Comaetho (Patrae)

Comaetho, a beautiful girl of Patrae who served as priestess in the temple of Artemis Triclaria and was in love with Melanippus. They were not allowed to marry each other, so they met secretly in the temple . The outraged goddess sent famine and plague upon the city; to propitiate her, the inhabitants had to sacrifice both Comaetho and Melanippus to her. Since then, a young man and a young girl were sacrificed to the goddess each year until, in accordance with the instructions of the Delphian oracle, a strange king (Eurypylus, son of Euaemon) introduced the worship of a new deity (Dionysus, whose image he brought from Troy) in Patrae, thus both putting an end to the sacrifices and curing himself of madness which had been sent upon him when he had first looked at the god's image.

Pausanias, Graeciae Descriptio 7.19.1–9

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