When you have passed over the mountain Ptoum, you come to Larymna a city of the Bœotians by the sea, so called from the daughter of Cynus who was Larymna: her remote ancestors I shall relate when I come to Locris. Formerly Larymna was reckoned in with Opus, but when the Thebans became powerful the inhabitants voluntarily transferred themselves to the Bœotians. There is here a temple of Dionysus, and a statue of the god in a standing posture. And there is a deep harbour close to the shore, and the mountains above the town afford excellent wild boar hunting.
[61] See Herodotus, viii. 135.
CHAPTER XXIV.
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.
CHAPTER XXV.
At Thebes near the gate Neistis is the tomb of Menœceus the son of Creon, who voluntarily slew himself in accordance with the oracle at Delphi, when Polynices and his army came from Argos. A pomegranate tree grows near this tomb, when its fruit is ripe if you break the rind the kernel is like blood. This tree is always in bloom. And the Thebans say the vine first grew at Thebes, but they have no proof of what they assert. And not far from the tomb of Menœceus they say the sons of Œdipus had a single combat and killed one another. As a record of this combat there is a pillar, and a stone shield upon it. A place also is shown where the Thebans say that Hera suckled Hercules when a baby through some deceit on the part of Zeus. And the whole place is called Antigone’s Dragging-ground: for as she could not easily lift up with all her zeal the corpse of Polynices, her next idea was to drag it along, which she did till she was able to throw it on the funeral pile of Eteocles which was blazing.