7.18.1 Some forty stadium-lengths from Dyme the river Peirus flows down into the sea; on the Peirus once stood the Achaean city of Olenos. The poets who have sung of Hēraklēs and his labors have found a favorite subject in Dexamenos, king of Olenοs, and the entertainment Hēraklēs received at his court. That Olenοs was from the beginning a small town I find confirmed in an elegiac poem composed by Hermesianax about Eurytion the Centaur. In course of time, it is said, the inhabitants, owing to their weakness, left Olenus and migrated to Peiraiand Euryteiae.

7.18.2 About eighty stadium-lengths from the river Peiros is the city of Patrai. Not far from Patrai the river Glaukos flows into the sea. Those who memorialize [mnēmoneuein] the-ancient-lore [tà arkhaia] of the people-of-Patrai [Patreîs] say that it was an aboriginal earthborn [autokhthōn], Eumēlos, who first made-a-home [oikeîn] in the land, and that he was-king [basileuein] of only a few humans [anthrōpoi]. But when Triptolemos came from Attica, he [= Eumelos] received from him [= Triptolemos] cultivated [hēmeros] seed-for-harvesting [karpos], and, learning how to establish [oikizein] a city [polis], he named it Aroē from the ploughing [aroûn] of the land.

7.18.3 It is said that Triptolemos once fell asleep, and that then Antheias, the son of Eumēlos, yoked the dragons to the chariot [harma] of Triptolemos and tried to sow-seed [speirein] himself. But Antheias, undertaking the task, fell off the chariot and was killed, and so Triptolemos and Eumēlos in common [en koinōi] established [oikizein] a city [polis], and called it Antheia after the son of Eumēlos.

7.18.4 Between Antheia and Aroe was established [oikizein] a third city [polis], called Mesátis. As for all the things that the people-of-Patrai [Patreîs] say about Dionysus, how he was raised in Mesatis and incurred there all sorts of dangers [kindunoi] through the plots of the Titans, I will not contradict, but will leave it to the people-of-Patrai [Patreîs] to explicate [ex(h)ēgeîsthai].

7.18.5 When, at a later point, the Achaeans had driven out the Ionians, Patreus, the son of Preugenes, the son of Agenor, forbade the Achaeans to settle in Antheia and Mesatis, but built at Aroe a wall [teikhos] of greater circumference [peribolos] so as to include Aroe within the enclosure [peribolos], and he named the city [polis] Patrai after himself. Agenor, the father of Preugenes, was the son of Areus, the son of Ampyx, and Ampyx was a son of Pelias, the son of Aiginetes, the son of Dereites, the son of Harpalos, the son of Amyklas, the son of Lacedaemon.

7.18.6 These were the ancestors of Patreus. With the passage of time the people of Patrai by their own choice crossed into Aetolia; they did this out of friendship for the Aetolians, to help them in their war with the Gauls, and no other Achaeans joined them. But suffering unspeakable disasters in the fighting, and most of them being also crushed by poverty, all with the exception of a few left Patrai, and scattered, owing to their love of agriculture, up and down the countryside, dwelling [oikeîn] in, besides Patrai, the following municipalities [polismata]: Mesatis, Antheia, Boline, Argyrâ, and Arba.

7.18.7 But Augustus, for some reason [aitiā], perhaps because he thought that Patrai was a convenient port of call, brought back again to Patrai the men [andres] from the other municipalities [polismata], and he consolidated-as-a-city [sunoikizein] not only these populations but also [pros-] the Achaeans from Rhypai, which place he demolished all the way down to its foundations. He granted that the people-of-Patrai [Patreîs] should be free [eleutheroi]. He granted this only to them, of all the Achaeans. And he granted to them also all the other privileges [gera] that the Romans have-the-custom-of bestowing on their colonists [apoikoi].

7.18.8 On their acropolis the people of Patrai have a sanctuary [hieron] of Artemis Laphria. The name [onoma] of the goddess [theos (feminine)] Laphria is not-native [xenikon], and her statue [agalma] was brought in likewise from elsewhere. Here is why I say this. After Calydon along with the rest of Aetolia had been depopulated by Augustus the basileus [‘king’] so that the Aetolian people might be incorporated [sunoikizesthai] into Nikopolis near Actium, the people of Patrai in this way got to have the statue [agalma] of Laphria.

7.18.9 Most of the statues [agalmata] originating from Aetolia and from Acarnania were brought [komizesthai] by order of Augustus to Nikopolis, but to Patrai he gave, along with other confiscated-things [laphura] from Calydon, the statue [agalma] of Laphria, which even in my time was still receiving honors [tīmai] on the acropolis of Patrai. It is said that the goddess [theos (feminine)] got the surname [epiklēsis] Laphria after a man from Phokis, because the ancient statue [agalma] of Artemis had been set up [hidrusasthai] at Calydon by Laphrios, the son of Kastalios, the son of Delphos.

7.18.10 Others say that the anger [mēnīma] of Artemis against Oineus, as time went on, weighed more lightly [elaphroteron] on the Calydonians, and they wishfully-think [ethelein] that this was the reason [aitiā] for the surname [epiklēsis] of the goddess [theos (feminine)]. The pose [skhēma] of the statue [agalma] is a Huntress [thēreuousa]; it is made [poieîn] of ivory and gold. Those who worked on it were Menaikhmos and Soidas, both from Naupaktos, and both of these two, it is inferred-from-the-evidence [tekmairesthai], lived not much later than Kanakhos of Sikyon and Kallon of Aegina.

7.18.11 The people-of-Patrai [Patreîs] celebrate every year a festival [heortē] called Laphria, which is likewise intended for their [special kind of] Artemis, and, at this festival, there is a [special] way [tropos] of sacrificing [thusiā] that is peculiar-to-the-locale [epikhōrios]. Around the altar [bōmos] in a circle [kuklos] they set logs-of-wood [xula] still green [khlōra], each of them sixteen cubits in length. On the altar [bōmos] within the circle [kuklos] are placed the driest of the logs [xula]. Just before the right-time [kairos] of the festival [heortē] they create a smooth ascent [anodos = an-hodos] to the altar [bōmos], piling earth upon the ascending-steps [anabasmoi] [to form a ramp].

7.18.12 The first thing that happens is the processing-of-a-procession [pompēn pompeuein]—a most magnificent [megaloprepestatē] procession—for Artemis, and the girl [parthénos] who officiates-as-priestess [hierâsthai], coming up last in [the sequence of] the procession [pompē], rides [okheîtai] in a chariot [harma] yoked to deer. It is, however, not till the next day—yes, this is the day—when they do [drân] the [special] things that they have-the-custom [nomizein] of doing for the sacrifice [thusiā]—both the city [polis], by-way-of-its-public-support [dēmosiāi], and no less so the people, each-one-of-them-as-private-individuals [idiōtai], being-ambitiously-aware-of-the-honor [philotīmōs ekhein] with regard to the festival [heortē]. Here is what I mean. The people throw alive upon the altar [bōmos] edible birds and all kinds of sacrificial-animals [hiereîa] as well; there are wild boars, deer, and gazelles; some even bring wolf-cubs or bear-cubs, others bring the full-grown beasts. They also place upon the altar [bōmos] fruit [karpos] of cultivated trees.

7.18.13 Next they set fire to the logs [xula]. At this point I saw [theâsthai] some of the animals, including a bear, trying to force-their-way [biazesthai] out, at the first rush of the fire—some of them actually escaping by brute force. But those who threw them in would drag them back again to the pyre [purā]. It is not remembered that anybody has ever been wounded by the animals.