And Philip put an end to the war, called the Phocian or the Sacred War, in the tenth year after the plunder of the temple, when Theophilus was Archon at Athens, in the first year of the 108th Olympiad, in which Polycles of Cyrene won the prize in the course. And the following Phocian towns were taken and rased to the ground, Lilæa, Hyampolis, Anticyra, Parapotamii, Panopeus, and Daulis. These towns were renowned in ancient times and not least in consequence of the lines of Homer.[86] But those which the army of Xerxes burnt were rendered thereby more famous in Greece, as Erochus, Charadra, Amphiclea, Neon, Tithronium, and Drymæa. All the others except Elatea were obscure prior to this war, as Trachis, Medeon, Echedamia, Ambrosus, Ledon, Phlygonium, and Stiris. And now all those towns which I have mentioned were rased to the ground, and except Abæ turned into villages. Abæ had had no hand in the impiety of the other towns, and had had no share either in the seizing of the temple or in the Sacred War. The Phocians were also deprived of participation in the temple at Delphi and in the general Greek Council, and the Amphictyonic Council gave their votes to the Macedonians. As time went on however the Phocian towns were rebuilt, and they returned to them from the villages, except to such as had always been weak, and suffered at this time from want of money. And the Athenians and Thebans forwarded this restoration, before the fatal defeat of the Greeks at Chæronea, in which the Phocians took part, as afterwards they fought against Antipater and the Macedonians at Lamia and Crannon. They fought also against the Galati and the Celtic army with greater bravery than any of the Greeks, to avenge the god at Delphi, and to atone I think for their former guilt. Such are the most memorable public transactions of the Phocians.
[86] Iliad, ii. 519-523. Cyparissus in Hom. is probably Anticyra. See [ch. 36.]
CHAPTER IV.
From Chæronea it is about 20 stades to Panopeus, a town in Phocis, if town that can be called which has no Town-Hall, no gymnasium, no theatre, no market-place, no public fountain, and where the inhabitants live in narrow dwellings, like mountain cottages, near a ravine. But they have boundaries, and send members to the Phocian Council. They say that their town got its name from the father of Epeus, and that they were not Phocians originally, but Phlegyans who fled into Phocis from Orchomenia. The ancient enclosure of Panopeus occupies I conjecture about 7 stades, and I remembered the lines of Homer about Tityus, where he called Panopeus the town delighting in the dance,[87] and in the contest for the dead body of Patroclus he says that Schedius (the son of Iphitus) the king of the Phocians, who was slain by Hector, dwelt at Panopeus.[88] It appears to me that he dwelt there from fear of the Bœotians, making Panopeus a garrison-town, for this is the point where the Bœotians have the easiest approach to Phocis. I could not however understand why Homer called Panopeus delighting in the dance, till I was instructed by those who among the Athenians are called Thyiades. These Thyiades are Athenian women who annually go to Parnassus in concert with the Delphian women, and celebrate the orgies of Dionysus. These Thyiades hold dances on the road from Athens and elsewhere and also at Panopeus: and I imagine Homer’s epithet relates to this.
There is in the street of Panopeus a building of unbaked brick of no great size, and in it a statue in Pentelican marble, which some say is Æsculapius and others Prometheus. The last adduce the following to confirm their opinion. Some stones lie near the ravine each large enough to fill a cart, in colour like the clay found in ravines and sandy torrents, and they smell very like the human body. They say that these are remains of the clay out of which the human race was fashioned by Prometheus. Near the ravine is also the sepulchre of Tityus, the circumference of the mound is about the third of a stade. Of Tityus it is said in the Odyssey,[89]
“On the ground lying, and he lay nine roods.”
But some say that this line does not state the size of Tityus, but that the place where he lay is called Nine Roods. But Cleon, one of the Magnesians that live on the banks of the Hermus, said that people are by nature incredulous of wonderful things, who have not in the course of their lives met with strange occurrences, and that he himself believed that Tityus and others were as large as tradition represented, for when he was at Gades, and he and all his companions sailed from the island according to the bidding of Hercules, on his return he saw a sea monster who had been washed ashore, who had been struck by lightning and was blazing, and he covered five roods. So at least he said.
About seven stades distant from Panopeus is Daulis.[90] The people here are not numerous, but for size and strength they are still the most famous of the Phocians. The town they say got its name from the nymph Daulis, who was the daughter of Cephisus. Others say that the site of the town was once full of trees, and that the ancients gave the name daula to anything dense. Hence Æschylus calls the beard of Glaucus (the son of Anthedonius) daulus. It was here at Daulis according to tradition that the women served up his son to Tereus, and this was the first recorded instance of cannibalism among mankind. And the hoopoe, into which tradition says Tereus was changed, is in size little bigger than a quail, and has on its head feathers which resemble a crest. And it is a remarkable circumstance that in this neighbourhood swallows neither breed nor lay eggs, nor build nests in the roofs of houses: and the Phocians say that when Philomela became a bird she was in dread both of Tereus and his country. And at Daulis there is a temple and ancient statue of Athene, and a still older wooden statue which they say Procne brought from Athens. There is also in the district of Daulis a place called Tronis, where a hero-chapel was built to their hero-founder, who some say was Xanthippus, who won great fame in war, others Phocus (the son of Ornytion and grandson of Sisyphus). They honour this hero whoever he is every day, and when the Phocians bring the victims they pour the blood through a hole on to his tomb, and consume the flesh there also.
[87] Odyssey, xi. 581.
[88] Iliad, xvii. 306, 307.