17.

The poet having proceeded so far along the Magnesian coast, returns to Upper Thessaly, for beginning from Dolopia and Pindus he goes through the region extending along Phthiotis to Lower Thessaly.

“They who occupy Tricca and rocky Ithome.”518

These places belong to Histiæotis, which was formerly called Doris. When it was in the possession of the Perrhæbi, who destroyed Histiæotis in Eubœa, and had removed the inhabitants by force to the continent, they gave the country the name of Histiæotis, on account of the great numbers of Histiæans among the settlers. This country and Dolopia are called Upper Thessaly, which is in a straight line with Upper Macedonia, as Lower Thessaly is in a straight line with Lower Macedonia.

Tricca,519 where there is a very ancient and famous temple of Æsculapius, borders upon the Dolopes, and the parts about Pindus.

Ithome, which has the same name as the Messenian Ithome, ought not, they say, to be pronounced in this manner, but should be pronounced without the first syllable, Thome, for this was its former name. At present, it is changed to [Thumæum]. It is a spot strong by nature, and in reality rocky. It lies between four strong-holds, which form a square, Tricca, Metropolis, Pelinnæum, and Gomphi.520 Ithome belongs to the district of the Metropolitæ. Metropolis was formed at first out of three small obscure cities, and afterwards more were included, and among these Ithome. Callimachus says in his Iambics,

“among the Venuses, (for the goddess bears several titles,) Venus Castnietis surpasses all others in wisdom,”

for she alone accepts the sacrifice of swine. Certainly Callimachus, if any person could be said to possess information, was well informed, and it was his object, as he himself says, all his life to relate these fables. Later writers, however, have proved that there was not one Venus only, but several, who accepted that sacrifice, from among whom the goddess worshipped at Metropolis came, and that this [foreign] rite was delivered down by one of the cities which contributed to form that settlement.

[Pg 142]
[CAS. 438]

Pharcadon also is situated in the Hestiæotis. The Peneius and the Curalius flow through it. The Curalius, after flowing beside the temple of the Itonian Minerva, empties itself into the Peneius.

The Peneius itself rises in Mount Pindus, as I have before said. It leaves Tricca, Pelinnæum, and Pharcadon on the left hand, and takes its course beside Atrax and Larisa. After having received the rivers of the Thessaliotis it flows onwards through Tempe, and it empties itself into the sea.

Historians speak of Œchalia, the city of Eurytus, as existing in these parts, in Eubœa also, and in Arcadia; but some give it one name, others another, as I have said in the description of Peloponnesus.

They inquire particularly, which of these was the city taken by Hercules, and which was the city intended by the author of the poem, “The Capture of Œchalia”?

The places, however, were subject to the Asclepiadæ.