The Geography of Strabo, Volume 2 (of 3)

“Copæ, and Eutresis, and Thisbe, abounding with doves.”[383]

We have spoken of Copæ. It lies towards the north on the lake Copais. The other cities around are, Acræphiæ, Phœnicis, Onchestus, Haliartus, Ocalea, Alalcomenæ, Tilphusium, Coroneia. Formerly, the lake had no one general name, but derived its appellation from every settlement on its banks, as Copaïs from Copæ,[384] Haliartis from Haliartus, and other names from other places, but latterly the whole has been called Copaïs, for the lake is remarkable for forming at Copæ the deepest hollow. Pindar calls it Cephissis, and places near it, not far from Haliartus and Alalcomenæ, the fountain Tilphossa, which flows at the foot of Mount Tilphossius. At the fountain is the monument of Teiresias, and in the same place the temple of the Tilphossian Apollo.

28. After Copæ, the poet mentions Eutresis, a small village of the Thespians.[385] Here Zethus and Amphion lived before they became kings of Thebes.

Thisbē is now called Thisbæ. The place is situated a little above the sea-coast on the confines of the Thespienses, and the territory of Coroneia; on the south it lies at the foot of Cithæron. It has an arsenal in a rocky situation abounding with doves, whence the poet terms it

“Thisbe, with its flights of doves.”

Thence to Sicyon is a voyage of 160 stadia.

29. He next recites the names of Coroneia, Haliartus, Platææ, and Glissas.

Coroneia[386] is situated upon an eminence, near Helicon. The Bœotians took possession of it on their return from the Thessalian Arne, after the Trojan war, when they also occupied Orchomenus. Having become masters of Coroneia, they built in the plain before the city the temple of the Itonian Minerva, of the same name as that in Thessaly, and called the river [CAS. 411] flowing by it, Cuarius, the name of the Thessalian river. Alcæus, however, calls it Coralius in these words,

“Minerva, warrior queen, who o’er Coroneia keepest watch before thy temple, on the banks of Coralius.”

The festival Pambœotia was here celebrated. Hades is associated with Minerva, in the dedication of the temple, for some mystical reason. The inhabitants of the Bœotian Coroneia are called Coronii, those of the Messenian Coroneia, Coronenses.

30. Haliartus[387] is no longer in existence, it was razed in the war against Perseus. The territory is occupied by the Athenians, to whom it was given by the Romans. It was situated in a narrow spot between an overhanging mountain and the lake Copaïs, near the Permessus, the Olmeïus, and the marsh that produces the flute-reed.

31. Platææ, which the poet uses in the singular number, lies at the foot of Cithæron, between this mountain and Thebes, on the road to Athens and Megara; it is on the borders of Attica and Bœotia, for Eleutheræ is near, which some say belongs to Attica, others to Bœotia. We have said that the Asopus flows beside Platææ. There the army of the Greeks entirely destroyed Mardonius and three hundred thousand Persians. They dedicated there a temple to Jupiter Eleutherius, and instituted gymnastic games, called Eleutheria, in which the victor was crowned. The tombs erected at the public expense, in honour of those who died in the battle, are to be seen there. In the Sicyonian district is a demus called Platææ, where the poet Mnasalces was born:

“the monument of Mnasalces of Platææ.”

Glissas,[388] Homer says, is a village on Mount Hypatus, which is near Teumessus and Cadmeia, in the Theban territory. * * * * * * * beneath is what is called the Aonian plain, which extends from Mount Hypatus [to Cadmeia?].[389]

32. By these words of the poet,

“those who occupied under Thebes,”