51. Strabo, Geography, 7.7.1, 7.7.8, 8.6.14, 9.2.4, 9.2.14, 9.2.29, 9.2.33-9.2.34, 9.3.9, 9.4-9.5, 9.4.17, 10.1-10.2 Tagged with subjects: •cult centres, local and regional Found in books: Kowalzig (2007), Singing for the Gods: Performances of Myth and Ritual in Archaic and Classical Greece, 149, 336, 342, 362, 366, 367, 369 | 7.7.1. EpirusThese alone, then, of all the tribes that are marked off by the Ister and by the Illyrian and Thracian mountains, deserve to be mentioned, occupying as they do the whole of the Adriatic seaboard beginning at the recess, and also the sea-board that is called the left parts of the Pontus, and extends from the Ister River as far as Byzantium. But there remain to be described the southerly parts of the aforesaid mountainous country and next thereafter the districts that are situated below them, among which are both Greece and the adjacent barbarian country as far as the mountains. Now Hecataeus of Miletus says of the Peloponnesus that before the time of the Greeks it was inhabited by barbarians. Yet one might say that in the ancient times the whole of Greece was a settlement of barbarians, if one reasons from the traditions themselves: Pelops brought over peoples from Phrygia to the Peloponnesus that received its name from him; and Danaus from Egypt; whereas the Dryopes, the Caucones, the Pelasgi, the Leleges, and other such peoples, apportioned among themselves the parts that are inside the isthmus — and also the parts outside, for Attica was once held by the Thracians who came with Eumolpus, Daulis in Phocis by Tereus, Cadmeia by the Phoenicians who came with Cadmus, and Boeotia itself by the Aones and Temmices and Hyantes. According to Pindar, there was a time when the Boeotian tribe was called Syes. Moreover, the barbarian origin of some is indicated by their names — Cecrops, Godrus, Aiclus, Cothus, Drymas, and Crinacus. And even to the present day the Thracians, Illyrians, and Epeirotes live on the flanks of the Greeks (though this was still more the case formerly than now); indeed most of the country that at the present time is indisputably Greece is held by the barbarians — Macedonia and certain parts of Thessaly by the Thracians, and the parts above Acaria and Aitolia by the Thesproti, the Cassopaei, the Amphilochi, the Molossi, and the Athamanes — Epeirotic tribes. 7.7.8. The Amphilochians are Epeirotes; and so are the peoples who are situated above them and border on the Illyrian mountains, inhabiting a rugged country — I mean the Molossi, the Athamanes, the Aethices, the Tymphaei, the Orestae, and also the Paroraei and the Atintanes, some of them being nearer to the Macedonians and others to the Ionian Sea. It is said that Orestes once took possession of Orestias — when is, exile on account of the murder of his mother — and left the country bearing his name; and that he also founded a city and called it Argos Oresticum. But the Illyrian tribes which are near the southern part of the mountainous country and those which are above the Ionian Sea are intermingled with these peoples; for above Epidamnus and Apollonia as far as the Ceraunian Mountains dwell the Bylliones, the Taulantii, the Parthini, and the Brygi. Somewhere nearby are also the silver mines of Damastion, where the Perisadyes and the Encheleii (also called Sesarethii) together established their dominion; and near these people are also the Lyncestae, the territory Deuriopus, the Pelagonian Tripolitis, the Eordi, Elimeia, and Eratyra. In earlier times these peoples were ruled separately, each by its own dynasty. For instance, it was the descendants of Cadmus and Harmonia who ruled over the Encheleii; and the scenes of the stories told about them are still pointed out there. These people, I say, were not ruled by men of native stock; and the Lyncestae became subject to Arrabaeus, who was of the stock of the Bacchiads (Eurydice, the mother of Philip, Amyntas' son, was Arrabaeus' daughter's daughter and Sirra was his daughter); and again, of the Epeirotes, the Molossi became subject to Pyrrhus, the son of Neoptolemus the son of Achilles, and to his descendants, who were Thessalians. But the rest were ruled by men of native stock. Then, because one tribe or another was always getting the mastery over others, they all ended in the Macedonian empire, except a few who dwelt above the Ionian Sea. And in fact the regions about Lyncus, Pelagonia, Orestias, and Elimeia, used to be called Upper Macedonia, though later on they were by some also called Free Macedonia. But some go so far as to call the whole of the country Macedonia, as far as Corcyra, at the same time stating as their reason that in tonsure, language, short cloak, and other things of the kind, the usages of the inhabitants are similar, although, they add, some speak both languages. But when the empire of the Macedonians was broken up, they fell under the power of the Romans. And it is through the country of these tribes that the Egnatian Road runs, which begins at Epidamnus and Apollonia. Near the Road to Candavia are not only the lakes which are in the neighborhood of Lychnidus, on the shores of which are salt-fish establishments that are independent of other waters, but also a number of rivers, some emptying into the Ionian Sea and others flowing in a southerly direction — I mean the Inachus, the Aratthus, the Achelous and the Evenus (formerly called the Lycormas); the Aratthus emptying into the Ambracian Gulf, the Inachus into the Achelous, the Achelous itself and the Evenus into the sea — the Achelous after traversing Acaria and the Evenus after traversing Aitolia. But the Erigon, after receiving many streams from the Illyrian mountains and from the countries of the Lyncestae, Brygi, Deuriopes, and Pelagonians, empties into the Axius. 8.6.14. Troezen is sacred to Poseidon, after whom it was once called Poseidonia. It is situated fifteen stadia above the sea, and it too is an important city. off its harbor, Pogon by name, lies Calauria, an isle with a circuit of about one hundred and thirty stadia. Here was an asylum sacred to Poseidon; and they say that this god made an exchange with Leto, giving her Delos for Calauria, and also with Apollo, giving him Pytho for Taenarum. And Ephorus goes on to tell the oracle: For thee it is the same thing to possess Delos or Calauria, most holy Pytho or windy Taenarum. And there was also a kind of Amphictyonic League connected with this sanctuary, a league of seven cities which shared in the sacrifice; they were Hermion, Epidaurus, Aigina, Athens, Prasieis, Nauplieis, and Orchomenus Minyeius; however, the Argives paid dues for the Nauplians, and the Lacedemonians for the Prasians. The worship of this god was so prevalent among the Greeks that even the Macedonians, whose power already extended as far as the sanctuary, in a way preserved its inviolability, and were afraid to drag away the suppliants who fled for refuge to Calauria; indeed Archias, with soldiers, did not venture to do violence even to Demosthenes, although he had been ordered by Antipater to bring him alive, both him and all the other orators he could find that were under similar charges, but tried to persuade him; he could not persuade him, however, and Demosthenes forestalled him by suiciding with poison. Now Troezen and Pittheus, the sons of Pelops, came originally from Pisatis; and the former left behind him the city which was named after him, and the latter succeeded him and reigned as king. But Anthes, who previously had possession of the place, set sail and founded Halicarnassus; but concerning this I shall speak in my description of Caria and Troy. 9.2.4. Ephorus says that the Thracians, after making a treaty with the Boeotians, attacked them by night when they, thinking that peace had been made, were encamping rather carelessly; and when the Boeotians frustrated the Thracians, at the same time making the charge that they were breaking the treaty, the Thracians asserted that they had not broken it, for the treaty said by day, whereas they had made the attack by night; whence arose the proverb, Thracian pretense; and the Pelasgians, when the war was still going on, went to consult the oracle, as did also the Boeotians. Now Ephorus is unable, he says, to tell the oracular response that was given to the Pelasgians, but the prophetess replied to the Boeotians that they would prosper if they committed sacrilege; and the messengers who were sent to consult the oracle, suspecting that the prophetess responded thus out of favor to the Pelasgians, because of her kinship with them (indeed, the sanctuary also was from the beginning Pelasgian), seized the woman and threw her upon a burning pile, for they considered that, whether she had acted falsely or had not, they were right in either case, since, if she uttered a false oracle, she had her punishment, whereas, if she did not act falsely, they had only obeyed the order of the oracle. Now those in charge of the sanctuary, he says, did not approve of putting to death without trial — and that too in the sanctuary — the men who did this, and therefore they brought them to trial, and summoned them before the priestesses, who were also the prophetesses, being the two survivors of the three; but when the Boeotians said that it was nowhere lawful for women to act as judges, they chose an equal number of men in addition to the women. Now the men, he says, voted for acquittal, but the women for conviction, and since the votes cast were equal, those for acquittal prevailed; and in consequence of this prophecies are uttered at Dodona by men to Boeotians only; the prophetesses, however, explain the oracle to mean that the god ordered the Boeotians to steal the tripods and take one of them to Dodona every year; and they actually do this, for they always take down one of the dedicated tripods by night and cover it up with garments, and secretly, as it were, carry it to Dodona. 9.2.14. Near Anthedon, and belonging to Boeotia, is a place that is esteemed sacred, and contains traces of a city, Isus, as it is called, with the first syllable pronounced short. Some, however, think that the verse should be written, sacred Isus and Anthedon at the extremity, lengthening the first syllable by poetic licence on account of the meter, instead of sacred Nisa, for Nisa is nowhere to be seen in Boeotia, as Apollodorus says in his work On Ships; so that Nisa could not be the correct reading, unless by Nisa the poet means Isus; for there was a city Nisa bearing the same name in the territory of Megara, whose inhabitants emigrated to the foothills of Cithaeron, but it has now disappeared. Some, however, think that we should write sacred Creusa, taking the poet to mean the Creusa of today, the naval station of the Thespians, which is situated in the Crisaean Gulf; but others think that we should read sacred Pharae. Pharae is one of the Four United Villages in the neighborhood of Tanagra, which are: Heleon, Harma, Mycalessus, and Pharae. And still others write as follows: sacred Nysa. And Nysa is a village in Helicon. Such, then, is the seaboard facing Euboea. 9.2.29. Next Homer names Coroneia, Haliartus, Plataeae, and Glissas. Now Coroneia is situated on a height near Helicon. The Boeotians took possession of it on their return from the Thessalian Arne after the Trojan War, at which time they also occupied Orchomenus. And when they got the mastery of Coroneia, they built in the plain before the city the sanctuary of the Itonian Athena, bearing the same name as the Thessalian sanctuary; and they called the river which flowed past it Cuarius, giving it the same name as the Thessalian river. But Alcaeus calls it Coralius, when he says, Athena, warrior queen, who dost keep watch o'er the cornfields of Coroneia before thy temple on the banks of the Coralius River. Here, too, the Pamboeotian Festival used to be celebrated. And for some mystic reason, as they say, a statue of Hades was dedicated along with that of Athena. Now the people in Coroneia are called Coronii, whereas those in the Messenian Coroneia are called Coronaeis. 9.2.33. Onchestus is where the Amphictyonic Council used to convene, in the territory of Haliartus near Lake Copais and the Teneric Plain; it is situated on a height, is bare of trees, and has a sacred Precinct of Poseidon, which is also bare of trees. But the poets embellish things, calling all sacred precincts sacred groves, even if they are bare of trees. Such, also, is the saying of Pindar concerning Apollo: stirred, he traversed both land and sea, and halted on great lookouts above mountains, and whirled great stones, laying foundations of sacred groves. But Alcaeus is wrong, for just as he perverted the name of the River Cuarius, so he falsified the position of Onchestus, placing it near the extremities of Helicon, although it is at quite a distance from this mountain. 9.2.34. The Teneric Plain is named after Tenerus. In myth he was the son of Apollo by Melia, and was a prophet of the oracle on the Ptous Mountain, which the same poet calls three-peaked: and once he took possession of the three-peaked hollow of Ptous. And he calls Tenerus temple minister, prophet, called by the same name as the plains. The Ptous lies above the Teneric Plain and Lake Copais near Acraephium. Both the oracle and the mountain belonged to the Thebans. And Acraephium itself also lies on a height. They say that this is called Arne by the poet, the same name as the Thessalian city. 9.3.9. of the temples, the one with wings must be placed among the myths; the second is said to be the work of Trophonius and Agamedes; and the present temple was built by the Amphictyons. In the sacred precinct is to be seen the tomb of Neoptolemus, which was made in accordance with an oracle, Machaereus, a Delphian, having slain him because, according to the myth, he was asking the god for redress for the murder of his father; but according to all probability it was because he had attacked the sanctuary. Branchus, who presided over the sanctuary at Didyma, is called a descendant of Machaereus. 9.4. 