Book 14
1.44
An annual festival, to which there is a general resort, is celebrated at Acharaca, and at that time particularly are to be seen and heard those who frequent it, conversing about cures performed there. During this feast the young men of the gymnasium and the ephebi, naked and anointed with oil,Meineke’s conjecture is followed, λίπα ἀληλιμμένοι, for ἀπαληλιμμένοι. carry off a bull by stealth at midnight, and hurry it away into the cave. It is then let loose, and after proceeding a short distance falls down and expires.
1.45
Thirty stadia from Nysa, as you cross the Mesogis to-words the southern parts of Mount Tmolus,Groskurd’s emendation of this corrupt passage is adopted, ὑπεοͅβᾶσιτὴν μεσωγίδα ἐπὶ τὰ ποͅὸς τὸν νότον μέοͅη τμώλου τοῦ ὄρους. is a place called Leimon, or the Meadow, to which the Nysaeans and all the people around repair when they celebrate a festival. Not far from this plain is an aperture in the ground, sacred to the same deities, which aperture is said to extend as far as Acharaca. They say that the poet mentions this meadow, in the words, On the Asian mead,Il. ii. 461. and they show a temple dedicated to two heroes, Caÿstrius and Asius, and the Caÿster flowing near it.
