The Greek Questions (35-39)

Why was it the custom for the Bottiaean maidens to chant as they danced, Let us go to Athens[*] ?

They relate that the Cretans in accordance with a vow sent a consecrated offering of men to Delphi; but the men who had been sent, when they saw that there was no abundance there, set out from Delphi to found a colony. They settled first in Iapygia, but later occupied this region of Thrace. There were some Athenians included among them; fer it appears that Minos did not destroy the young persons whom the Athenians sent him for tribute, but kept them by him as servants. Accordingly, some who were descended from these Athenians and had come to be considered Cretans were included in this company sent to Delphi. Wherefore the daughters of the Bottiaeans, in remembrance of their lineage, were wont to sing in their festivals, Let us go to Athens.

Why is it that the women of the Eleans, when they sing hymns to Dionysus, call upon him to come to them with the foot of a bull [*]? The hymn[*] runs as follows:

Come, O hero Dionysus,

To thy Elean holy

Temple, with the Graces,

To thy temple

With thy bull’s foot hasting.

Then they chant twice the refrain: O worthy bull.

Is it because some address the god as kine-born or as bull? Or by ox-foot do they mean with thy mighty foot even as the Poet used ox-eyed [*] to signify large-eyed, and bully [*] for loudmouthed?

Or is it rather because the foot of the bull is harmless, but the part that bears horns is harmful, and thus they call upon the god to come in a gentle and painless manner?

Or is it because many believe that the god was the pioneer in both ploughing and sowing?

Why do the people of Tanagra have before their city an Achilleum, that is, a place bearing this name? For it is related that Achilles actually had more enmity than friendship for the city, since he carried off Stratonicê, the mother of Poemander, and slew Acestor, the son of Ephippus.[*]

While the territory of Tanagra was still inhabited in village communities, Poemander, the father of Ephippus, had been besieged by the Achaeans in the place called Stephon, because of his unwillingness to join their expedition.[*] But he abandoned that stronghold by night and fortified Poemandria.[*]

Polycrithus the master-builder, however, who was present, spoke slightingly of the fortifications and, in derision, leaped over the moat. Poemander was enraged and hastened to throw at him a great stone which had been hidden there from ancient days, set aside for use in the ritual of the Nyctelia.[*] This stone Poemander snatched up in his ignorance, and hurled. He missed Polycrithus, but slew his son Leucippus. According to the law, therefore, he had to depart from Boeotia and become a suppliant at a stranger’s hearth. But this was not easy, since the Achaeans had invaded the territory of Tanagra. Accordingly he sent his son Ephippus to appeal to Achilles. Ephippus, by his persuasive words, brought to his father Achilles, as well as Tlepolemus, the son of Heracles, and Peneleös, the son of Hippalcmas, all of them interrelated. Poemander was escorted by them to Chalcis, and there at the house of Elephenor he was purified of the murder. Therefore he honoured these heroes and set apart sacred precincts for them all, and of these the precinct of Achilles has still kept its name.

Who are the Psoloeis and who the Oleiae among the Boeotians?

They relate that the daughters of Minyas, Leucippê and Arsinoê and Alcathoê, becoming insane, conceived a craving for human flesh, and drew lots for their children.[*] The lot fell upon Leucippe to contribute her son Hippasus to be torn to pieces, and their husbands, who put on ill-favoured garments for very grief and sorrow, were called Grimy (Psoloeis);

but the Minyads themselves were called Oleiae, that is to say, Murderesses. And even to-day the people of Orchomenus give this name to the women descended from this family; and every year, at the festival of Agrionia,[*] there takes place a flight and pursuit of them by the priest of Dionysus with sword in hand. Any one of them that he catches he may kill, and in my time the priest Zoïlus killed one of them. But this resulted in no benefit for the people of Orchomenus; but Zoïlus fell sick from some slight sore and, when the wound had festered for a long time, he died. The people of Orchomenus also found themselves involved in some suits for damages and adverse judgements; wherefore they transferred the priesthood from Zoïlus’s family and chose the best man from all the citizens to fili the office.

Why do the Arcadians stone persons who voluntarily enter the Lycaeon; but if such persons enter through ignorance, they send them away to Eleutherae?

Is it because they were released and set free that this story gained credence, and is the expression to Free Town (Eleutherae) of the same sort as to the land of Sans Souci and you will come to the Seat of Satisfaction?

Or is it in accordance with the legend, since Eleuther and Lebadus were the only sons of Lycaon that had no share in the abomination prepared for Zeus,[*] but instead they fled to Boeotia, and there is community of citizenship between the people of Lebadeia and the Arcadians, and do they accordingly

send away to Eleutherae those who involuntarily enter the inviolate sanctuary of Zeus?

Or is it as Architimus[*] relates in his Arcadian History, that certain men who entered through ignorance were handed over by the Arcadians to the Phliasians, and by the Phliasians to the Megarians, and, as they were being conducted from Megara to Thebes, they were stopped near Eleutherae[*] by rain and thunder and other signs from heaven? Whence, in fact, some assert that the place acquired the name of Eleutherae.

The tale, however, that no shadow is cast by a person who enters the Lycaeon is not true, although it has acquired widespread credence.[*] Is it because the air turns to clouds, and lowers darkly upon those who enter? Or is it because he that enters is condemned to death, and the followers of Pythagoras declare that the spirits of the dead cast no shadow,[*] neither do they blink? Or is it because it is the sun which causes shadow, but the law deprives him that enters of the sunlight?

This too they relate allegorically: he that enters is called a deer. Wherefore, when Cantharion the Arcadian deserted to the Eleans while they were at war with the Arcadians, and with his booty crossed the inviolate sanctuary, even though he fled to Sparta after peace had been made, the Spartans surrendered him to the Arcadians, since the god ordered them to give back the deer.