1. Locris Locris comes next in order, and therefore I must describe this country. It is divided into two parts: one part is that which is inhabited by the Locrians and faces Euboea; and, as I was saying, it was once split into two parts, one on either side of Daphnus. The Opuntians were named after their metropolis, and the Epicnemidians after a mountain called Cnemis. The rest of Locris is inhabited by the Western Locrians, who are also called Ozolian Locrians. They are separated from the Opuntians and the Epicnemidians by Parnassus, which is situated between them, and by the Tetrapolis of the Dorians. But I must begin with the Opuntians.,2. Next, then, after Halae, where that part of the Boeotian coast which faces Euboea terminates, lies the Opuntian Gulf. Opus is the metropolis, as is clearly indicated by the inscription on the first of the five pillars in the neighborhood of Thermopylae, near the Polyandrium: Opoeis, metropolis of the Locrians of righteous laws, mourns for these who perished in defence of Greece against the Medes. It is about fifteen stadia distant from the sea, and sixty from the seaport. Cynus is the seaport, a cape which forms the end of the Opuntian Gulf, the gulf being about forty stadia in extent. Between Opus and Cynus is a fertile plain; and Cynus lies opposite Aedepsus in Euboea, where are the hot waters of Heracles, and is separated from it by a strait one hundred and sixty stadia wide. Deucalion is said to have lived in Cynus; and the grave of Pyrrha is to be seen there, though that of Deucalion is to be seen at Athens. Cynus is about fifty stadia distant from Mount Cnemis. The island Atalanta is also situated opposite Opus, and bears the same name as the island in front of Attica. It is said that a certain people in Eleia are also called Opuntians, but it is not worth while to mention them, except to say that they are reviving a kinship which exists between them and the Opuntians. Now Homer says that Patroclus was from Opus, and that after committing an involuntary murder he fled to Peleus, but that his father Menoetius remained in his native land; for thither Achilles says that he promised Menoetius to bring back Patroclus when Patroclus should return from the expedition. However, Menoetius was not king of the Opuntians, but Aias the Locrian, whose native land, as they say, was Narycus. They call the man who was slain by Patroclus Aeanes; and both a sacred precinct, the Aeaneium, and a spring, Aeanis, named after him, are to be seen.,3. Next after Cynus, one comes to Alope and to Daphnus, which latter, as I said, is razed to the ground; and here there is a harbor which is about ninety stadia distant from Cynus, and one hundred and twenty stadia from Elateia, for one going on foot into the interior. We have now reached the Maliac Gulf, which is continuous with the Opuntian Gulf.,4. After Daphnus one comes to Cnemides, a natural stronghold, about twenty stadia by sea; and opposite it, in Euboea, lies Kenaion, a cape facing the west and the Maliac Gulf, and separated from it by a strait about twenty stadia in width. At this point we have now reached the territory of the Epicnemidian Locrians. Here, too, lying off the coast, are the three Lichades Islands, as they are called, named after Lichas; and there are also other islands along the coast, but I am purposely omitting them. After twenty stadia from Cnemides one comes to a harbor, above which, at an equal distance in the interior, lies Thronium. Then one comes to the Boagrius River, which flows past Thronium and empties into the sea. They also call it Manes. It is a winter stream, so that at times one can cross it dry-shod, though at other times it has a breadth of two plethra. After this one comes to Scarpheia, which is situated ten stadia above the sea, thirty stadia distant from Thronium, and slightly less from the harbor itself. Then one comes to Nicaea and Thermopylae.,5. As for the remaining cities, it is not worthwhile to mention any of them except those which are mentioned by Homer. Calliarus is no longer inhabited, but is now a beautifully-tilled plain, and they so call it from what is the fact in the case. Bessa, too, does not exist; it is a wooded place. Neither does Augeiae, whose territory is held by the Scarphians. Now this Bessa should be written with a double s (for it is named from its being a wooded place, being spelled the same way — like Nape in the plain of Methymne, which Hellanicus ignorantly names Lape), whereas the deme in Attica, whose inhabitants are accordingly called Besaeeis, should be written with one s.,6. Tarphe is situated on a height, at a distance of twenty stadia from Thronium; its territory is both fruitful and well-wooded, for already this place had been named from its being thickly wooded. But it is now called Pharygae; and here is situated a sanctuary of Pharygaean Hera, so called from the Hera in the Argive Pharygae; and, indeed, they say that they are colonists of the Argives.,7. However, Homer does not mention the Western Locrians, or at least not in express words, but only in that he seems by contrast to distinguish these from those other Locrians of whom I have already spoken, when he says, of the Locrians who dwell opposite sacred Euboea, implying that there was a different set of Locrians. But they have not been much talked about by many others either. The cities they held were Amphissa and Naupactus; of these, Naupactus survives, near Antirrhium, and it was named from the shipbuilding that was once carried on there, whether it was because the Heracleidae built their fleet there, or (as Ephorus says) because the Locrians had built ships there even before that time. It now belongs to the Aitolians, having been adjudged to them by Philip.,8. Here, also, is Chalcis, which the poet mentions in the Aitolian Catalogue; it is below Calydon. Here, also, is the hill Taphiassus, on which are the tombs of Nessus and the other Centaurs, from whose putrefied bodies, they say, flows forth at the base of the hill the water which is malodorous and clotted; and it is on this account, they add, that the tribe is also called Ozolian. Molycreia, an Aitolian town, is also near Antirrhium. The site of Amphissa is on the edge of the Crisaean Plain; it was razed to the ground by the Amphictyons, as I have said. And both Oiantheia and Eupalium belong to the Locrians. The whole voyage along the Locrian coast slightly exceeds two hundred stadia in length.,9. There is a place named Alope, not only here and among the Epicnemidian Locrians, but also in Phthiotis. Now these are colonists of the Epicnemidian Locrians, but the Epizephyrian Locrians are colonists of these.,10. The Aitolians border on the western Locrians; and the Aenianians who inhabit Mount Oita border on the Epicnemidian Locrians; and in the middle between them are Dorians. Now these Dorians are the people who inhabited the Tetrapolis, which, they say, was the metropolis of all the Dorians; and the cities they held were Erineus, Boeum, Pindus and Cytinium. Pindus is situated above Erineus; and a river bearing the same name flows past it, emptying into the Cephissus not very far from Lilaea. By some, however, Pindus is called Acyphas. The king of these Dorians was Aegimius, who was driven from his throne, but was brought back again, as the story goes, by Heracles; accordingly, Aegimius requited the favor to Heracles after the latter's death on Oita; for he adopted Hyllus, the eldest of the sons of Heracles; and Hyllus and his descendants became his successors on the throne. From here it was that the Heracleidae set out on their return to the Peloponnesus.,11. Now for a time the cities in question were held in respect, although they were small and had poor soil, but afterwards they were lightly esteemed. During the Phocian War and the domination of the Macedonians, Aitolians, and Athamanians — it is marvellous that even a trace of them passed to the Romans. And the Aenianians had the same experience, for they too were destroyed by the Aitolians and the Athamanians: by the Aitolians, when they waged war in conjunction with the Acarians, and were very powerful, and by the Athamanians, when they attained to distinction (the last of the Epeirotes to do so, the other peoples having by this time been worn out) and under their king Amyder had acquired power. These Athamanians kept possession of Oita.,12. This mountain extends from Thermopylae in the east to the Ambracian Gulf in the west; and, in a way, it cuts at right angles the mountainous country which extends from Parnassus to Pindus and to the barbarians who are situated beyond Pindus. of this mountain, the part which verges towards Thermopylae is called Oita; its length is two hundred stadia, and it is rugged and high; but it is highest at Thermopylae, for there it rises into a peak, and ends at the sea in sharp and abrupt precipices, though it leaves a narrow pass for invasions from Thessaly into the country of the Locrians.,13. Now the pass is called not only Pylae and Narrows, but also Thermopylae, for there are hot waters near it that are held in honor as sacred to Heracles; and the mountain that lies above it is called Callidromus, but by some the remaining part of the mountain, which extends through Aitolia and Acaria to the Ambracian Gulf, is also called Callidromus. Near Thermopylae, inside the narrows, are forts — Nicaea, towards the sea of the Locrians, and above it, Teichius and Heracleia, the latter in earlier times having been called Trachin, a settlement of Lacedemonians. Heracleia is about six stadia distant from the old Trachin. Next one comes to Rhoduntia, a natural stronghold.,14. These places are rendered difficult of access both by the ruggedness of the country and by the number of streams of water which here form ravines through which they flow. For besides the Spercheius, which flows past Anticyra, there is the Dyras River, which, they say, tried to quench the funeral pyre of Heracles, and also another Melas, which is five stadia distant from Trachin. To the south of Trachin, according to Herodotus, there is a deep gorge through which the Asopus, bearing the same name as the aforesaid Asopus Rivers, empties into the sea outside Pylae after receiving the Phoenix River, which meets it from the south and bears the name of the hero Phoenix, whose tomb is to be seen near it. The distance from the Asopus to Thermopylae is fifteen stadia.,15. Now at that time these places were at the height of their fame when they held the mastery over the keys of the Narrows, and when there were struggles for the primacy between the peoples outside the Narrows and those inside them; for instance, Philip used to call Chalcis and Corinth the fetters of Greece, having Macedonia in view as his base of operations; and the men of later times called, not only these, but also the city Demetrias shackles, for Demetrias commanded the passes round Tempe, since it held both Pelion and Ossa. But later, now that all peoples have been brought into subjection to a single power, everything is free from toll and open to all mankind.,16. It was at these Narrows that Leonidas and his men, with a few who came from the neighborhood thereof, held out against all those forces of the Persians, until the barbarians, coming around the mountains through by-paths, cut them down. And today their Polyandrium is to be seen, and pillars, and the oft-quoted inscription on the pillar of the Lacedemonians, which is as follows: Stranger, report to the Lacedemonians that we lie here in obedience to their laws.,17. There is also a large harbor here, and a sanctuary of Demeter, in which at the time of every Pylaean assembly the Amphictyons performed sacrificial rites. From the harbor to Heracleian Trachin the distance on foot is forty stadia, and by boat to Kenaion seventy stadia. The Spercheius empties immediately outside Pylae. The distance to Pylae from the Euripus is five hundred and thirty stadia. And whereas Locris ends at Pylae, the parts outside Pylae towards the east and the Maliac Gulf belong to the Thessalians, and the parts towards the west belong to the Aitolians and the Acarians. As for the Athamanians, they are now extinct.,18. Now the largest and most ancient composite part of the Greeks is that of the Thessalians, who have been described partly by Homer and partly by several others. The Aitolians Homer always speaks of under one name, classing cities, not tribes, under them, except the Curetes, who should be classified as Aitolians. But I must begin with Thessaly, omitting such things as are very old and mythical and for the most part not agreed upon, as I have already done in all other cases, and telling such things as seem to me appropriate to my purpose. 9.4.17. There is also a large harbor here, and a sanctuary of Demeter, in which at the time of every Pylaean assembly the Amphictyons performed sacrificial rites. From the harbor to Heracleian Trachin the distance on foot is forty stadia, and by boat to Kenaion seventy stadia. The Spercheius empties immediately outside Pylae. The distance to Pylae from the Euripus is five hundred and thirty stadia. And whereas Locris ends at Pylae, the parts outside Pylae towards the east and the Maliac Gulf belong to the Thessalians, and the parts towards the west belong to the Aitolians and the Acarians. As for the Athamanians, they are now extinct. 9.5. 