17.

One of two things took place. The cities either retained their sites, when the rise of the water was insufficient to overflow the houses, or they were deserted and rebuilt in some other place, when the inhabitants, being frequently exposed to danger from their vicinity to the lake, released themselves from further apprehension, by changing to a more distant or higher situation. It followed that the cities thus rebuilt retained the same name. Formerly, they might have had a name derived from some accidental local circumstance, but now the site does not correspond with the derivation of the name. For example, it is probable that Platææ was so called, from πλάτη, or the flat part of the oar, and Platæans from gaining their livelihood by rowing; but at present, since they live at a distance from the lake, the name can no longer, with equal propriety, be derived from this local circumstance. Helos also, and Heleon, and Heilesium350 were so called from their situation close to ἕλη, (Hele,) or marshes; but at present the case is different with all these places; either they have been rebuilt, or the lake has been greatly reduced in height by a subsequent efflux of its waters; for this is possible.

18.

This is exemplified particularly in the Cephissus,351 which fills the lake Copais.352 When the increase of the water of that lake was so great, that Copæ was in danger of being swallowed up, (the city is mentioned by the poet, and from it the lake had its name,)353 a fissure in the ground, which took place not far from the lake, and near Copæ, opened a subterraneous channel, of about 30 stadia in length, and received the river, which reappeared on the surface, near Upper Larymna in Locris; for, as has been mentioned, there is another Larymna, in Bœotia, on the sea, surnamed the Upper by the Romans. The place where the river rises again is called Anchoë, as also the lake near it. It is from this point that the Cephissus begins its course354 to the sea. When the overflowing of the water ceased, there was also a cessation of danger to the inhabitants on the banks, but not before some cities had been already swallowed up. When the outlets were again obstructed, Crates the Miner, a man of Chalcis, began to clear away the obstructions, but desisted in consequence of the Bœotians being in a state of insurrection; although, as he himself says, in the letter to Alexander, many places had been already drained; among these, some writers supposed was the site of the ancient Orchomenus; others, that of Eleusis, and of Athens on the Triton. These cities are said to have been founded by Cecrops, when he ruled over Bœotia, then called Ogygia, but that they were afterwards destroyed by inundations. It is said, that there was a fissure in the earth near Orchomenus, that admitted the river Melas,355 which flows through the territory of Haliartus, and forms there a marsh, where the reed grows of which the musical pipe is made.356 But this river has entirely disappeared, being carried off by the subterraneous channels of the chasm, or absorbed by the lakes and marshes about Haliartus; whence the poet calls Haliartus grassy,

“And the grassy Haliartus.”357