at Hierapolis.--Better known than any was the oracular cavern at Hierapolis in Phrygia into which only the Galli of the Great Mother, the _Matris Magnae sacerdos_, can go without being overcome by the vapours issuing from it: Str. 629-30, Plin. ii, 208. There existed under a temple of Apollo a direct ~kataba/sion ha/|dou~, accessible at least to the faithful ~tetelesme/noi~: see the very remarkable account of Damasc., _V. Isid._ ap. Phot., p. 344b, 35-345a, 27 Bk. (Cult of Echidna in Hierapolis, see Gutschmid, _Rh. Mus._ 19, 398 ff.; this is also a chthonic cult: ~ne/rteros E/chidna~, Eur. _Ph._ 1023; Echidna among the monsters of Hades: Ar., _Ra._ 473).--These are the mortifera in Asia Plutonia, quae vidimus, Cic., _Div._ i, 79 (cf. Gal. iii, 540; xvii, 1, 10).--Entrances to Hades were regularly to be found at those places where the cave was shown by which Aidoneus made his exit or his entrance in carrying off Kore. Thus at Eleusis, ~to/thi per pu/lai eis' Aï/dao~, Orph., _H._ 18, 15, Paus. 1, 38, 5; at Kolonos, Sch. S., _OC._ 1590-3; at Lerna, Paus. 2, 36, 7; at Pheneos (a ~cha/sma en Kullê/nê|~: Conon 15), and probably in Crete too (cf. Bacch. _fr._ 53 Jebb, ap. Sch. Hes., _Th._ 914); at Enna in Sicily a ~cha/sma **kata/geion~: D.S. 5, 3, 3; Cic., _Verr._ iv, 107; {187} at Syracuse at the spring Kyane, D.S. 5, 4, 2; at Kyzikos, Prop. 3 (4), 22, 4.] [24\5: The ~Semnai/~ live there in a ~cha/sma chthono/s~, Eur., _El._ 1266 f., on the eastern slope of the hill.] [25\5: Paus. 2, 35, 10. The precinct of the temple was an Asylon, Phot. ~Hermi/onê~; _AB._ 256, 15; Znb. ii, 25 (Ar. ~Babul.~).--Kerberos is brought up from below at Hermione: Eur., _HF._ 615. An Acheron, and even an ~Acherousia\s li/mnê~, was to be found in Thesprotia, Triphylia, Herakleia on the Pontus, Cumae, and Cosentia in Bruttium--all sites of ancient cults of Hades and reputed as in close proximity to the underworld.] [26\5: Strabo viii, 373--the same is reported by Call. _fr._ 110 of the inhabitants of ~Aigialo/s~ (prob. = Sikyon, where there was a cult of Demeter, Paus. 2, 11, 2-3; cf. 2, 5, 8. Hesych. ~_epôpi/s_; Dêmê/têr para\ Sikuôni/ois~), where, at any rate, there was a ~kataba/sion ha/|dou~.--The name "Hermione" seems almost to have acquired a generic sense. In the Orphic _Argonautica_ a city Hermioneia is said to be situated in the fabulous north-west of Europe in the neighbourhood of the gold-bearing river Acheron, where (as always on the margin of the ~oikoume/nê~) there dwell ~ge/nê dikaiota/tôn anthrô/pôn, hoi=sin apophthime/nois a/nesis nau/loio te/tuktai~, etc. (1135-47). Thus Hermione in this case lies immediately in the country of souls and blessedness, which the ancient inhabitants of the Peloponnesian city rather supposed to be in the neighbourhood of their own country.--Hesych. strangely: ~_Hermio/nê_; kai\ hê Dêmê/têr kai\ hê ko/rê en Surakou/sais~. Was there a place called Hermione there too? See Lob., _Paralip._ 299.] II