1. Thessaly Thessaly comprises, first, on the sea, the coast which extends from Thermopylae to the outlet of the Peneius River and the extremities of Pelion, and faces the east and the northern extremities of Euboea. The parts that are near Euboea and Thermopylae are held by the Malians and the Achaean Phthiotae, and the parts near Pelion by the Magnetans. Let this side of Thessaly, then, be called the eastern or coastal side. As for the two sides of Thessaly: on one side, beginning at Pelion and the Peneius, Macedonia stretches towards the interior as far as Paeonia and the Epeirote tribes, and on the other side, beginning at Thermopylae, the Oitaean and Aitolian mountains lie parallel to Macedonia, bordering on the country of the Dorians and on Parnassus. Let the former side, which borders on Macedonia, be called the northern side, and the latter the southern side. There remains the western side, which is surrounded by the Aitolians and Acarians and Amphilochians, and, of the Epeirotes, the Athamanians and Molossians and what was once called the land of the Aethices, or, in a word, the land about Pindus. The land of Thessaly, as a whole, is a plain, except Pelion and Ossa. These mountains rise to a considerable height; they do not, however, enclose much territory in their circuits, but end in the plains.,2. These plains are the middle parts of Thessaly, a country most blest, except so much of it as is subject to inundations by rivers. For the Peneius, which flows through the middle of it and receives many rivers, often overflows; and in olden times the plain formed a lake, according to report, being hemmed in by mountains on all sides except in the region of the seacoast; and there too the region was more elevated than the plains. But when a cleft was made by earthquakes at Tempe, as it is now called, and split off Ossa from Olympus, the Peneius poured out through it towards the sea and drained the country in question. But there remains, nevertheless, Lake Nessonis, which is a large lake, and Lake Boebeis, which is smaller than the former and nearer to the seacoast.,3. Such being its nature, Thessaly was divided into four parts. One part was called Phthiotis, another Hestiaeotis, another Thessaliotis, and another Pelasgiotis. Phthiotis occupies the southern parts which extend alongside Oita from the Maliac, or Pylaic, Gulf as far as Dolopia and Pindus, and widen out as far as Pharsalus and the Thessalian plains. Hestiaeotis occupies the western parts and the parts between Pindus and Upper Macedonia. The remaining parts of Thessaly are held, first, by the people who live in the plains below Hestiaeotis (they are called Pelasgiotae and their country borders on Lower Macedonia), and, secondly, by the Thessaliotae next in order, who fill out the districts extending as far as the Magnetan seacoast. Here, too, there will be an enumeration of famous names of cities, and especially because of the poetry of Homer; only a few of the cities preserve their ancient dignity, but Larisa most of all.,4. The poet, after dividing into ten parts, or dynasties, the whole of the country which we now call Thessaly, and after adding certain parts both of the Oitaean and the Locrian countries, and likewise certain parts of the country now classed under Macedonia, intimates a fact which is common to, and true of, all countries, that whole regions and their several parts undergo changes in proportion to the power of those who hold sway.,5. Now the first peoples he names in the Catalogue are those under Achilles, who occupied the southern side and were situated alongside Oita and the Epicnemidian Locrians, all who dwelt in the Pelasgian Argos and those who inhabited Alus and Alope and Trachin, and those who held Phthia and also Hellas the land of fair women, and were called Myrmidons and Hellenes and Achaeans. with these he joins also the subjects of Phoenix, and makes the expedition common to both leaders. It is true that the poet nowhere mentions the Dolopian army in connection with the battles round Ilium, for he does not represent their leader Phoenix as going forth into the perils of battle either, any more than he does Nestor; yet others so state, as Pindar, for instance, who mentions Phoenix and then says, who held a throng of Dolopians, bold in the use of the sling and bringing aid to the missiles of the Danaans, tamers of horses. This, in fact, is the interpretation which we must give to the Homeric passage according to the principle of silence, as the grammarians are wont to call it, for it would be ridiculous if the king Phoenix shared in the expedition (I dwelt in the farthermost part of Phthia, being lord over the Dolopians) without his subjects being present; for if they were not present, he would not have been regarded as sharing in the expedition with Achilles, but only as following him in the capacity of a chief over a few men and as a speaker, perhaps as a counsellor. Homer's verses on this subject mean also to make this clear, for such is the import of the words, to be a speaker of words and a doer of deeds. Clearly, therefore, he means, as I have already said, that the forces under Achilles and Phoenix are the same. But the aforesaid statements concerning the places subject to Achilles are themselves under controversy. Some take the Pelasgian Argos as a Thessalian city once situated in the neighborhood of Larisa but now no longer existent; but others take it, not as a city, but as the plain of the Thessalians, which is referred to by this name because Abas, who brought a colony there from Argos, so named it.,6. As for Phthia, some say that it is the same as Hellas and Achaea, and that these constitute the other, the southern, of the two parts into which Thessaly as a whole was divided; but others distinguish between Hellas and Achaea. The poet seems to make Phthia and Hellas two different things when he says, and those who held Phthia and Hellas, as though there were two, and when he says, And then (I fled) far away through spacious Hellas, and I came to Phthia, and, There are many Achaean women throughout Hellas and Phthia. So the poet makes them two, but he does not make it plain whether they are cities or countries. As for later authorities, some, speaking of Hellas as a country, say that it stretches from Palaepharsalus to Phthiotic Thebes. In this country also is the Thetideium, near both Pharsaluses, both the old and the new; and they infer from the Thetideium that this country too is a part of that which was subject to Achilles. As for those, however, who speak of Hellas as a city, the Pharsalians point out at a distance of sixty stadia from their own city a city in ruins which they believe to be Hellas, and also two springs near it, Messeis and Hypereia, whereas the Melitaeans say that Hellas was situated about ten stadia distant from themselves on the other side of the Enipeus, at the time when their own city was named Pyrrha, and that it was from Hellas, which was situated in a low-lying district, that the Hellenes migrated to their own city; and they cite as bearing witness to this the tomb of Hellen, son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, situated in their marketplace. For it is related that Deucalion ruled over Phthia, and, in a word, over Thessaly. The Enipeus, flowing from Othrys past Pharsalus, turns aside into the Apidanus, and the latter into the Peneius. Thus much, then, concerning the Hellenes.,7. Phthians is the name given to those who were subject to Achilles and Protesilaus and Philoctetes. And the poet is witness to this, for after mentioning in the Catalogue those who were subject to Achilles and those who held Phthia, he represents these, in the battle at the ships, as staying behind with Achilles in their ships and as being inactive, but those who were subject to Philoctetes as taking part in the battle, having Medon as marshal, and those who were subject to Protesilaus as marshalled by Podarces. Concerning these, speaking in a general way, he says, And there the Boeotians and Ionians with trailing tunics, the Locrians and Phthians and illustrious Epeians; and, in a specific way, and in front of the Phthians was Medon, and also Podarces steadfast in war. These in their armour, in front of the great-hearted Phthians, were fighting along with the Boeotians in defence of the ships. Perhaps the men with Eurypylus also were called Phthians, since their country indeed bordered on Phthia. Now, however, historians regard as belonging to Magnesia, not only the region round Ormenium, which belonged to the country that was subject to Eurypylus, but also the whole of the country that was subject to Philoctetes; but they regard the country that was subject to Protesilaus as a part of Phthia, extending from Dolopia and Pindus as far as the Magnetan Sea; whereas the land subject to Peleus and Achilles, beginning at the Trachinian and Oitaean countries, is defined as extending in breadth as far as Antron, the city subject to Protesilaus, the name of which is now spelled in the plural number. And the Maliac Gulf has about the same length.,8. But as regards Halus and Alope, historians are thoroughly in doubt, suspecting that the poet does not mean the places so named which now are classed in the Phthiotic domain, but those among the Locrians, since the dominion of Achilles extended thus far, just as it also extended as far as Trachin and the Oitaean country; for there is both a Halus and a Halius on the seaboard of the Locrians, just as there is also an Alope. Some substitute Halius for Alope and write as follows: and those who dwelt in Halus and in Halius and in Trachin. The Phthiotic Halus is situated below the end of Othrys, a mountain situated to the north of Phthiotis, bordering on Mount Typhrestus and the country of the Dolopians, and extending from there to the region of the Maliac Gulf. Halus (either feminine or masculine, for the name is used in both genders) is about sixty stadia distant from Itonus. It was Athamas who founded Halus, but in later times, after it had been wiped out, the Pharsalians colonized the place. It is situated above the Crocian Plain; and the Amphrysus River flows close to its walls. Below the Crocian Plain lies Phthiotic Thebes. Halus is called both Phthiotic and Achaean Halus, and it borders on the country of the Malians, as do also the spurs of Othrys Mountain. And just as the Phylace, which was subject to Protesilaus, is in that part of Phthiotis which lies next to the country of the Malians, so also is Halus; it is about one hundred stadia distant from Thebes, and it is midway between Pharsalus and the Phthiotae. However, Philip took it away from the Phthiotae and assigned it to the Pharsalians. And so it comes to pass, as I have said before, that the boundaries and the political organizations of tribes and places are always undergoing changes. So, also, Sophocles speaks of Trachinia as belonging to Phthiotis. And Artemidorus places Halus on the seaboard, as situated outside the Maliac Gulf, indeed, but as belonging to Phthiotis; for proceeding thence in the direction of the Peneius, he places Pteleum after Antron, and then Halus at a distance of one hundred and ten stadia from Pteleum. As for Trachin, I have already described it, and the poet mentions it by name.,9. Since the poet often mentions the Spercheius as a river of this country, and since it has its sources in Typhrestus, the Dryopian mountain which in earlier times was called . . ., and empties near Thermopylae and between it and Lamia, he plainly indicates that both the region inside the Gates, I mean in so far as it belonged to the Maliac Gulf, and the region outside the Gates, were subject to Achilles. The Spercheius is about thirty stadia distant from Lamia, which is situated above a certain plain that extends down to the Maliac Gulf. And he plainly indicates that the Spercheius was a river of this country, not only by the assertion of Achilles that he fostered the growth of his hair as an offering to Spercheius, but also by the fact that Menesthius, one of his commanders, was called the son of Spercheius and the sister of Achilles. And it is reasonable to suppose that all the people, the subjects of Achilles and Patroclus, who had accompanied Peleus in his flight from Aigina, were called Myrmidons. And all the Phthiotae were called Achaeans.,10. Historians enumerate the settlements in the Phthiotic domain that was subject to Achilles, and they begin with the Malians. They name several, and among them Phthiotic Thebes, Echinus, Lamia (near which the Lamian War arose between the Macedonians, under Antipater, and the Athenians, and in this war Leosthenes, a general of the Athenians, fell, and also Leonnatus, the comrade of king Alexander), and also Narthacium, Erineus, Coroneia (bearing the same name as the Boeotian city), Melitaea, Thaumaci, Proerna, Pharsalus, Eretria (bearing the same name as the Euboean city), and Paracheloitae (this, too, bearing the same name as the Aitolian city), for here too, near Lamia, is a river Achelous, on whose banks live the Paracheloitae. This country bordered, in its stretch towards the north, on the country of the most westerly of the Asclepiadae, and on the country of Eurypylus, and also on that of Protesilaus, these countries inclining towards the east; and in its stretch towards the south, on the Oitaean country, which was divided into fourteen demes, and also Heracleia and Dryopis, Dryopis having at one time been a tetrapolis, like Doris, and regarded as the metropolis of the Dryopians who lived in the Peloponnesus. To the Oitaean country belong also Acyphas, Parasopias, Oineiadae, and Anticyra, which bears the same name as the city among the Western Locrians. But I am speaking of these divisions of the country, not as having always remained the same, but as having undergone various changes. However, only the most significant divisions are particularly worthy of mention.,11. As for the Dolopians, the poet himself says clearly enough that they were situated in the farthermost parts of Phthia, and that both these and the Phthiotae were under the same leader, Peleus; for I dwelt, he says, in the farthermost part of Phthia, being lord over the Dolopians, whom Peleus gave me. The country borders on Pindus, and on the region round Pindus, most of which belongs to the Thessalians. For both on account of the fame and of the predomice of the Thessalians and the Macedonians, the countries of those Epeirotes who were their nearest neighbors were made, some willingly and the others unwillingly, parts of Thessaly or Macedonia; for instance, the Athamanes, the Aethices, and the Talares were made parts of Thessaly, and the Orestae, the Pelagonians, and the Elimiotae of Macedonia.,12. The Pindus Mountain is large, having the country of the Macedonians on the north, the Perrhaebian immigrants on the west, the Dolopians on the south, and Hestiaeotis on the east; and this last is a part of Thessaly. The Talares, a Molossian tribe, a branch of those who lived in the neighborhood of Mount Tomarus, lived on Mount Pindus itself, as did also the Aethices, amongst whom, the poet says, the Centaurs were driven by Peirithous; but history now tells us that they are extinct. The term extinct is to be taken in one of two meanings; either the people vanished and their country has become utterly deserted, or else merely their ethnic name no longer exists and their political organization no longer remains what it was. When, therefore, any present political organization that survives from an earlier time is utterly insignificant, I hold that it is not worth mentioning, either itself or the new name it has taken; but when it affords a fair pretext for being mentioned, I must needs give an account of the change.,13. It remains for me to tell the order of the places on the coast that were subject to Achilles, beginning at Thermopylae; for I have already spoken of the Locrian and the Oitaean countries. Thermopylae, then, is separated from Kenaion by a strait seventy stadia wide; but, to one sailing along the coast beyond Pylae, it is about ten stadia from the Spercheius; and thence to Phalara twenty stadia; and above Phalara, fifty stadia from the sea, is situated the city of the Lamians; and then next, after sailing fifty stadia along the coast, one comes to Echinus, which is situated above the sea; and in the interior from the next stretch of coast, twenty stadia distant from it, is Larisa Cremaste (it is also called Larisa Pelasgia).,14. Then one comes to Myonnesus, a small island; and then to Antron, which was subject to