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The Heroon lay just outside the door from the court to the street. For Astrabacus cf. Paus. iii. 16. 9μαρτύρια δέ μοι καὶ τάδε τὴν ἐν Λακεδαίμονι Ὀρθίαν τὸ ἐκ τῶν βαρβάρων εἶναι ξόανον: τοῦτο μὲν γὰρ Ἀστράβακος καὶ Ἀλώπεκος οἱ Ἴρβου τοῦ Ἀμφισθένους τοῦ Ἀμφικλέους τοῦ Ἄγιδος τὸ ἄγαλμα εὕροντες αὐτίκα παρεφρόνησαν”, wherefore the Spartans dedicated a shrine to them near that of Lycurgus (Paus. iii. 16. 6), and presumably near that of Artemis. The heroes are usually connected with the fox and the sumpter-mule, ἀστράβη being a pack-saddle, but Wide (Lakon. Kulte, p. 279) interprets ‘one riding on a mule-saddle’, and compares Dionysus. Their insertion in the genealogy of the royal house is clearly late.

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