4. Chap. 4. (3.)-Locris And Phocis.

CHAP. 4. (3.)—LOCRIS AND PHOCIS.

Next to Ætolia are the Locri[1], surnamed Ozolæ; a people exempt from tribute. Here is the town of Œanthe[2], the port[3] of Apollo Phæstius, and the Gulf of Crissa[4]. In the interior are the towns of Argyna, Eupalia[5], Phæstum, and Calamisus. Beyond are the Cirrhaean plains of Phocis, the town of Cirrha[6], and the port of Chalæon[7], seven miles from which, in the interior, is situate the free town of Delphi[8], at the foot of Mount Parnassus[9], and having the most celebrated oracle of Apollo throughout the whole world. There is the Fountain too of Castalia[10], and the river Cephisus[11] which flows past Delphi, rising in the former city of Lilæa[12]. Besides these, there is the town of Crissa[13] and that of Anticyra[14], with the Bulenses[15]; as also Naulochum[16], Pyrrha, Amphissa[17], exempt from all tribute, Tithrone, Tritea[18], Ambrysus[19], and Drymæa[20], which district has also the name of Daulis. The extremity of the gulf washes one corner of Bœotia, with its towns of Siphæ[21] and Thebes[22], surnamed the Corsian, in the vicinity of Helicon[23]. The third town of Bœotia on this sea is that of Pagæ[24], from which point the Isthmus of the Peloponnesus projects in the form of a neck.

1. They are supposed to have inhabited the modern districts of Malandrino and Salone. They were called "Ozolæ" or 'strong-smelling,' either from the undressed skins worn by them, or from the quantities of asphodel that grew in their country; or else from the vapours thrown off by the mineral springs in those parts.

2. Pouqueville imagines its ruins to be those seen about two leagues from the modern Galaxidi.

3. Lapie marks this in his map as the modern port of Ianakhi.

4. So called from the ancient town of Crissa, which stood on it. It is the same as the modern Gulf of Salona.

5. Or Eupalium. Leake supposes it to have stood in the plain of Marathia, opposite the islands of Trazonia, where some ruins still exist.

6. Pausanias makes this town to be the same with the Homeric Crissa, but Strabo distinguishes the two places, and his opinion is now generally followed; Cirrha being thought to have been built at the head of the Crissæan gulf, as the port of Crissa. Its ruins are thought to be those which bear the modern name of Magula.

7. Or Chalæum. Pliny erroneously calls it a town of Phocis, it being on the coast of the Locri Ozolæ. He is wrong also in placing it seven miles from Delphi, and not improbably confounded it with Cirrha. Leake suggests that its site was the present Larnaki.

8. The modern village of Kastri stands on part of the site of ancient Delphi. Its ruins have been explored by Chandler, Leake, and Ulrichs.

9. The two highest summits of the range of Parnassus in the vicinity of Delphi were Tithorea, now Velitza, to the N.W., and Lycorea, now Liakura, to the N.E. Its rocks above Delphi were called the Phædriades or "Resplendent."

10. The famed Castalian spring is now called the Fountain of St. John, from the chapel of that saint which stands close to its source.

11. Now the Mavro-Potamo.

12. Its ruins are still to be seen about three leagues from Kastri.

13. Or Crisso. It was situate inland to the S.W. of Delphi. Its ruins are to be seen at a short distance from the modern village of Chryso.

14. It is supposed that the few ruins seen near the modern Aspra Spitia are those of this place. It was famous for its hellebore, which was extensively used for the cure of madness. There were two other places or the same name.

15. The people of Bulis, near the Crissæan Gulf. Its ruins are situate at a short distance from the monastery of Dobé.

16. Ansart suggests that this was the present port of Agio-Sideri or Djesphina.

17. It occupied the site of the modern Salona; the walls of its ancient Acropolis are still to be seen. It was the chief town of the Locri Ozolæ.

18. Pouqueville thinks that the ruins seen near Moulki are those of Tithrone, and that Tritea stood on the site of the present Turcochorion.

19. Or Amphrysus, famous for the strength of its fortifications and its scarlet berries for dyeing. Some remains of it are to be seen at the modern village of Dhistomo.

20. On the frontiers of Doris and Phocis. Leake thinks that its ruins are those seen midway between Kamares and Glamista. Daulis was also the name of an ancient town of Phocis, the ruins of which are to be seen at the modern village of Dhavlia.

21. Probably the present Palæo Kastro, at the Port de Dobrena or Polaca.

22. Leake thinks that the Corsian Thebes, a port of Bœotia, is represented by the modern Khosia.

23. Helicon is a range of mountains with several summits, the loftiest of which is now called Paleovuni. Helicon was a grove of the Muses, and the fountain of Aganippe was supposed to impart poetic inspiration to those who drank of it.

24. See p. 288.