Protesilaus. So much, then, for the portion that was subject to Achilles. But since the poet, through naming both the leaders and the cities subject to them, has divided Thessaly into numerous well-known parts and arranged in order the whole circuit of it, I, following him again, as above, shall go on to complete the remainder of my geographical description of the country. Now he enumerates next in order after those who were subject to Achilles those who were subject to Protesilaus; and these are also the people who come next in order after the stretch of coast which was subject to Achilles as far as Antron. Therefore, the territory that was subject to Protesilaus is in the boundaries of the country that comes next in order, that is, it lies outside the Maliac Gulf, but still inside Phthiotis, though not inside the part of Phthiotis that was subject to Achilles. Now Phylace is near Phthiotic Thebes, which itself is subject to Protesilaus. And Halus, also, and Larisa Cremaste, and Demetrium, are subject to him, all being situated to the east of the Othrys Mountain. Demetrium he speaks of as sacred precinct of Demeter, and calls it Pyrasus. Pyrasus was a city with a good harbor; at a distance of two stadia it had a sacred precinct and a holy sanctuary, and was twenty stadia distant from Thebes. Thebes is situated above Pyrasus, but the Crocian Plain is situated in the interior back of Thebes near the end of Othrys; and it is through this plain that the Amphrysus flows. Above this river are the Itonus, where is the sanctuary of the Itonian, after which the sanctuary in Boeotia is named, and the Cuarius Rivers. But I have already spoken of this river and of Arne in my description of Boeotia. These places are in Thessaliotis, one of the four portions of all Thessaly, in which were not only the regions that were subject to Eurypylus, but also Phyllus, where is the sanctuary of Phyllian Apollo, and Ichnae, where the Ichnaean Themis is held in honor. Cierus, also, was tributary to it, and so was the rest of that region as far as Athamania. Near Antron, in the Euboean strait, is a submarine reef called Ass of Antron; and then one comes to Pteleum and Halus; and then to the sanctuary of Demeter; and to Pyrasus, which has been razed to the ground; and, above it, to Thebes; and then to Cape Pyrrha, and to two isles near it, one of which is called Pyrrha and the other Deucalion. And it is somewhere here that Phthiotis ends.,15. Next the poet enumerates the peoples that were subject to Eumelus, that is, the adjacent seacoast, which from this point on belongs to Magnesia and the land of Pelasgiotis. Now Pherae is at the end of the Pelasgian plains on the side towards Magnesia; and these plains extend as far as Pelion, one hundred and sixty stadia. The seaport of Pherae is Pagasae, which is ninety stadia distant from Pherae and twenty from Iolcus. Iolcus has indeed been razed to the ground from early times, but it was from there that Pelias despatched Jason and the Argo. It was from the construction here of the ship Argo, according to mythology, that the place was called Pagasae, though some believe, more plausibly, that this name was given the place from its fountains, which are both numerous and of abundant flow. Nearby is Aphetae also, so named as being the apheterium of the Argonauts. Iolcus is situated above the sea seven stadia from Demetrias. Demetrias, which is on the sea between Nelia and Pagasae, was founded by Demetrius Poliorcetes, who named it after himself, settling in it the inhabitants of the nearby towns, Nelia and Pagasae and Ormenium, and also Rhizus, Sepias, Olizon, Boebe, and Iolcus, which are now villages belonging to Demetrias. Furthermore, for a long time this was both a naval station and a royal residence for the kings of the Macedonians; and it held the mastery over both Tempe and the two mountains, Pelion and Ossa, as I have already said. At present it is reduced in power, but still it surpasses all the cities in Magnesia. Lake Boebeis is near Pherae, and also borders on the foothills of Pelion and the frontiers of Magnesia; and Boebe is a place situated on the lake. Just as seditions and tyrannies destroyed Iolcus after its power had been greatly increased, so they reduced Pherae also, which had once been raised to greatness by its tyrants and was then destroyed along with them. Near Demetrias flows the Anaurus River; and the adjoining shore is also called Iolcus. Here, too, they used to hold the Pylaic Festal Assembly. Artemidorus places the Pagasitic Gulf in the region subject to Philoctetes, farther away from Demetrias; and he says that the island Cicynethos and a town bearing the same name are in the gulf.,16. The poet next enumerates the cities subject to Philoctetes. Now Methone is different from the Thracian Methone, which was razed to the ground by Philip. I have mentioned heretofore the change of the names of these places, and of certain places in the Peloponnesus. And the other places enumerated by the poet are Thaumacia and Olizon and Meliboea, which are on the next stretch of seacoast. off the country of the Magnetans lie numerous islands, but the only notable ones are Sciathos, Peparethos, and Icos, and also Halonnesos and Scyros, all having cities of the same name. But Scyros is the most notable, because of the family relation between Lycomedes and Achilles, and of the birth and nurture there of Neoptolemus the son of Achilles. In later times, when Philip had waxed powerful and saw that the Athenians dominated the sea and ruled over the islands, both these and the rest, he caused the islands that were near him to be most famous; for, since he was fighting for the hegemony, he always attacked those places which were close to him, and, just as he added to Macedonia most parts of the Magnetan country and of Thrace and of the rest of the land all round, so he also seized the islands off Magnesia and made those which were previously well-known to nobody objects of contention and hence well-known. Now Scyros is chiefly commended by the place it occupies in the ancient legends, but there are other things which cause it to be widely mentioned, as, for instance, the excellence of the Scyrian goats, and the quarries of the Scyrian variegated marble, which is comparable to the Carystian marble, and to the Docimaean or Synnadic, and to the Hierapolitic. For at Rome are to be seen monolithic columns and great slabs of the variegated marble; and with this marble the city is being adorned both at public and at private expense; and it has caused the quarries of white marble to be of little worth.,17. However, the poet, after proceeding thus far on the Magnetan seacoast, returns to Upper Thessaly; for, beginning at Dolopia and Pindus, he recounts the parts that stretch alongside Phthiotis, as far as Lower Thessaly: And those who held Tricce and rocky Ithome. These places belong in fact to Histiaeotis, though in earlier times Histiaeotis was called Doris, as they say; but when the Perrhaebians took possession of it, who had already subdued Histiaeotis in Euboea and had forced its inhabitants to migrate to the mainland, they called the country Histiaeotis after these Histiaeans, because of the large number of these people who settled there. They call Histiaeotis and Dolopia Upper Thessaly, which is in a straight line with Upper Macedonia, as is Lower Thessaly with Lower Macedonia. Now Tricce, where is the earliest and most famous sanctuary of Asclepius, borders on the country of the Dolopians and the regions round Pindus. Ithome, which is called by the same name as the Messenian city, ought not, they say, to be pronounced in this way, but without the first syllable; for thus, they add, it was called in earlier times, though now its name has been changed to Ithome. It is a stronghold and is in reality a heap of stones; and it is situated between four strongholds, which lie in a square, as it were: Tricce, Metropolis, Pelinnaion, and Gomphi. But Ithome belongs to the territory of the Metropolitans. Metropolis in earlier times was a joint settlement composed of three insignificant towns; but later several others were added to it, among which was Ithome. Now Callimachus, in his Iambics, says that, of all the Aphrodites (for there was not merely one goddess of this name), Aphrodite Castnietis surpasses all in wisdom, since she alone accepts the sacrifice of swine. And surely he was very learned, if any other man was, and all his life, as he himself states, wished to recount these things. But the writers of later times have discovered that not merely one Aphrodite, but several, have accepted this rite; and that among these was the Aphrodite at Metropolis, and that one of the cities included in the settlement transmitted to it the Onthurian rite. Pharcadon, also, is in Histiaeotis; and the Peneius and the Curalius flow through its territory. of these rivers, the Curalius flows past the sanctuary of the Itonian Athena and empties into the Peneius; but the Peneius itself rises in Pindus, as I have already said, and after leaving Tricce and Pelinnaion and Pharcadon on the left flows past both Atrax and Larisa, and after receiving the rivers in Thessaliotis flows on through Tempe to its outlet. Historians place the Oichalia which is called the city of Eurytus not only in this region, but also in Euboea and in Arcadia; and they give its name in different ways, as I have already said in my description of the Peloponnesus. They inquire concerning these, and particularly in regard to what Oichalia it was that was captured by Heracles, and concerning what Oichalia was meant by the poet who wrote The Capture of Oichalia. These places, then, were classed by Homer as subject to the Asclepiadae.,18. Next he speaks of the country subject to Eurypylus: and those who held the fountain Hypereia, and those who held Asterium and the white summits of Titanus. Now at the present time Ormenium is called Orminium; it is a village situated at the foot of Pelion near the Pagasitic Gulf, one of the cities included in the settlement of Demetrias, as I have said. And Lake Boebeis, also, must be near, since Boebe, as well as Ormenium itself, was one of the dependencies of Demetrias. Now Ormenium is distant by land twenty-seven stadia from Demetrias, whereas the site of Iolcus, which is situated on the road, is distant seven stadia from Demetrias and the remaining twenty stadia from Ormenium. The Scepsian says that Phoenix was from Ormenium, and that he fled thence from his father Amyntor the son of Ormenus into Phthia to Peleus the king; for this place, he adds, was founded by Ormenus the son of Cercaphus the son of Aeolus; and he says that both Amyntor and Euaemon were sons of Ormenus, and that Phoenix was son of the former and Eurypylus of the latter, but that the succession to the throne, to which both had equal right, was kept for Eurypylus, inasmuch as Phoenix had gone away from his homeland. Furthermore, the Scepsian writes thus, as when first I left Ormenium rich in flocks, instead of I left Hellas, land of fair women. But Crates makes Phoenix a Phocian, judging this from the helmet of Meges, which Odysseus used at the time of his night spying, concerning which the poet says, Autolycus filched it from Eleon, from Amyntor the son of Ormenus, having broken into his close-built home. For Eleon, he says, is a town of Parnassus; and Amyntor, son of Ormenus, means no other than the father of Phoenix; and Autolycus, who lived on Parnassus, must have broken into the house of a neighbor (as is the way of any housebreaker), and not into that of people far away. But the Scepsian says that there is no place called Eleon to be seen on Parnassus, though there is a place called Neon, founded in fact after the Trojan War, and also that housebreakings are not confined to neighbors only. And there are other arguments which one might give, but I hesitate to spend further time on this subject. Others write from Heleon, but Heleon is a place in Tanagria, and this reading would increase the absurdity of the statement, Then I fled afar off through Hellas and came to Phthia. The fountain Hypereia is in the middle of the city of the Pheraeans, which belonged to Eumelus. It is absurd, therefore, to assign the fountain to Eurypylus. Titanus was named from the fact in the case there; for the region near Arne and Aphetae has white soil. Asterium, also, is not far from these.,19. Continuous with this portion of Thessaly is the country of those who are called the subjects of Polypoetes: And those who held Argissa and dwelt in Gyrtone, Orthe, and Elone and the white city Oloosson. In earlier times the Perrhaebians inhabited this country, dwelling in the part near the sea and near the Peneius, extending as far as its outlet and Gyrton, a Perrhaebian city. Then the Lapiths humbled the Perrhaebians and thrust them back into the river country in the interior, and seized their country — I mean the Lapiths Ixion and his son Peirithous, the latter of whom also took possession of Pelion, forcing out the Centaurs, a wild folk, who had seized it. Now these he thrust from Pelion and made them draw near to the Aethices, and he gave over the plains to the Lapiths, though the Perrhaebians kept possession of some of them, those near Olympus, and also in some places lived completely intermingled with the Lapiths. Now Argissa, the present Argura, is situated on the Peneius; and forty stadia above it lies Atrax, which also is close to the river; and the Perrhaebians held the river country between the two places. Some have called Orthe the acropolis of the Phalannaeans; and Phalanna is a Perrhaebian city close to the Peneius near Tempe. Now the Perrhaebians, being overpowered by the Lapiths, for the most part emigrated to the mountainous country about Pindus and to the countries of the Athamanians and Dolopians, but their country and all Perrhaebians who were left behind there were seized by the Larisaeans, who lived near the Peneius and were their neighbors and dwelt in the most fertile parts of the plains, though not in the very low region near the lake called Nessonis, into which the river, when it overflowed, would carry away a portion of the arable soil belonging to the Larisaeans. Later, however, they corrected this by means of embankments. The Larisaeans, then, kept possession of Perrhaebia and exacted tribute until Philip established himself as lord over the region. Larisa is also the name of a place on Ossa; another is Larisa Cremaste, by some called Pelasgia; and in Crete is a city Larisa, now joined to Hierapytna, whence the plain that lies below is now called Larisian Plain; and, in the Peloponnesus both Larisa, the citadel of