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[26]

After Thespiæ the poet enumerates Graia and Mycalessus, of which we have before spoken.

He proceeds as before,

“ They who lived near Harma, Eilesium, and Erythræ,
And they who occupied Eleon, Hyle, and Peteon.1

”

Il. ii. 499.
Peteon is a village of the Thebais near the road to Anthedon. Ocalea is midway between Haliartus,2 and Alalcomene,3 it is distant from each 30 stadia. A small river of the same name flows by it. Medeon, belonging to Phocis, is on the Crisæan Gulf, distant from Bœotia 160 stadia. The Medeon of Bœotia has its name from that in Phocis. It is near Onchestus, under the mountain Phœnicium,4 whence it has the appellation of Phœnicis. This mountain is likewise assigned to the Theban district, but by others to the territories of Haliartus, as also Medeon and Ocalea.

1 Il. ii. 499.

2 The remains of Haliartus are situated upon a hill about a mile from the village of Mazi, on the road from Thebes to Lebadeia, and at the distance of about 15 miles from either place. Although the walls of the town are scarcely anywhere traceable, its extent is marked on the east and west by two small rivers, of which that to the west issues from the foot of the hill of Mazi, the eastern, called the Kafalari, has its origin in Mount Helicon. The stream on the western side of the city is the one called Hoplites by Plutarch, where Lysander fell in battle with the Thebans, B. C. 395, and is apparently the same as the Lophis of Pausanias. The stream on the eastern side, the Kafalari, is formed by the union of two rivulets, which appear to be the Permessus and Olmeius, which are described by Strabo as flowing from Helicon, and after their union entering the Lake Copais, near Haliartus. Smith.

3 It was celebrated for the worship of Athena, who is hence called Alalcomeneis in Homer. The temple of the goddess stood at a little distance from the town, on the Triton, a small stream flowing into the Lake Copais. The modern village Sulinari is the site of Alalcomenæ. Smith.

4 Phœnicium, or Sphingium, now called Faga, the mountain between the Lakes Copais and Hylica, connecting Mount Ptoum with the range of Helicon. Forchamer supposes that Phœnicium and Sphingium are the names of two different mountains, separated from one another by the small plain of the stream Daulos; but the name of Phœnicium rests only on the authority of Strabo, and it is probably a corruption of Phicium. φίξ is the Æolic form of σφίξ, (Hes. Theog. 326,) and therefore there can be no doubt that Phicium and Sphingium are two different forms of the same name. Smith.

The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes, in three volumes. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.

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