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tion of the entrance. These hills, now so beautifully culti-
vated were formerly covered with wild forests, gigantic and
impenetrable, which overshadowed the gulf, imparting a feeling
of superstitious awe. The inhabitants affirm that birds, flying
over the lake, fall into the water, note being stifled by the vapours
rising from it, a phenomenon of all Plutonian note localities. They
believed, in fact, that this place was a Plutonium, around
which the Kimmerians used to dwell, and those who sailed
into the place made sacrifice and propitiatory offerings to the
infernal deities, as they were instructed by the priests who
ministered at the place. There is here a spring of water near
to the sea fit for drinking, from which, however, every one
abstained, as they supposed it to be water from the Styx:
[they thought likewise] that the oracle of the dead was
situated some where here; and the hot springs near to the
Acherusian Lake indicated the proximity of Pyriphlegethon.
Ephorus, peopling this place with Kimmerii, tells us that they
dwell in under-ground habitations, named by them Argillae, and
that these communicate with one another by means of certain
subterranean passages; and that they conduct strangers
through them to the oracle, which is built far below the surface of the earth. They live on the mines together with the profits accruing from the oracle, and grants made to them by the
king [of the country]. It was a traditional custom for the servants of the oracle never to behold the sun, and only to quit their
caverns at night. It was on this account that the poet said,
On them the Sun
Odys. xi. 15.
Deigns not to look with his beam-darting eye. note
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Strabo, Geography (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Str.].