Greek Texts & Translations

already swallowed up. When the outlets were again ob- structed, Crates the Miner, a man of Chalcis, began to clear away the obstructions, but desisted in consequence of the Boeotians 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 Boeotia, 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, ^note which flows through the territory of Haliartus, and forms there a marsh, where the reed grows of which the musical pipe is made. ^note 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. ^note
Il. ii. 503. 19

These rivers descend from the Phocian mountains, and among them the Cephissus, ^note having its source at Lilaea, a Phocian city, as Homer describes it; And they who occupied Lilaea, at the sources of Cephissus. ^note
Il. ii. 523. It flows through Elateia, ^note the largest of the cities among the Phocians, through the Parapotamii, and the Phanoteis, which are also Phocian towns; it then goes onwards to Chaeroneia in Boeotia; afterwards, it traverses the districts of Orchomenus and Coroneia, and discharges its waters into the lake Copais. The Permessus and the Olmeius ^note descend from Helicon, and uniting their streams, fall into the lake Copais near Haliartus. The waters of other streams likewise discharge themselves into it. It is a large lake with a circuit of 380 stadia; ^note the outlets are nowhere visible, if we