Geography

Panopeus, which is now Phanoteus, bordering on the regions around Lebadeia, is the homeland of Epeius. And the stories about Tityus are also mythologized here. Homer says that the Phaeacians brought Rhadamanthys to Euboea to see Tityus, the son of Earth: “to see Tityus, the son of Earth.” And a certain cave called Elarion, derived from Tityus’ mother Elara, is pointed out on the island, as well as a hero-shrine of Tityus and certain honors. Near Lebadeia is also Trachin, a Phocian town homonymous with the one in Oetaea; its inhabitants are called Trachinians.

​Anemoreia is named after the phenomenon that occurs there; for the place called Catoptrius, a cliff extending from Parnassus, blows down storms upon it. This place was the boundary between the Delphians and the Phocians when the Lacedaemonians detached the Delphians from the common league of the Phocians and permitted them to govern themselves. Some call it Anemoleia. Then Hyampolis (afterwards called Hya by some), into which we said the Hyantes fled from Boeotia; this also is situated very much in the interior, near Parapotamioi, being different from the Hyampeia on Parnassus. And Elateia, the largest city of the Phocians, which Homer does not know (for it is younger than his time), is opportunely situated against invasions from Thessaly. Demosthenes also shows this advantageous position, describing the confusion that arose suddenly at Athens when someone came announcing to the prytaneis that Elateia had been captured.

​Parapotamioi is a settlement established on the Cephissus near Phanoteus, Chaeroneia, and Elateia. Theopompus says that this place is about forty stadia distant from Chaeroneia, and divides the Ambryseans, Panopeans, and Daulians; and that it lies at the entrance from Boeotia into Phocis on a moderately high hill, between Parnassus and Mount Hedylium, leaving a distance of nearly five stadia from each other, and that the Cephissus divides them, giving a narrow passage on either side, having its sources in Lilaea, a Phocian city (as Homer also says: ‘and those who held Lilaea at the sources of Cephissus’), and emptying into Lake Copais. And Mount Hedylium extends sixty stadia as far as Acontium, on which Orchomenus is situated. Hesiod also speaks at greater length about the river and its flow, that it flows through the whole of Phocis crookedly and like a serpent: ‘past Panopeus and through fortified Glechon, and winding through Orchomenus it goes like a serpent.’ The pass around Parapotamioi or Parapotamia (for it is called both ways) was fought over in the Phocian Wars, as those who invaded Phocis from Boeotia had only this entrance. There is a Cephissus in Phocis, one at Athens, one in Salamis, and a fourth and fifth in Sicyon and Scyros; and in Apollonia near Epidamnus there is a spring near the gymnasium which they call Cephissus.

​Daphnus is now razed to the ground; but it was once a city of Phocis touching the Euboean Sea, dividing the Epicnemidian Locrians, extending Phocis from the sea to the side facing Boeotia. The proof of this is the Schedieium in it, which they say is the tomb of Schedius. Daphnus cuts Locris on both sides so that the Epicnemidian and Opuntian Locrians nowhere touch each other; but later it was annexed to the Locrians. This is enough concerning Phocis.