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[9]

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,1 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,2 sent a boar to destroy the tillage of the Lydians.

1 Or, with the proposed addition of ὄν: “Who Attis was I could not discover, as it is a religious secret.”

2 Or, reading αὐτοῖς and Ἄττῃ: “honor with them that Zeus, being wroth with him, sent, etc.”

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