Of the gods the Thespians have always honoured Eros most, of whom they have a very old statue in rude stone. But who instituted the worship of Eros at Thespia I do not know. This god is worshipped not a whit less by the Pariani who live near the Hellespont, who were originally from Ionia and migrated from Erythræ, and are now included amongst the Romans. Most men think Eros the latest of the gods, and the son of Aphrodite. But the Lycian Olen, who wrote the most ancient Hymns of the Greeks, says in his Hymn to Ilithyia that she was the mother of Eros. And after Olen Pamphus and Orpheus wrote verses to Eros for the Lycomidæ to sing at the mysteries, and I have read them thanks to a torch-bearer at the mysteries. But of these I shall make no further mention. And Hesiod, (or whoever wrote the Theogony and foisted it on Hesiod), wrote I know that Chaos came first, and then Earth, and Tartarus, and Eros. And the Lesbian Sappho has sung many things about Eros which do not harmonize with one another. Lysippus afterwards made a brazen statue of Eros for the Thespians, and still earlier Praxiteles made one in Pentelican marble. I have told elsewhere all about Phryne’s ingenious trick on Praxiteles. This statue of Eros was removed first by the Roman Emperor Gaius, and, though it was restored by Claudius to Thespia, Nero removed it to Rome once more. And there it was burnt by fire. But of those who acted thus impiously to the god Gaius, always giving the same obscene word to a soldier, made him so angry that at last he killed him for it,[64] and Nero, besides his dealings to his mother and wedded wives, showed himself an abominable fellow and one that had no true affinity with Eros. The statue of Eros in Thespia in our day is by the Athenian Menodorus, who made an imitation of the statue of Praxiteles. There are also statues in stone by Praxiteles of Aphrodite and Phryne. And in another part of the town is a temple of Black Aphrodite, and a theatre and market-place well worth seeing: there is also a brazen statue of Hesiod. And not far from the market-place is a brazen Victory, and a small temple of the Muses, and some small stone statues in it.