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Continuous with this portion of Thessaly is the country of those who are called the subjects of Polypoetes: “"And those who held Argissa and dwelt in Gyrtone, Orthe, and Elone and the white city Oloosson."
1In earlier times the Perrhaebians inhabited this country, dwelling in the part near the sea and near the Peneius, extending as far as its outlet and Gyrton, a Perrhaebian city. Then the Lapiths humbled the Perrhaebians and thrust them back into the river country in the interior, and seized their country—I mean the Lapiths Ixion and his son Peirithoüs, the latter of whom also took possession of Pelion, forcing out the Centaurs, a wild folk, who had seized it. Now these “"he thrust from Pelion and made them draw near to the Aethices,"
2and he gave over the plains to the Lapiths, though the Perrhaebians kept possession of some of them, those near Olympus, and also in some places lived completely intermingled with the Lapiths. Now Argissa, the present Argura, is situated on the Peneius; and forty stadia above it lies Atrax, which also is close to the river; and the Perrhaebians held the river country between the two places. Some have called Orthe the acropolis of the Phalannaeans; and Phalanna is a Perrhaebian city close to the Peneius near Tempe. Now the Perrhaebians, being overpowered by the Lapiths, for the most part emigrated to the mountainous country about Pindus and to the countries of the Athamaniam and Dolopians, but their country and all Perrhaebians who were left behind there were seized by the Larisaeans, who lived near the Peneius and were their neighbors and dwelt in the most fertile parts of the plains, though not in the very low region near the lake called Nessonis, into which the river, when it overflowed, would carry away a portion of the arable soil belonging to the Larisaeans. Later, however, they corrected this by means of embankments. The Larisaeans, then, kept possession of Perrhaebia and exacted tribute until Philip established himself as lord over the region. Larisa is also the name of a place on Ossa; another is Larisa Cremaste, by some called Pelasgia;3 and in Crete is a city Larisa, now joined to Hierapytna, whence the plain that lies below is now called Larisian Plain; and, in the Peloponnesus both Larisa, the citadel of the Argives, and the Larisus River, which is the boundary between the Eleian country and Dyme. Theopompus speaks of another city Larisa situated on the same common boundary; and in Asia is a Larisa Phryconis near Cyme; and also the Larisa near Hamaxitis in the Troad; and there is the Ephesian Larisa, and the Larisa in Syria; and there are Larisaean Rocks fifty stadia from Mitylene on the road to Methymne; and there is a Larisa in Attica; and a village Larisa thirty stadia distant from Tralleis, above the city, on the road which runs through Mesogis towards the Caÿster Plain near the temple of the Isodromian Mother,4 which in its topographical position and its goodly attributes is like Larisa Cremaste, for it has an abundance of water and of vineyards; and perhaps the Larisaean Zeus received his epithet from this place; and also on the left of the Pontus is a village called Larisa, between Naulochus and. . .,5 near the end of Mount Haemus. And Oloosson, called "white" from the fact that its soil is a white clay, and Elone, and Gonnus are Perrhaebian cities. But Elone changed its name to Leimone, and is now in ruins. Both are situated below Olympus, not very far from the Europus River, which the poet calls the Titaresius.6

1 Hom. Il. 2.738

2 Hom. Il. 2.744

3 See 9. 5. 13.

4 i.e., Cybele

5 "Odessa" seems to be the lost word.

6 Hom. Il. 2.751

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load focus Greek (1877)
load focus English (H.C. Hamilton, Esq., W. Falconer, M.A., 1903)
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