Description of Greece

The people of Dyme have a temple of Athena with an extremely ancient image; they have as well a sanctuary built for the Dindymenian mother and Attis. As to Attis, I could learn no secret about him,[*](Or, with the proposed addition of ὄν: “Who Attis was I could not discover, as it is a religious secret.”) but Hermesianax, the elegiac poet, says in a poem that he was the son of Galaus the Phrygian, and that he was a eunuch from birth. The account of Hermesianax goes on to say that, on growing up, Attis migrated to Lydia and celebrated for the Lydians the orgies of the Mother; that he rose to such honor with her that Zeus, being wroth at it,[*](Or, reading αὐτοῖς and Ἄττῃ: “honor with them that Zeus, being wroth with him, sent, etc.”) sent a boar to destroy the tillage of the Lydians.