18
In this river grows an herb called cynura, not unlike our common rue, which the women that desire to miscarry without any danger lay upon their navels, being first steeped in wine.
18
There is also found in this river a certain stone, not unlike a beryl, which in the hands of those who intend to bear false witness will grow black. Of these stones there are many laid up in the temple of Juno Prosymnaea;—as Timotheus relates in his Argolica, and Agatho the Samian in his Second Book of Rivers.
18
Agathocles the Milesian, in his History of Rivers, also adds, that Inachus for his impiety was thunderstruck by Jupiter, and so the river dried up.
18
Near to this river lie the mountains Mycenae, Apesantus, Coccygium, and Athenaeum; so called for these reasons. Apesantus was first called Selenaeus. For Juno, resolving to be revenged upon Hercules, called the moon (Selene) to her assistance, who by the help of her magical charms filled a large chest full of foam and froth, out of which sprang an immense lion; which Iris binding with her own girdle carried to the mountain Opheltium, where the lion killed and tore in pieces Apesantus, one of the shepherds belonging to that place. And from that accident, by the will of the Gods, the hill was called Apesantus;—as Demodocus writes in his First Book of the History of Hercules.
18
In this river grows an herb called selene, with the froth of which, being gathered in the spring, the shepherds anoint their feet, and keep them from being bit or stung by any creeping vermin.
