Demetrius

whereas Demetrius used to rail and mock at those who gave the title of King to any one except his father and himself, and was well pleased to hear revellers pledge Demetrius as King, but Seleucus as Master of the Elephants, Ptolemy as Admiral, Lysimachus as Treasurer, and Agathocles of Sicily as Lord of the Isles.

When this was reported to these kings, they all laughed at Demetrius, except Lysimachus; he was incensed that Demetrius considered him a eunuch (it was the general practice to have eunuchs for treasurers).

And of all the kings Lysimachus had most hatred for Demetrius. He was once reviling the man’s passion for Lamia, and said that this was the first time he had ever seen a harlot coming forward to play a great tragic part; Demetrius, however, declared that his own harlot was more chaste than the Penelope of Lysimachus.

But to resume the story, when Demetrius was getting ready to return to Athens, he wrote letters to the people saying that he wished to he initiated into the mysteries as soon as he arrived, and to pass through all the grades in the ceremony, from the lowest to the highest (the epoptica). Now, this was not lawful, and had not been done before, but the lesser rites were performed in the month Anthesterion, the great rites in Boëdromion; and the supreme rites (the epoptica) were celebrated after an interval of at least a year from the great rites.

And yet when the letter of Demetrius was read, no one ventured to oppose the proposition except Pythodorus the Torch-bearer, and he accomplished nothing; instead, on motion of Stratocles, it was voted to call the current month, which was Munychion, Anthesterion, and so to regard it, and the lesser rites at Agra were performed for Demetrius; after which Munychion was again changed and became Boëdromion instead of Anthesterion, Demetrius received the remaining rites of initiation, and at the same time was also admitted to the highest grade of epoptos.

Hence Philippides, in his abuse of Stratocles, wrote[*](Part of the fragment cited at xii. 4.):—

1. Who abridged the whole year into a single month,

1. Who took the acropolis for a caravansery,
2. And introduced to its virgin goddess his courtesans.