Pausanias, Phocis

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Nexz comes the land of the Ozolian Locrians : why they were called Ozolian is differently stated, I shall relate all that I heard. When Orestheus the son of Deucalion was king of the country, a bitch gave birth to a piece of wood instead of a puppy : and Orestheus having buried this piece of wood in the ground, they say the next spring a vine sprang from it, and these Ozolians got their name from its branches. 1 Another tradition is that Nessus, the ferryman at the river Evenus, did not immediately die when, wounded by Hercules, but fled to this land, and dying here rotted, as he was unburied, and tainted the air. A third tradition attributes the name to the unpleasant smell of a certain river, and a fourth to the smell of the asphodel which abounds in that part. Another tradition is that the first dwellers here were Aborigines, and not knowing how to make garments wore untanned hides as a protection against the cold, putting the hairy portion of the hides out side for ornament. Thus their smell would be as unpleasant as that of a tan-yard.

About 120 stades from Delphi is Amphissa, the largest and most famous town of these Locrians. The inhabitants joined themselves to the Aetolians from shame at the title Ozolian. It is also probable that, when Augustus removed many of the Aetolians to fill his town Nicopolis, many of; them migrated to Amphissa. However the original inhabitants were Locrians, and the town got its name they say from Amphissa, (the daughter of Macar the son of Aeolus), who was beloved by Apollo. The town has several handsome sights, especially the tombs of Amphissa and Andraemon : with Andraemon his wife Gorge, the daughter of Oeneus, was buried. In the citadel is a temple of Athene, and statue of the goddess in a standing position, which they say was brought by Thoas from Ilium, and was part of the Trojan spoil. This however I cannot credit. I showed in a previous part of my work that the Samians Rhoecus, (the son of Philoeus), and Theodorus, (the son of Telecles), wore the first brass-founders. However I have not discovered any works in brass by Theodorus, But in the temple of Ephesian. Artemis, when you go into a room containing some paintings, you will see a stone cornice above the altar of Artemis Protothronia ; on this cornice are several statues and among others one at the end by Rhoecus, which the Ephesians call Night. The statue therefore of Athene at Amphissa is more ancient and ruder in art. The people of Amphissa celebrate the rites of the youths called Anactes (Kings) : different accounts are given as to who they were, some say Castor and Pollux, others say the Curetes, those who think themselves best informed say the Cabiri.

These Locrians liave other towns, as Myonia above Amphissa, and 30 stades from it, facing the mainland. Its inhabitants presented a shield to Zeus at Olympia. The town lies on high ground, and there is a grove and altar to the Mild Deities, and there are nightly sacrifices to them, and they consume the flesh of the victims before daybreak. There is also above the town a grove of Poseidon called Poseidonium, and in it a temple, but there is no statue there now.

Myonia is above Amphissa : and near the sea is Oeanthea, and at no great distance Naupactus. All these towns except Amphissa are under the Achaeans of Patrae, as a grant from, the Emperor Augustus. At Oeanthea there is a temple of Aphrodite, and a little above the town a grove of cypress and pine, and in it a temple and statue of Artemis : and some paintings on the walls rather obscured by time, so that one cannot now see them clearly. I think the town must have got its name from some woman or Nymph. As to Naupactus I know the tradition is that the Dorians and the sons of Aristomachus built a fleet there, with which they crossed over to the Peloponnese, hence tb origin of the name. As to the history of Naupactus, how the Athenians took it from the Locrians and gave it to the Messenians who removed to Ithome at the time of the earthquake at Lacedaemon, and how after the reverse of the Athenians at Aegospotamoi the Lacedaemoinians ejected the Messenians, all this has been related by me in my account of Messenia : and when the Messenians were obliged to evacuate it then the Locrians returned to Naupactus. As to the Poems called by the Greeks Naupactian, most attribute them to a Milesian : but Charon the son of Pytheus says they were composed by Carcinus a native of Naupactus. I follow the account of the native of Lampsacus : for how is it reasonable to suppose that poems written on women by a Milesian should be called Naupactian ? There is at Naupactus a temple of Poseidon near the sea, and a brazen statue of the god in a standing posture ; there is also a temple and statue of Artemis in white stone. The goddess is called Aetolian Artemis, and is in the attitude of a person hurling a javelin. Aphrodite also has honours paid to her in a cavern : they pray to her for various favours, widows especially for a second husband. There are also ruins of a temple of Aesculapius, which, was originally "built by one Phalysius, a private individual, who had an ailment in his eyes and was nearly blind, and the god of Epidaurus sent to him the poetess Anyte with a sealed letter. She dreamed one night and directly she woke found the sealed letter in her hands, and sailed to Naupactus and bade Phalysius remove the seal and read what was written. And though he was clearly unable to read from, his blindness, yet, having faith in the god, he broke open the seal, and became cured by looking at the letter, and gave Anyte 2000 gold staters, which was the sum mentioned in the letter.

1 The Greek word for branch is Ozos. Hence the Paronomasia.-All our other unsavoury traditions are connected with the Greek verb ozo, I smell.