Strabo, Geography (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [Str.]. | ||
<<Str. 9.5.6 | Str. 9.5.10 (Greek English(2)) | >>Str. 9.5.14 |
They entertain doubts respecting Halus and Alope,
whether Homer means the places which are now comprised
in the Phthiotic government, or those among the Locri, since
the dominion of Achilles extended hither as well as to Trachin and the Œtæan territory. For Halus and Halius, as
well as Alope, are on the coast of the Locri. But some substitute Halius for Alope, and write the verse in this manner;
they who inhabited Halus, and Halius, and Trachin. [Note]
Il. ii. 682.
I have already spoken of Trachin, and described the nature of the place. The poet mentions it by name.
9.5.9As Homer frequently mentions the Spercheius as a river of the country, having its source in the Typhrestus, a Dryopian mountain, formerly called [Tymphrestus], and emptying itself near Thermopylæ, between Trachin and Lamia, [Note] he might imply that whatever parts of the Maliac Gulf were either within or without the Pylæ, were subject to Achilles.
The Spercheius is distant about 30 stadia from Lamia, which lies above a plain, extending to the Maliac Gulf. That the Spercheius is a river of the country [subject to Achilles], appears from the words of Achilles, who says, that he had devoted his hair to the Spercheius; and from the circumstance, that Menesthius, one of his commanders, was said to be the son of Spercheius and the sister of Achilles.
It is probable that all the people under the command of Achilles and Patroclus, and who had accompanied Peleus in his banishment from ægina, had the name of Myrmidons, but all the Phthiotæ were called Achæcans.
9.5.10They reckon in the Phthiotic district, which was subject to Achilles, beginning from the Malienses, a considerable number of towns, and among them Thebæ Phthiotides, Echinus, Lamia, near which the war was carried on between the Macedonians and Antipater, against the Athenians. In this war Leosthenes, the Athenian general, was killed, [and Leonnatus,] one of the companions of Alexander the king. Besides the above-mentioned towns, we must add [Narthac]ium, Erineus, Coroneia, of the same name as the town in Bœotia, Melitæa, Thaumaci, Proerna, Pharsalus, Eretria, of the same name as the Euboic town, Paracheloïtæ, of the same name as those in ætolia; for here also, near Lamia, is a river Achelous, on the banks of which live the Paracheloïtæ.
This district, lying to the north, extended to the northwestern territory of the Asclepiadæ, and to the territory of Eurypylus and Protesilaus, inclining to the east; on the south it adjoined the Œtæan territory, which was divided into fourteen demi, and contained Heracleia and Dryopis, which was once a community of four cities, (a Tetrapolis,) like Doris, and accounted the capital of the Dryopes in Peloponnesus. To the Œtæan district belong also the Acyphas, Parasopias,
$Oeneiadæ, and Anticyra, of the same name as the town among the Locri Hesperii. I do not mean that these divisions always continued the same, for they underwent various changes. The most remarkable, however, are worthy of notice.
9.5.11The poet with sufficient clearness describes the situation
of the Dolopes, as at the extremity of Phthia, and says that
both they and the Phthiotæ were under the command of the
same chief, Peleus;
I lived, he says, at the farthest part of Phthia, king of the Dolopes. [Note]
Il. ix. 484.
This region is close to Pindus, and the places about it, most of which belong to the Thessalians. For in consequence of the renown and ascendency of the Thessalians and Macedonians, those Epeirotæ, who bordered nearest upon them, became, some voluntarily, others by force, incorporated among the Macedonians and Thessalians. In this manner the Athamanes, æthices, and Talares were joined to the Thessalians, and the Orestæ, Pelagones, and Elimiotæ to the Macedonians.
Strabo, Geography (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [Str.]. | ||
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