Histories

and the offerings, it is said, come by this conveyance to Delos [25.2833,37.4] (Perseus)Delos. I can say of my own knowledge that there is a custom like these offerings; namely, that when the Thracian and Paeonian women sacrifice to the Royal Artemis, they have straw with them while they sacrifice.

I know that they do this. The Delian girls and boys cut their hair in honor of these Hyperborean maidens, who died at Delos [25.2833,37.4] (Perseus)Delos; the girls before their marriage cut off a tress and lay it on the tomb, wound around a spindle

(this tomb is at the foot of an olive-tree, on the left hand of the entrance of the temple of Artemis); the Delian boys twine some of their hair around a green stalk, and lay it on the tomb likewise.

In this way, then, these maidens are honored by the inhabitants of Delos [25.2833,37.4] (Perseus)Delos. These same Delians relate that two virgins, Arge and Opis, came from the Hyperboreans by way of the aforesaid peoples to Delos [25.2833,37.4] (Perseus)Delos earlier than Hyperoche and Laodice;

these latter came to bring to Eileithyia the tribute which they had agreed to pay for easing child-bearing; but Arge and Opis, they say, came with the gods themselves,[*](Apollo and Artemis, probably.) and received honors of their own from the Delians.

For the women collected gifts for them, calling upon their names in the hymn made for them by +Olen (lake), Orebro, Sweden, Europe Olen of +Lycia (region (general)), Turkey, Asia Lycia; it was from Delos [25.2833,37.4] (Perseus)Delos that the islanders and Ionians learned to sing hymns to Opis and Arge, calling upon their names and collecting gifts (this +Olen (lake), Orebro, Sweden, Europe Olen, after coming from +Lycia (region (general)), Turkey, Asia Lycia, also made the other and ancient hymns that are sung at Delos [25.2833,37.4] (Perseus)Delos).

Furthermore, they say that when the thighbones are burnt in sacrifice on the altar, the ashes are all cast on the burial-place of Opis and Arge, behind the temple of Artemis, looking east, nearest the refectory of the people of +Kea [24.366,37.566] (island), Cyclades, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Ceos.