CHAP. 13.—WATERS WHICH CAUSE A DISTASTE FOR WINE. WATERS
WHICH PRODUCE INEBRIETY.
Eudoxus says that persons who drink the water[1] of Lake
Clitorius take a distaste for wine, and Theopompus asserts that
the waters of the springs already[2] named are productive of
inebriety. According to Mucianus,[3] there is a fountain at
Andros, consecrated to Father Liber, from which wine flows
during the seven days appointed for the yearly festival of that
god, the taste of which becomes like that of water the moment it is taken out of sight of the temple.
1. See Ovid, Met. xv. 322. It sems to be uncertain whether it was at
this lake or the adjoining spring of Lusi above-mentioned, that the
daughters of Prœtus were purified by Melampus. See the "Eliaca" of
Pausanias.
2. In B. ii. c. 106.
3. See B. ii. c. 106. As Ajasson remarks, Mucianus should have had
the sense to see that it was only a juggle of the priests of Bacchus. He
compares it to the miracle of the blood of St. Januarius at Naples. The
contrivance of the priests of Bel was not very dissimilar; but in their
case, they themselves were the real recipients of what the god was supposed
to devour.