158 Aster Hisrory; PAUSANIAS 
from Corinth to Argos he came to a river Asterion, where grew in 
abundance a plant of the same name, which was sacred to Hera 
and was habitually wreathed round her altars. 
Since the herb Asterion here mentioned may be the Aster, I 
give the context sufficiently to show the connection; using Fra- 
zer's translation. 
“On the way from Corinth to Argos ... having ascended to the 
pass of the Tretus and resumed the road to Argos, we have on 
the left the ruins of Mycenae. That Perseus was the founder of 
Mycenae is known to every Greek ... Another legend is that the first 
man born in this country was Phoroneus, and that his father 
Inachus was not a man but the * river of that name. Inachus, 5° 
runs the legend, arbitrated in the dispute between Poseidon and 
Hera for the possession of the country, and he was assisted by 
Cephisus and Asterion;+ and because they decided that the 
country belonged to Hera, Poseidon made their waters to disap- 
pear. Therefore neither the Inachus nor any of the other rivers 
has any water, except after rain. { 
“To § the left of Mycenae at the distance of 15 furlongs is the 
Heraeum. Beside the road flows a water which 1s called the river 
Eleutherius ; 7. ¢., the Water-of-freedom ; the women who minister 
at the sanctuary employ it for purifications and for the secret sactl- 
fices. The sanctuary itself is on the lower slope of the mountain 
Euboea. For they named this mountain Euboea, saying that the 
river Asterion had three daughters, Euboea, Prosymna, and Acraea, 
and that they were nurses of Hera. The mountain opposite the 
Heraeum is called after Acraea ; the ground about the sanctualy 
is called after Euboea; and the district below the Heraeum }5 
called Prosymna. 
“The Asterion flowing above the Heraeum falls into a gully 
ae 
* The three chief rivers of the Argive plain were those meant by Pausanias ae: 
zer) in his names Inachus, Cephisus, and Asterion, although some identify Pausamias 
Asterion with the brook Glykia, a small torrent behind the Heraeum. 
+ Asterion as a river-name occurs only in this context, I think, and in 4 fragment 
of Callimachus. Asa personal name it was frequent; see p. 60. Numerous occu? 
rences of Asterion as a personal name seem to run into variants as "Aarepiar, *AaTéplors 
Aorepoc, without essential difference. 
¢ Pausanias, bk. 2, c, 15. 
4 Pausanias, bk. 2, c. 17. 
] 
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