the Argives, and the Larisus River, which is the boundary between the Eleian country and Dyme. Theopompus speaks of another city Larisa situated on the same common boundary; and in Asia is a Larisa Phryconis near Cyme; and also the Larisa near Hamaxitis in the Troad; and there is the Ephesian Larisa, and the Larisa in Syria; and there are Larisaean Rocks fifty stadia from Mitylene on the road to Methymne; and there is a Larisa in Attica; and a village Larisa thirty stadia distant from Tralleis, above the city, on the road which runs through Mesogis towards the Cayster Plain near the sanctuary of the Isodromian Mother, which in its topographical position and its goodly attributes is like Larisa Cremaste, for it has an abundance of water and of vineyards; and perhaps the Larisaean Zeus received his epithet from this place; and also on the left of the Pontus is a village called Larisa, between Naulochus and. . ., near the end of Mount Haemus. And Oloosson, called white from the fact that its soil is a white clay, and Elone, and Gonnus are Perrhaebian cities. But Elone changed its name to Leimone, and is now in ruins. Both are situated below Olympus, not very far from the Europus River, which the poet calls the Titaresius.,20. The poet next mentions both Titaresius and the Perrhaebians, when he says, And Guneus led from Cyphus twenty-two ships. And there followed him the Enienians, and the Perrhaebians steadfast in war, who had established their homes round wintry Dodona, and dwelt in the fields about lovely Titaresius. Now he speaks of these places as belonging to the Perrhaebians, places which fell into their possession as a part of Hestiaeotis. And also the cities subject to Polypoetes were in part Perrhaebian. However, he assigned them to the Lapiths because the two peoples lived intermingled with one another, and also because, although the Lapiths held possession of the plains and the Perrhaebian element there were for the most part subject to the Lapiths, the Perrhaebians held possession of the more mountainous parts near Olympus and Tempe, as, for example, Cyphus, and Dodona, and the region about the Titaresius; this river rises in the Titarius Mountain, which connects with Olympus, and flows into the territory of Perrhaebia which is near Tempe, and somewhere in that neighborhood unites with the Peneius. Now the water of the Peneius is pure, but that of the Titaresius is oily, because of some substance or other, so that it does not mingle with that of the Peneius, but runs over it on the top like oil. Because of the fact that the two peoples lived intermingled, Simonides uses the terms Perrhaebians and Lapiths of all the Pelasgiotes who occupy the region about Gyrton and the outlets of the Peneius and Mount Ossa and Mount Pelion, and the region about Demetrias, and the region in the plain, I mean Larisa, Crannon, Scotussa, Mopsium, Atrax, and the region about Lake Nessonis and Lake Boebeis. of these places the poet mentions only a few, because the rest of them had not yet been settled, or else were only wretched settlements, on account of the inundations which took place at various times. Indeed, he does not mention Lake Nessonis either, but Lake Boebeis only (though it is much smaller), because the latter alone persisted, whereas the former, in all probability, was at times filled at irregular intervals and at times gave out altogether. Scotussa I have already mentioned in my account of Dodona and of the oracle in Thessaly, saying that originally it was near this place. In the territory of Scotussa there is a place called Cynoscephalae, near which Titus Quintius and the Romans, along with the Aitolians, in a great battle conquered Philip the son of Demetrius, king of the Macedonians.,21. Magnetis, also, has been treated by Homer in about the same way. For although he has already enumerated many of the places in Magnetis, none of these are called Magnetan by him except those two places, and even these are designated by him in a dim and indistinct way: who dwelt about Peneius and Pelion with its shaking foliage. Assuredly, however, about the Peneius and Pelion lived those who held Gyrton, whom he had already named, as also those who held Ormenium, and several other Perrhaebian peoples; and yet farther away from Pelion there were still Magnetans, beginning with those subject to Eumelus, at least according to the writers of later times. These writers, however, on account of the continual migrations, changes of political administrations, and intermixture of tribes, seem to have confused both the names and the tribes, so that they sometimes present difficult questions for the writers of today. For example, this has proved true, in the first place, in the case of Crannon and Gyrton; for in earlier times the Gyrtonians were called Phlegyae, from Phlegyas, the brother of Ixion, and the Crannonians Ephyri, so that it is a difficult question who can be meant by the poet when he says, Verily these twain, going forth from Thrace, arm themselves to pursue the Ephyri, or to pursue the great-hearted Phlegyae.,22. Again, the same thing is true in the case of the Perrhaebians and Aenianians. For Homer connected the two, as living near one another; and in fact we are told by the writers of later times that for a long time the habitation of the Aenianians was in the Dotian Plain. This plain is near the Perrhaebia just mentioned above, and Ossa and Lake Boebeis; and while it is situated in the middle of Thessaly, yet it is enclosed all round by hills of its own. Concerning this plain Hesiod has spoken thus: Or as the unwedded virgin who, dwelling on the holy Didyman Hills, in the Dotian Plain, in front of Amyrus, bathed her foot in Lake Boebeis. Now as for the Aenianians, most of them were driven into Oita by the Lapiths; and there too they became predomit, having taken away certain parts of the country from the Dorians and the Malians as far as Heracleia and Echinus, although some remained in the neighborhood of Cyphus, a Perrhaebian mountain which had a settlement of the same name. As for the Perrhaebians, some of them drew together round the western parts of Olympus and stayed there, being neighbors to the Macedonians, but the greater part of them were driven out of their country into the mountains round Athamania and Pindus. But today little or no trace of them is preserved. At any rate, the Magnetans mentioned last by the poet in the Thessalian Catalogue should be regarded as those inside Tempe, extending from the Peneius and Ossa as far as Pelion, and bordering on the Pieriotae in Macedonia, who held the country on the far side of the Peneius as far as the sea. Now Homolium, or Homole (for it is spelled both ways), should be assigned to the Magnetans; as I have said in my description of Macedonia, it is close to Ossa, situated where the Peneius begins to discharge its waters through Tempe. And if one were to proceed as far as the seacoast nearest to Homolium, there is reason for assigning to them Rhizus and Erymnae, which were situated on that part of the seacoast which was subject to Philoctetes and on that which was subject to Eumelus. However, let this question remain undecided. And also the order of the places next thereafter as far as the Peneius is not plainly told by the poet; but since these places are without repute, neither should I myself regard the matter as of great importance. Cape Sepias, however, was afterwards celebrated both in tragedies and in hymns on account of the total destruction there of the Persian fleet. Sepias itself is a rocky cape, but between it and Casthanaea, a village situated at the foot of Pelion, is a beach where the fleet of Xerxes was lying in wait when, a violent east wind bursting forth, some of the ships were immediately driven high and dry on the beach and broken to pieces on the spot, and the others were carried along the coast to Ipni, one of the rugged places in the region of Pelion, or to Meliboea, or to Casthanaea, and destroyed. The whole voyage along the coast of Pelion is rough, a distance of about eighty stadia; and that along the coast of Ossa is equally long and rough. Between is a gulf more than two hundred stadia in circuit, on which is Meliboea. The whole voyage along the coast from Demetrias to the Peneius, following the sinuosities of the gulfs, is more than one thousand stadia in length, and from the Sperchius eight hundred more, and from the Euripus two thousand three hundred and fifty. Hieronymus declares that the plain country of Thessaly and Magnetis is three thousand stadia in circuit, and that it was inhabited by Pelasgians, and that these were driven out of their country by the Lapiths, and that the present Pelasgian Plain, as it is called, is that in which are situated Larisa, Gyrtone, Pherae, Mopsium, Boebeis, Ossa, Homole, Pelion, and Magnetis. Mopsium is named, not after Mopsus, the son of Manto the daughter of Teiresias, but after Mopsus the Lapith who sailed with the Argonauts. But Mopsopus, after whom the Attic Mopsopia is named, is a different person.,23. So much, then, for the several parts of Thessaly. But speaking of it as a whole, I may say that in earlier times it was called Pyrrhaea, after Pyrrha the wife of Deucalion, and Haemonia after Haemon, and Thessaly after Thessalus the son of Haemon. But some writers, dividing it into two parts, say that Deucalion obtained the portion towards the south and called it Pandora after his mother, and that the other part fell to Haemon, after whom it was called Haemonia, but that the former name was changed to Hellas, after Hellen the son of Deucalion, and the latter to Thessaly, after the son of Haemon. Some, however, say that descendants of Antiphus and Pheidippus, the sons of Thessalus the son of Heracles, invaded the country from Thesprotian Ephyra and named it after Thessalus, their own ancestor. And it has been said that the country too was once named Nessonis, like the lake, after Nesson the son of Thessalus. 10.1. 1. Since Euboea lies parallel to the whole of the coast from Sounion to Thessaly, with the exception of the ends on either side, it would be appropriate to connect my description of the island with that of the parts already described before passing on to Aitolia and Acaria, which are the remaining parts of Europe to be described.,2. In its length, then, the island extends parallel to the coast for a distance of about one thousand two hundred stadia from Kenaion to Geraistos, but its breadth is irregular and generally only about one hundred and fifty stadia. Now Kenaion lies opposite to Thermopylae and, to a slight extent, to the region outside Thermopylae, whereas Geraistos and Petalia lie towards Sounion. Accordingly, the island lies across the strait and opposite Attica, Boeotia, Locris, and the Malians. Because of its narrowness and of the above-mentioned length, it was named Macris by the ancients. It approaches closest to the mainland at Chalcis, where it juts out in a convex curve towards the region of Aulis in Boeotia and forms the Euripus. Concerning the Euripus I have already spoken rather at length, as also to a certain extent concerning the places which lie opposite one another across the strait, both on the mainland and on the island, on either side of the Euripus, that is, the regions both inside and outside the Euripus. But if anything has been left out, I shall now explain more fully. And first, let me explain that the parts between Aulis and the region of Geraistos are called the Hollows of Euboea; for the coast bends inwards, but when it approaches Chalcis it forms a convex curve again towards the mainland.,3. The island was called, not only Macris, but also Abantis; at any rate, the poet, although he names Euboea, never names its inhabitants Euboeans, but always Abantes: And those who held Euboea, the courage-breathing Abantes . . . 5And with him followed the Abantes. 7 Aristotle says that Thracians, setting out from the Phocian Aba, recolonized the island and renamed those who held it Abantes. Others derive the name from a hero, just as they derive Euboea from a heroine. But it may be, just as a certain cave on the coast which fronts the Aegean, where Io is said to have given birth to Epaphus, is called Boos Aule, that the island got the name Euboea from the same cause. The island was also called Oche; and the largest of its mountains bears the same name. And it was also named Ellopia, after Ellops the son of Ion. Some say that he was the brother of Aiclus and Cothus; and he is also said to have founded Ellopia, a place in Oria, as it is called, in Histiaeotis near the mountain Telethrius, and to have added to his dominions Histiaea, Perias, Cerinthus, Aedepsus, and Orobia; in this last place was an oracle most averse to falsehood (it was an oracle of Apollo Selinaios (Selinuntius in ms). The Ellopians migrated to Histiaea and enlarged the city, being forced to do so by Philistides the tyrant, after the battle of Leuctra. Demosthenes says that Philistides was set up by Philip as tyrant of the Oreitae too; for thus in later times the Histiaeans were named, and the city was named Oreus instead of Histiaea. But according to some writers, Histiaea was colonized by Athenians from the deme of the Histiaeans, as Eretria was colonized from that of the Eretrians. Theopompus says that when Pericles overpowered Euboea the Histiaeans by agreement migrated to Macedonia, and that two thousand Athenians who formerly composed the deme of the Histiaeans came and took up their abode in Oreus.,4. Oreus is situated at the foot of the mountain Telethrius in the Drymus, as it is called, on the River Callas, upon a high rock; and hence, perhaps, it was because the Ellopians who formerly inhabited it were mountaineers that the name Oreus was assigned to the city. It is also thought that Orion was so named because he was reared there. Some writers say that the Oreitae had a city of their own, but because the Ellopians were making war on them they migrated and took up their abode with the Histiaeans; and that, although they became one city, they used both names, just as the same city is called both Lacedemon and Sparta. As I have already said, Histiaeotis in Thessaly was also named after the Histiaeans who were carried off from here into the mainland by the Perrhaebians.,5. Since Ellopia induced me to begin my description with Histiaea and Oreus, let me speak of the parts which border on these places. In the territory of this Oreus lies, not only Kenaion, near Oreus, but also, near Kenaion, Dium and Athenae Diades, the latter founded by the Athenians and lying above that part of the strait where passage is taken across to Cynus; and Canae in Aeolis