Moreover, a serpent was once seen lying stretched out by the side of
 Olympias as she slept, and we are told that this, more than anything
 else, dulled the ardour of Philip’s attentions to his wife, so that he
 no longer came often to sleep by her side, either because he feared that
 some spells and enchantments might be practised upon him by her, or
 because he shrank from her embraces in the conviction that she was the
 partner of a superior being. But concerning these matters there is another story to this effect: all
 the women of these parts were addicted to the Orphic rites and the
 orgies of Dionysus from very ancient times (being called Klodones and
 Mimallones Macedonian names for Bacchantes. ), and imitated in many ways
 the practices of the Edonian women and the Thracian women about Mount
 Haemus, from whom, as it would seem, the word threskeuein 
 Plutarch apparently
 derives this verb from Θρῇσσαι 
 ( Thracian women ). came to be applied to
 the celebration of extravagant and superstitious ceremonies.