Now the sea at Lerna[29] is about 40 stades from Argos. And as you go down to Lerna you first come to the river Erasinus, which flows into the Phrixus, and the Phrixus into the sea between Temenium and Lerna. And as you turn from the Erasinus about 8 stades to the left there is a temple of the Dioscuri called the Kings: and their statues are of wood just like those in the city. And as you turn to the right you cross the Erasinus, and come to the river Chimarrus. And near it is a circle of stones, and here (so the story goes) Pluto, after the Rape of Proserpine the daughter of Demeter, descended to his supposed underground realms. Now Lerna is, as I have previously said, by the sea, and they have rites here to Demeter of Lerna. And there is a sacred grove beginning at the mountain which they call Pontinus. And this mountain Pontinus does not let the rain flow off, but absorbs it. Though the river Pontinus does indeed flow from it. And on the top of the mountain is the temple of Saitian Athene, only ruins now, and the foundations of the house of Hippomedon, who accompanied Polynices the son of Œdipus in his attempt against Thebes. CHAPTER XXXVII. And the grove of plane-trees beginning at this mountain extends most of the way to the sea, bounded on one side by the river Pontinus, and on the other by the river Amymone, which gets its name from the daughter of Danaus. And inside the grove are statues of Demeter Prosymne and Dionysus, and the statue of Demeter is seated and not a large one. These are of stone: but in another temple there is a wooden one of Dionysus the Saviour seated; and a stone statue of Aphrodite near the sea, which they say was a votive offering of the daughters of Danaus, and Danaus himself erected the temple of Athene near the Pontinus. And they say that Philhammon was the founder of the rites at Lerna. The traditions about these mysteries are manifestly not very ancient. And what I have heard was written on a heart made of orichalcum; this Arriphon could not have got from Philhammon, for Arriphon was a native of Triconium in Ætolia, and held in most repute of all the Lycians in our time, and a clever fellow at finding out what nobody before knew, and who no doubt found this out for himself. The verses and all the prose mixed up with the verses were in Doric: but before the return of the Heraclidæ to the Peloponnese the Argives used the same dialect as the Athenians. And in the days of Philhammon I do not believe that even the name of Dorians was known throughout all Greece. This proves my case.