Greek Texts & Translations

I have already spoken of Trachin, and described the nature of the place. The poet mentions it by name. 9

As Homer frequently mentions the Spercheius as a river of the country, having its source in the Typhrestus, a Dryopian mountain, formerly called [Tymphrestus], and emptying itself near Thermopylae, between Trachin and Lamia, ^note he might imply that whatever parts of the Maliac Gulf were either within or without the Pylae, were subject to Achilles.

The Spercheius is distant about 30 stadia from Lamia, which lies above a plain, extending to the Maliac Gulf. That the Spercheius is a river of the country [subject to Achilles], appears from the words of Achilles, who says, that he had devoted his hair to the Spercheius; and from the circumstance, that Menesthius, one of his commanders, was said to be the son of Spercheius and the sister of Achilles.

It is probable that all the people under the command of Achilles and Patroclus, and who had accompanied Peleus in his banishment from Aegina, had the name of Myrmidons, but all the Phthiotae were called Achaecans. 10

They reckon in the Phthiotic district, which was subject to Achilles, beginning from the Malienses, a considerable number of towns, and among them Thebae Phthiotides, Echinus, Lamia, near which the war was carried on between the Macedonians and Antipater, against the Athenians. In this war Leosthenes, the Athenian general, was killed, [and Leonnatus,] one of the companions of Alexander the king. Besides the above-mentioned towns, we must add [Narthac]ium, Erineus, Coroneia, of the same name as the town in Boeotia, Melitaea, Thaumaci, Proerna, Pharsalus, Eretria, of the same name as the Euboic town, Paracheloïtae, of the same name as those in Aetolia; for here also, near Lamia, is a river Achelous, on the banks of which live the Paracheloïtae.

This district, lying to the north, extended to the northwestern territory of the Asclepiadae, and to the territory of Eurypylus and Protesilaus, inclining to the east; on the south it adjoined the Oetaean territory, which was divided into fourteen demi, and contained Heracleia and Dryopis, which was once a community of four cities, (a Tetrapolis,) like Doris, and accounted the capital of the Dryopes in Peloponnesus. To the Oetaean district belong also the Acyphas, Parasopias,