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Near to this river also lies the mountain Berecyntus, deriving its name from Berecyntus, the first priest to the Mother of the Gods. Upon this mountain is found a stone which is called machaera, very much resembling iron; which if any one happens to light upon while the solemnities of the Mother of the Gods are performing, he presently runs mad;—as Agatharchides reports in his Phrygian Relations.
XI. STRYMON.
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STRYMON is a river of Thrace, that flows along by the city Edonis. It was formerly called Palaestinus, from Palaestinus the son of Neptune. For he being at war with his neighbors, and seized with a violent sickness, sent his son Haliacmon to be general of his army; who, rashly giving battle to his enemies, was slain in the fight. The tidings of which misfortune being brought to Palaestinus, he privately withdrew himself from his guards, and in the desperation of his grief flung himself into the River Conozus, which from that accident was afterwards called Palaestinus. But as for Strymon, he was the son of Mars and Helice; and hearing that his son Rhesus was slain, he flung himself into the river Palaestinus, which was after that called Strymon, by his own name.
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In this river grows a stone which is called pausilypus, or the grief-easing stone. This stone if any one find who is oppressed with grief, he shall presently be eased of his sorrow;—as Jason of Byzantium relates in his Thracian Histories.
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Near to this river lie the mountains Rhodope and Haemus. These being brother and sister, and both falling in love with each other, the one was so presumptuous as to call his sister his Juno, the other to call her brother her Jupiter; which so offended the Deities, that they changed them into mountains bearing their own names.