was colonized from Dium. Now these places are in the neighborhood of Histiaea; and so is Cerinthus, a small city by the sea; and near it is the Budorus River, which bears the same name as the mountain in Salamis which is close to Attica.,6. Carystus is at the foot of the mountain Oche; and near it are Styra and Marmarium, in which latter are the quarry of the Carystian columns and a sanctuary of Apollo Marmarinus; and from here there is a passage across the strait to Halae Araphenides. In Carystus is produced also the stone which is combed and woven, so that the woven material is made into towels, and, when these are soiled, they are thrown into fire and cleansed, just as linens are cleansed by washing. These places are said to have been settled by colonists from the Marathonian Tetrapolis and by Steirians. Styra was destroyed in the Malian war by Phaedrus, the general of the Athenians; but the country is held by the Eretrians. There is also a Carystus in the Laconian country, a place belonging to Aegys, towards Arcadia; whence the Carystian wine of which Alcman speaks.,7. Geraistos is not named in the Catalogue of Ships, but still the poet mentions it elsewhere: and at night they landed at Geraistos. And he plainly indicates that the place is conveniently situated for those who are sailing across from Asia to Attica, since it comes near to Sounion. It has a sanctuary of Poseidon, the most notable of those in that part of the world, and also a noteworthy settlement.,8. After Geraistos one comes to Eretria, the greatest city in Euboea except Chalcis; and then to Chalcis, which in a way is the metropolis of the island, being situated on the Euripus itself. Both are said to have been founded by the Athenians before the Trojan War. And after the Trojan War, Aiclus and Cothus, setting out from Athens, settled inhabitants in them, the former in Eretria and the latter in Chalcis. There were also some Aeolians from the army of Penthilus who remained in the island, and, in ancient times, some Arabians who had crossed over with Cadmus. Be this as it may, these cities grew exceptionally strong and even sent forth noteworthy colonies into Macedonia; for Eretria colonized the cities situated round Pallene and Athos, and Chalcis colonized the cities that were subject to Olynthus, which later were treated outrageously by Philip. And many places in Italy and Sicily are also Chalcidian. These colonies were sent out, as Aristotle states, when the government of the Hippobatae, as it is called, was in power; for at the head of it were men chosen according to the value of their property, who ruled in an aristocratic manner. At the time of Alexander's passage across, the Chalcidians enlarged the circuit of the walls of their city, taking inside them both Canethus and the Euripus, and fortifying the bridge with towers and gates and a wall.,9. Above the city of the Chalcidians is situated the Lelantine Plain. In this plain are fountains of hot water suited to the cure of diseases, which were used by Cornelius Sulla, the Roman commander. And in this plain was also a remarkable mine which contained copper and iron together, a thing which is not reported as occurring elsewhere; now, however, both metals have given out, as in the case of the silver mines at Athens. The whole of Euboea is much subject to earthquakes, but particularly the part near the strait, which is also subject to blasts through subterranean passages, as are Boeotia and other places which I have already described rather at length. And it is said that the city which bore the same name as the island was swallowed up by reason of a disturbance of this kind. This city is also mentioned by Aeschylus in his Glaucus Pontius: Euboeis, about the bending shore of Zeus Cenaeus, near the very tomb of wretched Lichas. In Aitolia, also, there is a place called by the same name Chalcis: and Chalcis near the sea, and rocky Calydon, and in the present Eleian country: and they went past Cruni and rocky Chalcis, that is, Telemachus and his companions, when they were on their way back from Nestor's to their homeland.,10. As for Eretria, some say that it was colonized from Triphylian Macistus by Eretrieus, but others say from the Eretria at Athens, which now is a marketplace. There is also an Eretria near Pharsalus. In the Eretrian territory there was a city Tamynae, sacred to Apollo; and the sanctuary, which is near the strait, is said to have been founded by Admetus, at whose house the god served as an hireling for a year. In earlier times Eretria was called Melaneis and Arotria. The village Amarynthus, which is seven stadia distant from the walls, belongs to this city. Now the old city was razed to the ground by the Persians, who netted the people, as Herodotus says, by means of their great numbers, the barbarians being spread about the walls (the foundations are still to be seen, and the place is called Old Eretria); but the Eretria of today was founded on it. As for the power the Eretrians once had, this is evidenced by the pillar which they once set up in the sanctuary of Artemis Amarynthia. It was inscribed thereon that they made their festal procession with three thousand heavy-armed soldiers, six hundred horsemen, and sixty chariots. And they ruled over the peoples of Andros, Teos, Ceos, and other islands. They received new settlers from Elis; hence, since they frequently used the letter r, not only at the end of words, but also in the middle, they have been ridiculed by comic writers. There is also a village Oichalia in the Eretrian territory, the remains of the city which was destroyed by Heracles; it bears the same name as the Trachinian Oichalia and that near Tricce, and the Arcadian Oichalia, which the people of later times called Andania, and that Oichalia in Aitolia in the neighborhood of the Eurytanians.,11. Now at the present time Chalcis by common consent holds the leading position and is called the metropolis of the Euboeans; and Eretria is second. Yet even in earlier times these cities were held in great esteem, not only in war, but also in peace; indeed, they afforded philosophers a pleasant and undisturbed place of abode. This is evidenced by the school of the Eretrian philosophers, Menedemus and his disciples, which was established in Eretria, and also, still earlier, by the sojourn of Aristotle in Chalcis, where he also ended his days.,12. Now in general these cities were in accord with one another, and when differences arose concerning the Lelantine Plain they did not so completely break off relations as to wage their wars in all respects according to the will of each, but they came to an agreement as to the conditions under which they were to conduct the fight. This fact, among others, is disclosed by a certain pillar in the Amarynthium, which forbids the use of long distance missiles. In fact among all the customs of warfare and of the use of arms there neither is, nor has been, any single custom; for some use long distance missiles, as, for example, bowmen and slingers and javelin-throwers, whereas others use close-fighting arms, as, for example, those who use sword, or outstretched spear; for the spear is used in two ways, one in hand-to-hand combat and the other for hurling like a javelin; just as the pike serves both purposes, for it can be used both in close combat and as a missile for hurling, which is also true of the sarissa and the hyssus.,13. The Euboeans excelled in standing combat, which is also called close and hand-to-hand combat; and they used their spears outstretched, as the poet says: spearmen eager with outstretched ashen spears to shatter corselets. Perhaps the javelins were of a different kind, such as probably was the Pelian ashen spear, which, as the poet says,Achilles alone knew how to hurl; and he who said,And the spear I hurl farther than any other man can shoot an arrow, means the javelin-spear. And those who fight in single combat are first introduced as using javelin-spears, and then as resorting to swords. And close fighters are not those who use the sword alone, but also the spear hand-to-hand, as the poet says: he pierced him with bronze-tipped polished spear, and loosed his limbs. Now he introduces the Euboeans as using this mode of fighting, but he says the contrary of the Locrians, thatthey cared not for the tolls of close combat, . . . but relying on bows and well-twisted slings of sheep's wool they followed with him to Ilium. There is current, also, an oracle which was given out to the people of Aegium,Thessalian horse, Lacedemonian woman, and men who drink the water of sacred Arethusa, meaning that the Chalcidians are best of all, for Arethusa is in their territory.,14. There are now two rivers in Euboea, the Cereus and the Neleus; and the sheep which drink from one of them turn white, and from the other black. A similar thing takes place in connection with the Crathis River, as I have said before.,15. When the Euboeans were returning from Troy, some of them, after being driven out of their course to Illyria, set out for home through Macedonia, but remained in the neighborhood of Edessa, after aiding in war those who had received them hospitably; and they founded a city Euboe. There was also a Euboea in Sicily, which was founded by the Chalcidians of Sicily, but they were driven out of it by Gelon; and it became a stronghold of the Syracusans. In Corcyra, also, and in Lemnos, there were places called Euboea; and in the Argive country a hill of that name.,16. Since the Aitolians, Acarians, and Athamanians (if these too are to be called Greeks) live to the west of the Thessalians and the Oitaeans, it remains for me to describe these three, in order that I may complete the circuit of Greece; I must also add the islands which lie nearest to Greece and are inhabited by the Greeks, so far as I have not already included them in my description. 10.2. 1. Aitolians Acarians Now the Aitolians and the Acarians border on one another, having between them the Achelous River, which flows from the north and from Pindus on the south through the country of the Agraeans, an Aitolian tribe, and through that of the Amphilochians, the Acarians holding the western side of the river as far as that part of the Ambracian Gulf which is near Amphilochi and the sanctuary of the Actian Apollo, but the Aitolians the eastern side as far as the Ozolian Locrians and Parnassus and the Oitaeans. Above the Acarians, in the interior and the parts towards the north, are situated the Amphilochians, and above these the Dolopians and Pindus, and above the Aitolians are the Perrhaebians and Athamanians and a part of the Aenianians who hold Oita. The southern side, of Acaria and Aitolia alike, is washed by the sea which forms the Corinthian Gulf, into which empties the Achelous River, which forms the boundary between the coast of the Aitolians and that of Acaria. In earlier times the Achelous was called Thoas. The river which flows past Dyme bears the same name as this, as I have already said, and also the river near Lamia. I have already stated, also, that the Corinthian Gulf is said to begin at the mouth of this river.,2. As for cities, those of the Acarians are Anactorium, which is situated on a peninsula near Actium and is a trading center of the Nicopolis of today, which was founded in our times; Stratus, where one may sail up the Achelous River more than two hundred stadia; and Oineiadae, which is also on the river — the old city, which is equidistant from the sea and from Stratus, being uninhabited, whereas that of today lies at a distance of about seventy stadia above the outlet of the river. There are also other cities, Palaerus, Alyzia, Leucas, Argos Amphilochicum , and Ambracia, most of which, or rather all, have become dependencies of Nicopolis. Stratus is situated about midway of the road between Alyzia and Anactorium.,3. The cities of the Aitolians are Calydon and Pleuron, which are now indeed reduced, though in early times these settlements were an ornament to Greece. Further, Aitolia has come to be divided into two parts, one part being called Old Aitolia and the other Aitolia Epictetus. The Old Aitolia was the seacoast extending from the Achelous to Calydon, reaching for a considerable distance into the interior, which is fertile and level; here in the interior lie Stratus and Trichonium, the latter having excellent soil. Aitolia Epictetus is the part which borders on the country of the Locrians in the direction of Naupactus and Eupalium, being a rather rugged and sterile country, and extends to the Oitaean country and to that of the Athamanians and to the mountains and tribes which are situated next beyond these towards the north.,4. Aitolia also has a very large mountain, Corax, which borders on Oita; and it has among the rest of its mountains, and more in the middle of the country than Corax, Aracynthus, near which New Pleuron was founded by the inhabitants of the old, who abandoned their city, which had been situated near Calydon in a district both fertile and level, at the time when Demetrius, surnamed Aetolicus, laid waste the country; above Molycreia are Taphiassus and Chalcis, rather high mountains, on which were situated the small cities Macynia and Chalcis, the latter bearing the same name as the mountain, though it is also called Hypochalcis. Near Old Pleuron is the mountain Curium, after which, as some have supposed, the Pleuronian Curetes were named.,5. The Evenus River begins in the territory of those Bomians who live in the country of the Ophians, the Ophians being an Aitolian tribe (like the Eurytanians and Agraeans and Curetes and others), and flows at first, not through the Curetan country, which is the same as the Pleuronian, but through the more easterly country, past Chalcis and Calydon; and then, bending back towards the plains of Old Pleuron and changing its course to the west, it turns towards its outlets and the south. In earlier times it was called Lycormas. And there Nessus, it is said, who had been appointed ferryman, was killed by Heracles because he tried to violate Deianeira when he was ferrying her across the river.,6. The poet also names Olenus and Pylene as Aitolian cities. of these, the former, which bears the same name as the Achaean city, was razed to the ground by the Aeolians; it was near New Pleuron, but the Acarians claimed possession of the territory. The other, Pylene, the Aeolians moved to higher ground, and also changed its name, calling it Proschium. Hellanicus does not know the history of these cities either, but mentions them as though they too were still in their early status; and among the early cities he names Macynia and Molycreia, which were founded