Greek Texts & Translations

is a rugged and sterile tract, extending as far as Oetaea, to the territory of the Athamanes, and the mountains and nations following next in order, and which lie around towards the north. 4

There is in Aetolia a very large mountain, the Corax, ^note which is contiguous to Oeta. Among the other mountains, more in the middle of the country, is the Aracynthus, ^note near which the founders built the modern Pleuron, having abandoned the ancient city situated near Calydon, which was in a fertile plain country, when Demetrius, surnamed Aetolicus, laid waste the district.

Above Molycreia ^note are Taphiassus ^note and Chalcis, ^note mountains of considerable height, on which are situated the small cities, Macynia and Chalcis, (having the same name as the mountain,) or, as it is also called, Hypochalcis. Mount Curium is near the ancient Pleuron, from which some supposed the Pleuronii had the appellation of Curetes. 5

The river Evenus rises in the country of the Bomianses, a nation situated among the Ophienses, and an Aetolian tribe like the Eurytanes, Agraei, Curetes, and others. It does not flow, at its commencement, through the territory of the Curetes, which is the same as Pleuronia, but through the country more towards the east along Chalcis and Calydon; it then makes a bend backwards to the plains of the ancient Pleuron, and having changed its course to the west, turns again to the south, where it empties itself. It was formerly called Lycormas. There Nessus, who had the post of ferryman, is said to have been killed by Hercules for having attempted to force Deianeira while he was conveying her across the river. 6

The poet calls Olenus and Pylene Aetolian cities, the former of which, of the same name as the Achaean city, was razed by the Aeolians. It is near the new city Pleuron. The Acarnanians disputed the possession of the territory. They transferred Pylene to a higher situation, and changed its name to Proschium. Hellanicus was not at all acquainted with the history of these cities, but speaks of them as still existing in their ancient condition, but Macynia and Molycria, which were built subsequent to the return of the Heracleidae,