Description of Greece

​When death came to Eteocles, the kingship devolved upon the family of Almus. To Almus himself were born daughters, Chrysogeneia and Chryse; and there is a report that Phlegyas was born of Chryse, the daughter of Almus, and Ares, and this Phlegyas held the rule after Eteocles died without child. Indeed, they changed the name of the whole country to Phlegyantis instead of Andreis. ​As for cities, there was Andreis, which had been inhabited from the beginning, and Phlegyas founded another beside it, homonymous with himself, having gathered into it the best of the Greeks in military affairs. And in course of time, the Phlegyans out of folly and boldness revolted from the other Orchomenians, and began to plunder their neighbors; and at last they even marched against the sanctuary at Delphi to pillage it, when Philammon also, having gone to help against them with chosen men of the Argives, himself died in the battle, as did the chosen men of the Argives.

​That the Phlegyans delight in war more than any other Greeks is testified to me also by the verses in the Iliad composed about Ares and Phobos (Terror), the son of Ares: “The two indeed arm themselves for war to go to the Ephyri, or to the great-hearted Phlegyans;” and the Ephyri here seem to me to refer to those on the Thesprotian mainland. Indeed, the race of the Phlegyans was overthrown from its foundations by the god with continuous thunderbolts and violent earthquakes; and a pestilential disease fell upon the survivors and destroyed them, while only a few of them escaped to Phocis.

​Since Phlegyas had no children, Chryses succeeded to the rule, being the son of Chrysogeneia, the daughter of Almus, and Poseidon. And to this Chryses was born a son, Minyas, and after him the people whom he ruled are even now still called Minyae. And revenues came in to Minyas of such great size as to surpass his predecessors in wealth; and Minyas was the first of men whom we know to have built a treasury for the reception of money.

​The Greeks indeed are clever at holding foreign things in greater wonder than those of their own land, since famous men have been moved to describe the pyramids among the Egyptians with the greatest accuracy, but have not brought the treasury of Minyas and the walls at Tiryns even to a brief mention, though they are of no less wonder.

​And the son of Minyas was Orchomenus, and when he was king, both the city was called Orchomenus and the men Orchomenians; but it remained nonetheless for them to be called Minyae as well, to distinguish them from the Orchomenians in Arcadia. To this Orchomenus when he was king came Hyettus from Argos, fleeing because of the murder of Molurus, the son of Arisbas, whom he had killed having caught him with his wedded wife; and Orchomenus assigned to him as much of the land as is now around the village of Hyettus and adjacent to it.

​And of Hyettus mention was also made by the author of the verses which the Greeks call the Great Eoiae: “And Hyettus, having slain Molurus, the dear son of Arisbas, in the halls on account of the bed of his wife, leaving his home fled from horse-pasturing Argos, and came to Minyean Orchomenus; and the hero received him and gave him a share of possessions, as was fitting.”

​And this Hyettus is clearly the first to have taken vengeance for adultery; and in later times, when Draco made laws for the Athenians, it was established from his laws, which he wrote during his archonship, concerning both what other things ought to have impunity and indeed also the punishments for an adulterer. And the prestige of the Minyae had already advanced to such a point that even Neleus, the son of Cretheus, ruling over Pylos, took a wife from Orchomenus, Chloris, the daughter of Amphion, the son of Iasius.