Geography

​Of this country, the two most famous cities are Delphi and Elateia: Delphi, on the one hand, is famous on account of the temple of Pythian Apollo and the oracle, because it is ancient, since Agamemnon is said by the poet to have consulted it; for the citharode is introduced singing “the quarrel of Odysseus and Achilles son of Peleus, how they once contended. —And Agamemnon king of men rejoiced in mind, for thus Phoebus Apollo foretold to him by oracle in Pytho.” Delphi, indeed, is so because of these things, and Elateia because it is the largest of all the cities there and the most strategically located, because it lies commanding the passes, and the one who holds it holds the entrances into Phocis and Boeotia. For there are, first, the Oetaean mountains, then those of the Locrians and Phocians, which are not everywhere passable for armies invading from Thessaly, but they have passes, narrow indeed but distinct, which the neighboring cities guard; and if those cities are captured, it happens that the passes also are controlled. But since the fame of the temple in Delphi holds the precedence, and at the same time the position of the places suggests a natural beginning (for these are the westernmost parts of Phocis), we must begin from here.

​And it has been said that Parnassus also is situated on the western borders of Phocis. Of this, indeed, the western side is occupied by the Ozolian Locrians, and the southern side by Delphi, a rocky place shaped like a theater, having at its summit the oracle and the city, which fills a circuit of sixteen stades. And above it lies Lycoreia, at which place the Delphians were formerly settled, above the temple; but now they live on [the temple site] itself, around the Castalian spring. And in front of the city, on the southern side, lies Cirphis, a precipitous mountain, leaving a glen in between, through which the river Pleistus flows. And below Cirphis lies the ancient city of Cirrha, situated on the sea, from which the ascent to Delphi is about eighty stades; it is situated directly opposite Sicyon. And in front of Cirrha lies the fertile Crisaean plain. For again, next in order is another city, Crisa, from which the Crisaean Gulf takes its name; then Anticyra, homonymous with the one near the Malian Gulf and Oeta. And indeed they say that while the fine hellebore grows there, it is prepared better here, and for this reason many people travel hither for the sake of purgation and cure; for they say that a certain sesame-like drug is produced in Phocis, with which the Oetaean hellebore is prepared.

​This one, then, still survives, but Cirrha and Crisa were razed; the former, later, by Eurylochus the Thessalian during the Crisaean War; for the Crisaeans, having become prosperous on account of the tolls from Sicily and Italy, harshly levied taxes on those who came to the temple, even contrary to the decrees of the Amphictyons. And the same thing happened also to the Amphissians. These belong to the Ozolian Locrians. For they too, having made an inroad, took possession of Crisa and again cultivated the plain which had been dedicated to the god by the Amphictyons, and they were worse toward strangers than the Crisaeans of old. And so the Amphictyons punished these too, and restored the territory to the god. And the temple also is now greatly neglected, whereas formerly it was exceedingly [reverenced/wealthy] . This is shown by both the treasuries which states and rulers constructed, in which they dedicated sacred money and works of the best craftsmen, and the Pythian games, and the multitude of recorded oracles.