Telamon? It is clear, therefore, that Chalcodon, not the one from Euboea, and Telamon, not the Aeginetan, shared in the expedition with Heracles against the Eleans; and men less illustrious bearing the same names as the illustrious ones have existed in our time too, and similarly through all time.

​And for the Pheneatians, the boundaries of their land with the neighboring Achaean land are not at a single point, but towards Pellene the boundary is the so-called Porinas, and towards the territory of Aegeira, the place called “towards Artemis.” Within the territory of the Pheneatians themselves, after the sanctuary of Pythian Apollo, you will go forward not far and you will be inside the road that leads to the mountain where the Crathis is.

​In this mountain are the springs of the river Crathis; and it flows into the sea past Aegae, a place deserted in my time, but in older days a city of the Achaeans. And from this Crathis is also named the river in Italy in the land of the Bruttians; and on Mount Crathis is a sanctuary of Artemis Pyronia, and in even more ancient times the Argives used to fetch fire from this goddess for the Lernaean rites.