CHAPTER XXIV

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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.

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