even later than the return of the Heracleidae, almost everywhere in his writings displaying a most convenient carelessness.,7. Upon the whole, then, this is what I have to say concerning the country of the Acarians and the Aitolians, but the following is also to be added concerning the seacoast and the islands which lie off it: Beginning at the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf the first place which belongs to the Acarians is Actium. The sanctuary of the Actian Apollo bears the same name, as also the cape which forms the mouth of the Gulf and has a harbor on the outer side. Anactorium, which is situated on the gulf, is forty stadia distant from the sanctuary, whereas Leucas is two hundred and forty.,8. In early times Leucas was a peninsula of Acaria, but the poet calls it shore of the mainland, using the term mainland for the country which is situated across from Ithaca and Cephallenia; and this country is Acaria. And therefore, when he says, shore of the mainland, one should take it to mean shore of Acaria. And to Leucas also belonged, not only Nericus, which Laertes says he took (verily I took Nericus, well-built citadel, shore of the mainland, when I was lord over the Cephallenians), but also the cities which Homer names in the Catalogue (and dwell in Crocyleia and rugged Aegilips). But the Corinthians sent by Cypselus and Gorgus took possession of this shore and also advanced as far as the Ambracian Gulf; and both Ambracia and Anactorium were colonized at this time; and the Corinthians dug a canal through the isthmus of the peninsula and made Leucas an island; and they transferred Nericus to the place which, though once an isthmus, is now a strait spanned by a bridge, and they changed its name to Leucas, which was named, as I think, after Leucatas; for Leucatas is a rock of white color jutting out from Leucas into the sea and towards Cephallenia and therefore it took its name from its color.,9. It contains the sanctuary of Apollo Leucatas, and also the Leap, which was believed to put an end to the longings of love.Where Sappho is said to have been the first, as Meder says,when through frantic longing she was chasing the haughty Phaon, to fling herself with a leap from the far-seen rock, calling upon thee in prayer, O lord and master. Now although Meder says that Sappho was the first to take the leap, yet those who are better versed than he in antiquities say that it was Cephalus, who was in love with Pterelas the son of Deioneus. It was an ancestral custom among the Leucadians, every year at the sacrifice performed in honor of Apollo, for some criminal to be flung from this rocky look-out for the sake of averting evil, wings and birds of all kinds being fastened to him, since by their fluttering they could lighten the leap, and also for a number of men, stationed all round below the rock in small fishing-boats, to take the victim in, and, when he had been taken on board, to do all in their power to get him safely outside their borders. The author of the Alcmaeonis says that Icarius, the father of Penelope, had two sons, Alyzeus and Leucadius, and that these two reigned over Acaria with their father; accordingly, Ephorus thinks that the cities were named after these.,10. But though at the present time only the people of the island Cephallenia are called Cephallenians, Homer so calls all who were subject to Odysseus, among whom are also the Acarians. For after saying,but Odysseus led the Cephallenians, who held Ithaca and Neritum with quivering foliage (Neritum being the famous mountain on this island, as also when he says, and those from Dulichium and the sacred Echinades, Dulichium itself being one of the Echinades; and those who dwelt in Buprasium and Elis, Buprasium being in Elis; and those who held Euboea and Chalcis and Eiretria, meaning that these cities were in Euboea; and Trojans and Lycians and Dardanians, meaning that the Lycians and Dardanians were Trojans) — however, after mentioning Neritum, he says, and dwelt in Crocyleia and rugged Aegilips, and those who held Zacynthos and those who dwelt about Samos, and those who held the mainland and dwelt in the parts over against the islands. By mainland, therefore, he means the parts over against the islands, wishing to include, along with Leucas, the rest of Acaria as well, concerning which he also speaks in this way, twelve herd on the mainland, and as many flocks of sheep, perhaps because Epeirotis extended thus far in early times and was called by the general name mainland. But by Samos he means the Cephallenia of today, as, when he says, in the strait between Ithaca and rugged Samos; for by the epithet he differentiates between the objects bearing the same name, thus making the name apply, not to the city, but to the island. For the island was a tetrapolis, and one of its four cities was the city called indifferently either Samos or Same, bearing the same name as the island. And when the poet says,for all the nobles who hold sway over the islands, Dulichium and Same and woody Zacynthos, he is evidently making an enumeration of the islands and calling Same that island which he had formerly called Samos. But Apollodorus, when he says in one passage that ambiguity is removed by the epithet when the poet says and rugged Samos, showing that he meant the island, and then, in another passage, says that one should copy the reading,Dulichium and Samos, instead of Same, plainly takes the position that the city was called Same or Samos indiscriminately, but the island Samos only; for that the city was called Same is clear, according to Apollodorus, from the fact that, in enumerating the wooers from the several cities, the poet said, from Same came four and twenty men, and also from the statement concerning Ktimene, they then sent her to Same to wed. But this is open to argument, for the poet does not express himself distinctly concerning either Cephallenia or Ithaca and the other places near by; and consequently both the commentators and the historians are at variance with one another.,11. For instance, when Homer says in regard to Ithaca, those who held Ithaca and Neritum with quivering foliage, he clearly indicates by the epithet that he means the mountain Neritum; and in other passages he expressly calls it a mountain; but I dwell in sunny Ithaca, wherein is a mountain, Neritum, with quivering leaves and conspicuous from afar. But whether by Ithaca he means the city or the island, is not clear, at least in the following verse, those who held Ithaca and Neritum; for if one takes the word in its proper sense, one would interpret it as meaning the city, just as though one should say Athens and Lycabettus, or Rhodes and Atabyris, or Lacedemon and Taygetus; but if he takes it in a poetical sense the opposite is true. However, in the words, but I dwell in sunny Ithaca, wherein is a mountain, Neritum, his meaning is clear, for the mountain is in the island, not in the city. But when he says as follows, we have come from Ithaca below Neium, it is not clear whether he means that Neium is the same as Neritum or different, or whether it is a mountain or place. However, the critic who writes Nericum instead of Neritum, or the reverse, is utterly mistaken; for the poet refers to the latter as quivering with foliage, but to the former as well-built citadel, and to the latter as in Ithaca, but to the former as shore of the mainland.,12. The following verse also is thought to disclose a sort of contradiction: Now Ithaca itself lies chthamale, panypertate on the sea; for chthamale means low, or on the ground, whereas panypertate means high up, as Homer indicates in several places when he calls Ithaca rugged. And so when he refers to the road that leads from the harbor as rugged path up through the wooded place, and when he says for not one of the islands which lean upon the sea is eudeielos or rich in meadows, and Ithaca surpasses them all. Now although Homer's phraseology presents incongruities of this kind, yet they are not poorly explained; for, in the first place, writers do not interpret chthamale as meaning low-lying here, but lying near the mainland, since it is very close to it, and, secondly, they do not interpret panypertate as meaning highest, but highest towards the darkness, that is, farthest removed towards the north beyond all the others; for this is what he means by towards the darkness, but the opposite by towards the south, as inbut the other islands lie aneuthe towards the dawn and the sun, for the word aneuthe is at a distance, or apart, implying that the other islands lie towards the south and farther away from the mainland, whereas Ithaca lies near the mainland and towards the north. That Homer refers in this way to the southerly region is clear also from these words,whether they go to the right, towards the dawn and the sun, or yet to the left towards the misty darkness, and still more clear from these words,my friends, lo, now we know not where is the place of darkness, nor of dawn, nor where the sun, that gives light to men, goes beneath the earth; nor where he rises. For it is indeed possible to interpret this as meaning the four climata, if we interpret the dawn as meaning the southerly region (and this has some plausibility), but it is better to conceive of the region which is along the path of the sun as set opposite to the northerly region, for the poetic words are intended to signify a considerable change in the celestial phenomena, not merely a temporary concealment of the climata, for necessarily concealment ensues every time the sky is clouded, whether by day or by night; but the celestial phenomena change to a greater extent as we travel farther and farther towards the south or in the opposite direction. Yet this travel causes a hiding, not of the western or eastern sky, but only of the southern or northern, and in fact this hiding takes place when the sky is clear; for the pole is the most northerly point of the sky, but since the pole moves and is sometimes at our zenith and sometimes below the earth, the arctic circles also change with it and in the course of such travels sometimes vanish with it, so that you cannot know where the northern clima is, or even where it begins. And if this is true, neither can you know the opposite clima. The circuit of Ithaca is about eighty stadia. So much for Ithaca.,13. As for Cephallenia, which is a tetrapolis, the poet mentions by its present name neither it nor any of its cities except one, Same or Samos, which now no longer exists, though traces of it are to be seen midway of the passage to Ithaca; and its people are called Samaeans. The other three, however, survive even to this day in the little cities Paleis, Pronesus, and Cranii. And in our time Gaius Antonius, the uncle of Marcus Antonius, founded still another city, when, after his consulship, which he held with Cicero the orator, he went into exile, sojourned in Cephallenia, and held the whole island in subjection as though it were his private estate. However, before he could complete the settlement he obtained permission to return home, and ended his days amid other affairs of greater importance.,14. Some, however, have not hesitated to identify Cephallenia with Dulichium, and others with Taphos, calling the Cephallenians Taphians, and likewise Teleboans, and to say that Amphitryon made an expedition thither with Cephalus, the son of Deioneus, whom, an exile from Athens, he had taken along with him, and that when Amphitryon seized the island he gave it over to Cephalus, and that the island was named after Cephalus and the cities after his children. But this is not in accordance with Homer; for the Cephallenians were subject to Odysseus and Laertes, whereas Taphos was subject to Mentes: I declare that I am Mentes the son of wise Anchialus, and I am lord over the oar loving Taphians. Taphos is now called Taphius. Neither is Hellanicus in accord with Homer when he identifies Cephallenia with Dulichium, for Homer makes Dulichium and the remainder of the Echinades subject to Meges; and their inhabitants were Epeians, who had come there from Elis; and it is on this account that he calls Otus the Cylleniancomrade of Phyleides and ruler of the high-hearted Epeians; but Odysseus led the high-hearted Cephallenians. According to Homer, therefore, neither is Cephallenia Dulichium nor is Dulichium a part of Cephallenia, as Andron says; for the Epeians held possession of Dulichium, whereas the Cephallenians held possession of the whole of Cephallenia and were subject to Odysseus, whereas the Epeians were subject to Meges. Neither is Paleis called Dulichium by the poet, as Pherecydes writes. But that writer is most in opposition to Homer who identifies Cephallenia with Dulichium, if it be true that fifty-two of the suitors were from Dulichium and twenty-four from Same; for in that case would not Homer say that fifty-two came from the island as a whole and a half of that number less two from a single one of its four cities? However, if one grants this, I shall ask what Homer can mean by Same in the passage,Dulichium and Same and woody Zacynthos.,15. Cephallenia lies opposite Acaria, at a distance of about fifty stadia from Leucatas (some say forty), and about one hundred and eighty from Chelonatas. It has a perimeter of about three hundred stadia, is long, extending towards Eurus, and is mountainous. The largest mountain upon it is Aenus, whereon is the sanctuary of Zeus Aenesius; and where the island is narrowest it forms an isthmus so low-lying that it is often submerged from sea to sea. Both Paleis and Crannii are on the gulf near the narrows.,16. Between Ithaca and Cephallenia is the small island Asteria (the poet calls it Asteris), which the Scepsian says no longer remains such as the poet describes it,but in it are harbors safe for anchorage with entrances on either side; Apollodorus, however, says that it still remains so to this day, and mentions a town Alalcomenae upon it, situated on the isthmus itself.,17. The poet also uses the name Samos for that Thrace which we now call Samothrace. And it is reasonable to suppose that he knows the Ionian Samos, for he also appears to know of the Ionian migration; otherwise he would not have differentiated between the places of the same name when referring to Samothrace, which he designates at one time by the epithet,high on the topmost summit of woody Samos, the Thracian, and at another time by connecting it with the islands near it,unto Samos and Imbros and inhospitable Lemnos. And again,between Samos and rugged Imbros. He therefore knew the Ionian island, although he did not name it; in fact it was not called by the same name in earlier