Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1060

 1040 STYRA. and all that he could learn respecting it was, that Hera was formerly worshipped there in three dif- ferent sanctuaries, as virgin, wife, and widow The modern city lay upon the southern edge of the lake, about a mile and a half from the katavdthra, and upon a rocky promontory connected with the moun- tains behind. Stymphalus is mentioned by Homer {II. ii. 608), and also by Pindar {01. vi. 109), who calls it the mother of Arcadia. Its name does not often occur in histoiy, and it owes its chief importance to its being situated upon one of the most frequented routes leading to the westward from Argolis and Corinth. It was taken by Apollonides, a general of Cassander (Diod. xix. 63), and subsequently be- longed to the Achaean League (Polyb. ii. 55, iv. 68, &c.). In the time of Pausanias it was included in Argolis (viii. 22. § 1). Tiie only building of the city, mentioned by Pausanias, was a temple of Arte- mis Stymphalia, under the roof of which were figures of the "birds Styniphalides ; while behind the temple stood statues of white marble, representing young women with the legs and thighs of birds. These birds, so celebrated in mythology, the destruction of which was one of the labours of Heracles {Diet, of Biogr. Vol. II. p. 396), are said by Pausanias to be as large as cranes, but resembling in form the ibis, only that they have stronger beaks, and not crooked like those of the ibis (viii. 22. § 5). On some of the coins of Stymphalus, they are represented ex- actly in accordance with the description of Pau- sanias. The territory of Stymph.tlus is now called the vale of Zarahd, from a village of this name, about a mile from the eastern extremity of the lake. The re- mains of the city upon the projecting cape already mentioned are more important than the cursory notice of Pausanias would lead one to expect. They cover the promontory, and extend as far as the fountain, which was included in the city. On the steepest part, which appears from below like a sepa- rate hill, are the ruins of the polygonal walls of a small quadrangular citadel. The circuit of the city walls, with their round towers, may be traced. To the east, beneath the acropolis, are the foundations of a temple in antis ; but the most important ruins are those on the southern side of the hill, where are numerous remains of buildings cut out of the rock. About ten minutes N. of Stymphalus, are the ruins of the medieval town of Kronia (Leake, Morea, vol. iii. p. 108, seq. ; Peloponnesiaca, p. 384 ; Boblaye, lieckerches, tfc, p. 384 ; Koss, Heisen im Peh- ponnes, p. 54; GuvtAMS, Peloponnesos, vol. i. p. 201, seq.). STYRA (raSrupo: Eth.'2,Tvpevs: Stura), a. town of Euboea, on the W. coast, N. of Carystus, and nearly opposite the promontory of Cynosura in Attica. The town stood near the shore in the inner part of the bay, in the middle of which is the island Aegileia, now called Sturanisi. Styra is mentioned by Homer along with Carystus (//. ii. 539). Its inhabitants were originally Dryopians, though they denied this origin (Herod, viii. 46; Pans. iv. 34. §11), and claimed to be descended from the demus of Steiria in Attica. (Strab. x. p. 446.) In the First Persian War (b. c. 490) the Persians landed at Aegileia, which belonged to Styra, the prisoners whom they liad taken at Eretria. (Herod, vi. 107.) In the Second Persian War (b. c. 480, 479) the Styrians flughtat Artemisium, Salamis, and Plataeae. They sent two ships to the naval engagements, and at Plataeae they and the Erctrians amounted together STYX. to 600 men. (Herod, viii. ], 40, ix. 2S ; Paus. v. 23. § 2.) They afterwards became the subjects of Athens, and paid a yearly tribute of 1200 drachmae. (Thuc. vii. 57; Franz, Elem. Epigr. Gr. n. 49.) The Athenian fleet was stationed here b. c. 356. (Dem. c. Mid. p. 568.) Strabo relates (x. p. 446) that the town was destroyed in the Maliac war by the Athenian Phaedrus, and its territory given to the Eretrians; but as the Maliac war is not men- tioned elsewhere, we ought probably to substitute Lamiac for it. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. pp. 422, 432.) STYX (2tu4)' fi waterfall descending from a lofty rock in the Aroanian mountains, above Nona- cris, a town in the XE. of Arcadia, in the district of Pheneus. The water descends perpendicularly in two slender ca.scades, which, after winding among a labyrinth of rocks, unite to form a torrent that falls J into the Crathis. It is by far the highest waterfall H in Greece ; the scenery is one of wild desolation ; and it is almost impossible to climb over the rocks to the foot of the cascade. The wildness of the scenery, the inaccessibility of the spot, and the singularity of the waterfall made at an early period a deep im- pression upon the Greeks, and invested the Styx with superstitious reverence. It is correctly described by both Homer and Hcsiod. The former poet speaks of the " down-flowing water of the Styx " {-rh Ka- Teigojxivov 'S.Tvyus CSoip, II. XV. 37), and of the " lofty torrents of the Styx " {'S.rvyhs vharos a'nra ^h6pa, II. viii. 369). Hesiod describes it as " a cold stream, which descends from a precipitous lofty rock " {vdwp i/vxp})v o t t /c Trerpf/s KcwaKiiSiTai 7)M€aroio viprjAris, Theog. 785), and as " the per- ennial most ancient water of the Styx, which flows through a very rugged place " {'S.rvyhi &<pdiTov vSaip coyvyioy, rh 5" "rfcri KaTa(TTV<pfov Sia x'^pov, Theog. 805). The account of Herodotus, who does not appear to have visited the Styx, is not so accu- rate. He says that the Styx is a fountain in the town Xonacris; that only a little water is apparent; and that it dropt from the rock into a cavity sur- rounded by a wall (vi. 74). In the same passage Herodotus relates that Cleomenes endeavoured to persuade the chief men of Arcadia to svv'ear by the waters of the Styx to support him in his enterprise. Among the later descriptions of this celebrated stream that of Pausanias (viii. 17. § 6) is the most full and exact. " Xot far from the ruins of Nona- cris," he says, " is a lofty precipice higher than I ever remember to have seen, over which descends water, which the Greeks call the Styx." He adds that when Homer represents Hera swearing by the Styx, it is just as if the poet had the water of the stream dropping before his eyes. The Styx was transferred by the Greek and Roman poets to the invisible world [see Diet, of Gr. and Rom. Biogr. and Myth. art. Styx] ; but the waterfall of Nona- cris continued to be regarded with superstitious ter- rors ; its water was supposed to be poisonous ; and it was believed that it destroyed all kinds of vessels, in which it was put, with the exception of those made of the hoof of a horse or an ass. There was a report that Alexander the Great had been poisoned by the water of the Styx. (Arrian, Anah. vii. 27; Plut. Alex. 77, de Prim. Frig. 20. p. 954; Paus. viii. 18. § 4; Strab. viii. p. 389; Aelian, //. An. X. 40; Antig. Hist. Mirah. 158 or 174; Stob. Ed. Phi/s. i. 52. § 48; Plin. ii. 103. s. 106, xxs. 16. s. 53, sxxi. 2. s. 19; Vitruv. viii. 3; Senec. Q. N. iii. 25.) The belief in the deleterious nature of the