Description of Greece

​Of all the things which are sung by poets and followed by the rumor of men as being the works of Hephaestus, of these, except for the sceptre of Agamemnon, nothing else is worthy of belief. For the Lycians in Patara exhibit in the temple of Apollo a bronze mixing-bowl, saying that it is an offering of Telephus and the work of Hephaestus; and it has escaped their notice, as is indeed likely, that Theodorus and Rhoecus of Samos were the first to melt and cast bronze.

​And the Achaians of Patrae say indeed in word that the chest which Eurypylus brought from Ilium is a work of Hephaestus, but in deed they do not allow it to be seen. And Amathus is a city in Cyprus, and in it there is an ancient temple of Adonis and Aphrodite; and they say that a necklace is dedicated there, which was given from the beginning to Harmonia, but is called the necklace of Eriphyle, because she received it as a gift at the cost of her husband; which the sons of Phegeus dedicated at Delphi—and in what manner they acquired it, my account of Arcadia has already shown—but it was plundered by the tyrants in Phocis.

​Yet, as it seems to me, it is not indeed among the Amathusians in the temple of Adonis; for the necklace in Amathus consists of green stones with gold binding them together, but Homer says in the Odyssey that the one given to Eriphyle was made of gold, and it runs thus: “ἣ χρυσὸν φίλου ἀνδρὸς ἐδέξατο τιμήεντα.”

​Nor indeed was he ignorant of variegated necklaces; for in the words of Eumaeus to Odysseus, before Telemachus arrived to them at the courtyard from Pylos, in these words there is: “ἤλυθʼ ἀνὴρ πολύιδρις ἐμοῦ πρὸς δώματα πατρός χρύσεον ὅρμον ἔχων, μετὰ δʼ ἠλέκτροισιν ἔερτο,”

​and among Penelope’s gifts—for he has made others of the suitors give gifts, and Eurymachus too giving them to Penelope— “ὅρμον δʼ Εὐρύμαχος πολυδαίδαλον αὐτίκʼ ἔνεικε χρύσεον, ἠλέκτροισιν ἐερμένον, ἠέλιον ὥς·” but he says that Eriphyle received a necklace not variegated with gold and stones. Thus, probability belongs to the sceptre alone to be the work of Hephaestus.

​And above the city is a crag called Petrachus; and they will have it that Cronus was deceived here, receiving from Rhea a stone instead of Zeus; and there is a small statue of Zeus on the summit of the mountain.

​Here in Chaeroneia they boil ointments from the flowers of lily, rose, narcissus, and iris; these become remedies for pains to men. And that which is made from roses, even if you should smear statues made of wood with it, preserves them too from decay. And the iris grows in marshes, and is equal in size to a lily, but is not white in color, and falls short of the lily in smell.