“Nor does fear seize those descending the sacred steps, because the sides are unfenced; for hedge walls of glittering marble have been reared there; and they are high above the steps for the hand of a man to hold as he mounts, grasping them to ease his way; so on each side they grow upwards in a rising line, and stop at length with the steps which are between them. Thus good use is made of the stone; for they have quarried savage hill, and steep promontory, to have a far-stretching safeguard to the long flight. And the whole is cunningly wrought with skilful workmanship, and glitters with ever-changing brightness. In parts it seems that whirlpools eddy over the surface, intertwining circles winding under the wandering curves of other circles. In parts is seen a rosy bloom, mingled with wan paleness, or fair gleams of light, as from bright spearheads; in other places shines a softer glory, like the radiance of boxwood, or the delightsome bees-wax, which mortal men ofttimes lay on the unsullied cliffs, and turn over beneath the rays of the sun, while it changes to a silver white; yet not completely altering its substance, it still shows veins of gold. Even so the deep-stained ivory of many a year’s growth expands its gleaming flesh on the curved breast. At times it seems to have a pale green hue. Yet the craftsman has not left it pallid and unadorned, for he has fixed it in fair and cunningly wrought designs on the stone. Thus over all in many a curve its beauty is displayed. In parts the broad surface is tinged with the choicest tint of the pale crocus, or appears almost without colour, like light creeping round the pointed horns of the new-born moon. “Now near a rocky hill stands the sacred city--Hierapolis--which gives its name to a well-known marble; and of this is made all the fair floor of the place where they read the divine wisdom of the holy books; and it is fitted by the craftsmen’s skill on eight cunningly wrought columns. Two of these are towards the north, two towards the southern wind, two towards the east, and two towards the home of evening. Thus is the floor raised up. And beneath there is as it were another space, where the priests continue their sacred song. The stone is a covering to those below, but above it is like a spreading plain, untouched by the feet of mortals. And the underside the mason (_laotomos_) has cut out and hollowed, so that, by the craftsmen’s skill, it rises from the capitals, curving over like the hollow shell-back of the tortoise, or some oxhide shield held up over the helmet, when the warrior leaps in the mazes of the Pyrrhic dance. “Now the rugged surface (_metopon_) of the stone they have girdled everywhere with the silver metal; and there the skilled workman, cutting, with the point of his iron, twining foliage and lovely flowers, has inlaid the beauteous leaves of ivy, with its clusters and budding shoots.