Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume II.Pausanias, active approximately 150-175
History
Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume II.
Pausanias, active approximately 150-175
Greece -- Antiquities; Greece -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
When you have passed over the mountain Ptoum, you come to Larymna
a city of the Bœotians by the sea, so called from the daughter of
Cynus who was Larymna: her remote ancestors I shall relate when I
come to Locris. Formerly Larymna was reckoned in with Opus, but when
the Thebans became powerful the inhabitants voluntarily transferred
themselves to the Bœotians. There is here a temple of Dionysus, and a
statue of the god in a standing posture. And there is a deep harbour
close to the shore, and the mountains above the town afford excellent
wild boar hunting.
[61] See Herodotus, viii. 135.
CHAPTER XXIV.
As you go from Acræphnium straight for the lake Cephisis, which is
called by some Copais, is the plain called Athamantium, where they
say Athamas lived. The river Cephisus has its outlet into this lake,
which river has its rise at Lilæa in Phocis, and when you have sailed
through the lake you come to Copæ a small town on its banks, which
Homer has mentioned in his Catalogue of the ships.[62] Demeter and
Dionysus and Serapis have temples there. The Bœotians say that formerly
there were several small towns, as Athenæ and Eleusis, inhabited near
this lake, which were swept away one winter by a flood. The fish
generally in Lake Cephisis are very like other lake fish, but the eels
are especially fine and good eating.
On the left of Copæ about 12 stades further you come to Olmones, about
seven stades distant from which is Hyettus, villages both of them now
as always, and I think formerly they as well as the plain Athamantium
belonged to Orchomenus. The traditions I have heard about Hyettus the
Argive, and Olmus the son of Sisyphus, I shall relate when I come to
Orchomenus. There is nothing remarkable to be seen at Olmones, but at
Hyettus there is a temple of Hercules, where those who are sick can
obtain healing from him. The statue of the god is not artistic, but
made of rude stone as in old times.
And about 20 stades from Hyettus is the small town Cyrtones: the
ancient name was Cyrtone. It is built on a high hill, and contains a
temple and grove of Apollo, and statues of both Apollo and Artemis in a
standing picture. There is also some cold water there that flows from
the rock, and near this spring a temple of the Nymphs and small grove,
in which all kinds of trees that are planted grow.
Next to Cyrtones, after you have passed over the mountain, you come to
the little town of Corsea, and below it is a grove of wild trees mostly
holm-oaks. There is a small statue of Hermes in the grove in the open
air, about half a stade from Corsea. As you descend to the level plain
the river Platanius has its outlet into the sea, and on the right of
this river the Bœotians on the borders inhabit the town of Halæ by the
sea, which parts Locris from Eubœa.
[62] Iliad, ii. 502.
CHAPTER XXV.
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