Note 194 — Chapter IV · OF THE ANCIENT PLACES ON THE ROAD FROM ADALIA TO SHUGHUT, INCLUDING REMARKS ON THE COMPARATIVE GEOGRAPHY OF THE ADJACENT COUNTRY.

Φρύγες οἱ περί Κελαινάς νεμόμενοι τιμῶσι ποταμοὺς δύο, Μαρσύαν καὶ Μαίανδρον. εἶδον τοὺς ποταμούς. ἀφίησιν αὐτοὺς πηγὴ μία, ἣ προελθοῦσα ἐπὶ τὸ ὄρος ἀφανίζεται κατὰ νώτου τῆς πόλεως κᾳὖθις ἐκδιδοῖ ἐκ τοῦ ἄστεος, διελοῦσα τοῖς ποταμοῖς καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ καὶ τὰ ὀνόματα. ὁ μὲν ἐπὶ Λυδίας ῥεῖ ὁ Μαίανδρος, ὁ δὲ αὐτοῦ περὶ τὰ πεδία ἀναλίσκεται. Max. Tyr. Dissert. 8. c. 8.

He then proceeds to relate a tale resembling that which Strabo has told us of the Alpheius and Eurotas, and which shews that the sources of the Mæander and Marsyas were exactly circumstanced as those of the two Peloponnesian rivers, described by Pausanias (Arcad. c. 43.) and Strabo (p. 343), and the accuracy of whose description I have myself ascertained. Those celebrated streams issue from separate sources at the foot of a mountain, behind which, in the elevated plain of Asea, is a rivulet, which, after crossing that plain, runs through a small lake into the mountain. This rivulet was anciently reputed to be the common origin of the two rivers; and it was believed (but apparently not by Strabo himself), that if offerings to the two river-gods were thrown into this stream, each offering would re-appear at the source of the river for the god of which it was destined by the sacrificer. Maximus Tyrius improves upon the similar story relating to the Mæander, by adding, that if a joint offering was thrown in for both the gods, it was divided in its passage through the mountain, and a portion appeared at each of the lower sources.