Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/115

B. ix. c. ii. 28, 29. BCEOTIA. 107 We have spoken of Copae. It lies towards the north on the lake Copais. The other cities around are, Acrasphiae, Pho3- nicis, Onchestus, Haliartus, Ocalea, Alalcomenae, Tilphusium, Coroneia. Formerly, the lake had no one general name, but derived its appellation from every settlement on its banks, as Copais from Copse, 1 Haliartis from Haliartus, and other names from other places, but latterly the whole has been called Copais, for the lake is remarkable for forming at Copse the deepest hollow. Pindar calls it Cephissis, and places near it, not far from Haliartus and Alalcomenas, the fountain Til- phossa, which flows at the foot of Mount Tilphossius. At the fountain is the monument of Teiresias, and in the same place the temple of the Tilphossian Apollo. 28. After Copa3, the poet mentions Eutresis, a small village of the Thespians. 2 Here Zethus and Amphion lived before they became kings of Thebes. Thisbe is now called Thisbae. The place is situated a little above the sea-coast on the confines of the Thespienses, and the territory of Coroneia ; on the south it lies at the foot of Cithaeron. It has an arsenal in a rocky situation abounding with doves, whence the poet terms it " Thisbe, with its flights of doves." Thence to Sicyon is a voyage of 160 stadia. 29. He next recites the names of Coroneia, Haliartus, Pla- tasse, and Glissas. Coroneia 3 is situated upon an eminence, near Helicon. The Boeotians took possession of it on their return from the Thes- salian Arne, after the Trojan war, when they also occupied Orchomenus. Having become masters of Coroneia, they built in the plain before the city the temple of the Itonian Minerva, of the same name as that in Thessaly, and called the river 1 It was still in existence in the time of Pausanias ; the modern village Topolia occupies the site. 2 Leake conjectures that there is an error in the text, and that for 0<r7nwi> we ought to read Qiafl&v, since there is only one spot in the ten miles between Plataea and Thespiae where any town is likely to have stood, and that was occupied by Leuctra. See Smith. 3 It was here that the Athenians under Tolmides were defeated by the Bffiotians in B. c. 447 ; in consequence of which defeat the Athenians lost the sovereignty which they had for some years exercised over Bceotta. The plain of Coroneia was also the scene of the victory gained by Agesi- laus over the Thebans and their allies in B. c. 394.