times, but Melampylus, then Anthemis, then Parthenia, from the River Parthenius, the name of which was changed to Imbrasus. Since, then, both Cephallenia and Samothrace were called Samos at the time of the Trojan War (for otherwise Hecabe would not be introduced as saying that he was for selling her children whom he might take captive unto Samos and unto Imbros), and since the Ionian Samos had not yet been colonized, it plainly got its name from one of the islands which earlier bore the same name. Whence that other fact is also clear, that those writers contradict ancient history who say that colonists came from Samos after the Ionian migration and the arrival of Tembrion and named Samothrace Samos, since this story was fabricated by the Samians to enhance the glory of their island. Those writers are more plausible who say that the island came upon this name from the fact that lofty places are called samoi, for thence all Ida was plain to see, and plain to see were the city of Priam and the ships of the Achaeans But some say that the island was called Samos after the Saii, the Thracians who inhabited it in earlier times, who also held the adjacent mainland, whether these Saii were the same people as the Sapaei or Sinti (the poet calls them Sinties) or a different tribe. The Saii are mentioned by Archilochus: One of the Saii robbed me of my shield, which, a blameless weapon, I left behind me beside a bush, against my will.,18. of the islands classified as subject to Odysseus, Zacynthos remains to be described. It leans slightly more to the west of the Peloponnesus than Cephallenia and lies closer to the latter. The circuit of Zacynthos is one hundred and sixty stadia. It is about sixty stadia distant from Cephallenia. It is indeed a woody island, but it is fertile; and its city, which bears the same name, is worthy of note. The distance thence to the Libyan Hesperides is three thousand three hundred stadia.,19. To the east of Zacynthos and Cephallenia are situated the Echinades Islands, among which is Dulichium, now called Dolicha, and also what are called the Oxeiae, which the poet called Thoae. Dolicha lies opposite Oineiadae and the outlet of the Achelous, at a distance of one hundred stadia from Araxus, the promontory of the Eleians; the rest of the Echinades (they are several in number, all poor soiled and rugged) lie off the outlet of the Achelous, the farthermost being fifteen stadia distant and the nearest five. In earlier times they lay out in the high sea, but the silt brought down by the Achelous has already joined some of them to the mainland and will do the same to others. It was this silt which in early times caused the country called Paracheloitis, which the river overflows, to be a subject of dispute, since it was always confusing the designated boundaries between the Acarians and the Aitolians; for they would decide the dispute by arms, since they had no arbitrators, and the more powerful of the two would win the victory; and this is the cause of the fabrication of a certain myth, telling how Heracles defeated Achelous and, as the prize of his victory, won the hand of Deianeira, the daughter of Oineus, whom Sophocles represents as speaking as follows: For my suitor was a river-god, I mean Achelous, who would demand me of my father in three shapes, coming now as a bull in bodily form, now as a gleaming serpent in coils, now with trunk of man and front of ox. Some writers add to the myth, saying that this was the horn of Amaltheia, which Heracles broke off from Achelous and gave to Oineus as a wedding gift. Others, conjecturing the truth from the myths, say that the Achelous, like the other rivers, was called like a bull from the roaring of its waters, and also from the bendings of its streams, which were called Horns, and like a serpent because of its length and windings, and with front of ox for the same reason that he was called bull-faced; and that Heracles, who in general was inclined to deeds of kindness, but especially for Oineus, since he was to ally himself with him by marriage, regulated the irregular flow of the river by means of embankments and channels, and thus rendered a considerable part of Paracheloitis dry, all to please Oineus; and that this was the horn of Amaltheia. Now, as for the Echinades, or the Oxeiae, Homer says that they were ruled over in the time of the Trojan War by Meges,who was begotten by the knightly Phyleus, dear to Zeus, who once changed his abode to Dulichium because he was wroth with his father. His father was Augeas, the ruler of the Eleian country and the Epeians; and therefore the Epeians who set out for Dulichium with Phyleus held these islands.,20. The islands of the Taphians, or, in earlier times, of the Teleboans, among which was Taphos,. now called Taphius, were distinct from the Echinades; not in the matter of distances (for they lie near them), but in that they are classified as under different commanders, Taphians and Teleboans. Now in earlier times Amphitryon made an expedition against them with Cephalus the son of Deioneus, an exile from Athens, and gave over their government to him, but the poet says that they were marshalled under Mentes, calling them pirates, as indeed all the Teleboans are said to be pirates. So much, then, for the islands lying off Acaria.,21. Between Leucas and the Ambracian Gulf is a salt lake, called Myrtuntium. Next after Leucas one comes to Palaerus and Alyzia, cities of Acaria; of these, Alyzia is fifteen stadia distant from the sea, where is a harbor sacred to Heracles and a sacred precinct. It is from this precinct that one of the commanders carried to Rome the Labours of Heracles, works of Lysippus, which were lying out of place where they were, because it was a deserted region. Then one comes to Cape Crithote, and the Echinades, and the city Astacus, which bears the same name as the city near Nicomedeia and Gulf Astacenus, the name being used in the feminine gender. Crithote also bears the same name as one of the little cities in the Thracian Chersonesus. All parts of the coast between these places have good harbors. Then one comes to Oiniadae and the Achelous; then to a lake of the Oiniadae, called Melite, which is thirty stadia in length and twenty in breadth; and to another lake, Cynia, which is twice the size of Melite, both in length and in breadth; and to a third, Uria, which is much smaller than those. Now Cynia empties into the sea, but the others lie about half a stadium above it. Then one comes to the Evenus, to which the distance from Actium is six hundred and seventy stadia. After the Evenus one comes to the mountain Chalcis, which Artemidorus has called Chalcia; then to Pleuron; then to the village Halicyrna, above which thirty stadia in the interior, lies Calydon; and near Calydon is the sanctuary of the Laphrian Apollo. Then one comes to the mountain Taphiassus; then to the city Macynia; then to Molycreia and, near by, to Antirrhium, the boundary between Aitolia and Locris, to which the distance from the Evenus is about one hundred and twenty stadia. Artemidorus, indeed, does not give this account of the mountain, whether we call it Chalcis or Chalcia, since he places it between the Achelous and Pleuron, but Apollodorus, as I have said before, places both Chalcis and Taphiassus above Molycreia, and he also says that Calydon is situated between Pleuron and Chalcis. Perhaps, however, we should postulate two mountains, one near Pleuron called Chalcis, and the other near Molycreia called Chalcia. Near Calydon, also, is a lake, which is large and well supplied with fish; it is held by the Romans who live in Patrae.,22. Apollodorus says that in the interior of Acaria there is a people called Erysichaeans, who are mentioned by Alcman: nor yet an Erysichaean nor shepherd, but from the heights of Sardeis. But Olenus, which Homer mentions in the Aitolian catalogue, was in Aitolia, though only traces of it are left, near Pleuron at the foot of Aracynthus. Near it, also, was Lysimacheia; this, too, has disappeared; it was situated by the lake now called Lysimacheia, in earlier times Hydra, between Pleuron and the city Arsinoe. In earlier times Arsinoe was only a village, and was called Conopa, but it was first founded as a city by Arsinoe, who was both wife and sister of Ptolemy the Second; it was rather happily situated at the ford across the Achelous. Pylene has also suffered a fate similar to that of Olenus. When the poet calls Calydon both steep and rocky, one should interpret him as referring to the country; for, as I have said, they divided the country into two parts and assigned the mountainous part, or Epictetus, to Calydon and the level country to Pleuron.,23. At the present time both the Acarians and the Aitolians, like many of the other tribes, have been exhausted and reduced to impotence by their continual wars. However, for a very long time the Aitolians, together with the Acarians, stood firm, not only against the Macedonians and the other Greeks, but also finally against the Romans, when fighting for autonomy. But since they are often mentioned by Homer, as also both by the other poets and by historians, sometimes in words that are easy to interpret and about which there is no disagreement, and sometimes in words that are less intelligible (this has been shown in what I have already said about them), I should also add some of those older accounts which afford us a basis of fact to begin with, or are matters of doubt.,24. For instance, in the case of Acaria, Laertes and the Cephallenians acquired possession of it, as I have said; but as to what people held it before that time, many writers have indeed given an opinion, but since they do not agree in their statements, which have, however, a wide currency, there is left for me a word of arbitration concerning them. They say that the people who were called both Taphians and Teleboans lived in Acaria in earlier times, and that their leader Cephalus, who had been set up by Amphitryon as master over the islands about Taphos, gained the mastery over this country too. And from this fact they go on to add the myth that Cephalus was the first to take the leap from Leucatas which became the custom, as I have said before. But the poet does not say that the Taphians were ruling the Acarians before the Cephallenians and Laertes came over, but only that they were friends to the Ithacans, and therefore, according to the poet, they either had not ruled over the region at all, or had yielded Acaria to the Ithacans voluntarily, or had become joint occupants with them. It appears that also a colony from Lacedemon settled in Acaria, I mean Icarius, father of Penelope, and his followers; for in the Odyssey the poet represents both Icarius and the brothers of Penelope as living: who shrink from going to the house of her father, Icarius, that he himself may exact the bride-gifts for his daughter, and, concerning her brothers,for already her father and her brothers bid her marry Eurymachus; for, in the first place, it is improbable that they were living in Lacedemon, since in that case Telemachus would not have lodged at the home of Menelaus when he went to Lacedemon, and, secondly, we have no tradition of their having lived elsewhere. But they say that Tyndareus and his brother Icarius, after being banished by Hippocoon from their homeland, went to Thestius, the ruler of the Pleuronians, and helped him to acquire possession of much of the country on the far side of the Achelous on condition that they should receive a share of it; that Tyndareus, however, went back home, having married Leda, the daughter of Thestius, whereas Icarius stayed on, keeping a portion of Acaria, and by Polycaste, the daughter of Lygaeus, begot both Penelope and her brothers. Now I have already set forth that the Acarians were enumerated in the Catalogue of Ships, that they took part in the expedition to Ilium, and that among these were named those who lived on the 'shore,' and also those who held the mainland and dwelt in parts opposite. But as yet neither had the mainland been named Acaria nor the shore Leucas.,25. Ephorus denies that they joined the Trojan expedition, for he says that Alcmaeon, the son of Amphiaraus, made an expedition with Diomedes and the other Epigoni, and had brought to a successful issue the war against the Thebans, and then joined Diomedes and with him took vengeance upon the enemies of Oineus, after which he himself, first giving over Aitolia to them, passed into Acaria and subdued it; and meanwhile Agamemnon attacked the Argives and easily prevailed over them, since the most of them had accompanied the army of Diomedes; but a little later, when the expedition against Troy confronted him, he conceived the fear that, when he was absent on the expedition, Diomedes and his army might come back home (and in fact it was reported that a great army had gathered round him) and seize the empire to which they had the best right, for one was the heir of Adrastus and the other of his father; and accordingly, after thinking this all over, Agamemnon invited them both to resume possession of Argos and to take part in the war; and although Diomedes was persuaded to take part in the expedition, Alcmaeon was vexed and refused to heed the invitation; and for this reason the Acarians alone refused to share in the expedition with the Greeks. And it was probably by following this account that the Acarians tricked the Romans, as they are said to have done, and obtained from them their autonomy, urging that they alone had had no part in the expedition against the ancestors of the Romans, for they were named neither in the Aitolian catalogue nor separately, and in fact their name was not mentioned in the Epic poems at all.,26. Ephorus, then, makes Acaria subject to Alcmaeon even before the Trojan War; and he not only declares that the Amphilochian Argos was founded by him, but also says that Acaria was named after Alcmaeon's son Acar, and the Amphilochians after Alcmaeon's brother Amphilochus; therefore his account is to be cast out amongst those contrary to Homeric history. But Thucydides and others say that Amphilochus, on his return from the Trojan expedition, was displeased with the state of affairs at Argos, and took up his abode in this country, some saying that he came by right of succession to the domain of his brother, others giving a different account. So much may be said of the Acarians specifically; I shall now speak of their history in a general way, in so far as their history is interwoven with that of the Aitolians, in so far as I have thought best to add to my previous narrative. |
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