10.36.1 From Stiris to Ambrossos is about six stadium-lengths. The road is flat, lying on the level with mountains on both sides of it. The greater part of the plain is covered with vines, and in the territory of Ambrossos grow shrubs, though not close together like the vines. This shrub the Ionians, as well as the rest of the Greeks, call kokkos, and the Gauls above Phrygia call it in their native speech hys. This kokkos grows to the size of what is called the rhamnos; the leaves are darker and softer than those of the mastich tree, though in other respects the two are alike.

10.36.2 Its fruit is like the fruit of the nightshade, and its size is about that of the bitter vetch. There breeds in the fruit of the kokkos a small creature. If this should reach the air when the fruit has ripened, it becomes in appearance like a gnat, and immediately flies away. But as it is they gather the fruit of the kokkos before the creature begins to move, and the blood of the creature serves as a dye for wool.

10.36.3 Ambrossos lies at the foot of Mount Parnassus, on the side opposite to Delphi. They say that the city was named after Ambrossos, a hero. On going to war with Philip and his Macedonians the Thebans drew round Ambrossos a double wall. It is made of a local stone, black in color and very hard indeed. Each ring of wall is a little less than a fathom broad, and two and a half fathoms in height except where it has broken down.

10.36.4 The interval between the first ring and the second is a fathom. The building of towers, of battlements, or of any ornament, has been entirely neglected, as the only object the citizens had in constructing the walls was immediate protection. There is a small marketplace at Ambrossos, and of the stone statues set up in it most are broken.

10.36.5 The road to Antikyra is at first uphill. About two stadium-lengths up the slope is a level place, and on the right of the road is a sanctuary of Artemis surnamed Dictynnaean, a goddess worshipped with great reverence by citizens. The image is of Aeginetan workmanship, and made of a black stone. From the sanctuary of the Dictynnaean goddess the road is downhill all the way to Antikyra. They say that in days of old the name of the city was Kyparissos, and that Homer in the list of the men of Phokis^* was determined to call it by this name, although it was called Antikyra in Homer’s day, because Anticyreus was a contemporary of Hēraklēs.

10.36.6 The city is situated in front of the ruins of Medeon. I have mentioned in the beginning of my account of Phokis that the people of Antikyra were guilty of sacrilege against the sanctuary at Delphi.^* They were driven from home by Philip, son of Amyntas, and yet once more by the Roman Otilius, because they were subjects of the Macedonian king Philip, son of Demetrios. Otilius had been despatched from Rome to help the Athenians against Philip.

10.36.7 The mountains beyond Antikyra are very rocky, and on them grows hellebore in great profusion. Black hellebore sends those who take it to stool, and purges the bowels; the nature of the other, the white kind, is to purge by vomiting. It is the root of the hellebore which is used as a purging drug.

10.36.8 In the marketplace at Antikyra are bronze statues, and at the harbor is a small sanctuary of Poseidon, built of unhewn stones. The inside is covered with stucco. The image, which is made of bronze, is a standing figure, with one foot resting on a dolphin. On this side he has one hand upon his thigh; in his other hand is a trident.

10.36.9 Opposite the gymnasium, in which the baths have been made, is another gymnasium, an old one, in which stands a bronze statue. The inscription on it says that Xenodamos of Antikyra, a contestant in the pankration, won an Olympic victory in the match for men. If the inscription speaks the truth, it would seem that Xenodamos received the wild olive at the two hundred and eleventh Olympic festival.^* But this is the only festival omitted in the Eleian records.

10.36.10 Beyond the marketplace, there is in a well a spring of water. Over the well there is a roof to shelter it from the sun, with columns to support the roof. A little higher up than the well is a tomb built of any stones that were on hand. Here they say are buried the sons of Iphitos; one returned safe from Troy and died in his native land; the other, Schedios, died, they say, in the Troad, but his bones also were brought home.