The flood story of Hierapolis (2)

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The flood story of Hierapolis provides the etiology for the local temple ritual.

pseudo-Lucian, De Dea Syria 13:
What happened after this (the outburst of flood), however, is the subject of a story told by the inhabitants of the Holy City, and we may rightly be amazed at it. They say that in their land a great chasm was formed and it took in all the water. When this happened, Deucalion set up altars and built over the chasm a temple sacred to Hera. I myself saw the chasm. It is beneath the temple and quite small. Whether it was large of old, and now such a size as it is, I do not know. … As a symbol of this story they do this: Twice each year water from the sea is carried to the temple. Not only priests, but the whole of Syria and Arabia brings it and from beyond the Euphrates many men come to the sea and all bring water. First they pour it out in the temple. Afterwards it goes down into the chasm, and the chasm, though small, takes a great deal of water. In doing these things they claim that Deucalion established this custom in the sanctuary as a memorial both of the disaster and of the divine favour. Such is their traditional account about the sanctuary.

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pseudo-Lucian, De Dea Syria 13

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