Description of Greece

​One can reach Abae and Hyampolis also from Elateia by a mountainous road on the right of the city of the Elateans, but the highway from Orchomenus to Opus also leads to these cities. Therefore, for one going from Orchomenus to Opus and turning aside a little to the left, there is the road to Abae. The people in Abae say they came to the Phocian land from Argos and that the city took its name from Abas its founder, and that he was the son of Lynceus and Hypermnestra, the daughter of Danaus. They have considered Abae sacred to Apollo from of old, and there was also an oracle of Apollo there.

​The Romans and the Persian did not pay honor in the same way to the god in Abae; for the Romans, through their piety toward Apollo, granted the Abaeans to be autonomous, but the army with Xerxes burnt down the sanctuary in Abae as well. It seemed best to those of the Greeks who resisted the barbarian not to rebuild the burnt sanctuaries, but to leave them for all time as memorials of their hatred; and for this reason, the temples in Haliartia, and those of Hera on the Phaleric road for the Athenians, and that of Demeter at Phalerum, remain half-burnt even in my time.

​I think the sanctuary in Abae was in such a state of appearance at that time also, until, in the Phocian War, when Phocian men, forced in battle, fled to Abae, the Thebans set fire both to the suppliants themselves and to the sanctuary, being the second to do so after the Persians; at any rate, there stood even down to my time the weakest remnants of the buildings, which the flame had damaged, as it was destroyed by the Boeotian fire after having been previously ravaged by the Persian fire.

​Beside the great temple there is another temple, falling short of it in size; the Emperor Hadrian made it for Apollo. The images are older and are an offering of the Abaeans themselves, made of bronze and likewise standing upright, namely Apollo, Leto, and Artemis. The Abaeans have a theater, and they also have a marketplace, both of ancient construction.

​Upon returning to the straight road to Opus, Hyampolis will receive you next. As for the people there, their very name declares who they were from the beginning and from where they arrived in this land, having been displaced; for the Hyantes, fleeing from Thebes from Cadmus and the army with him, arrived here. In older times, indeed, they were called the ‘City of the Hyantes’ by their neighbors, but in course of time it prevailed to be named Hyampolis.

​Although King Xerxes burnt down the city and Philip later demolished it, nevertheless what remained was the construction of the ancient marketplace, a council-chamber, which was a small building, and a theater not far from the gates. The Emperor Hadrian built a portico, and the portico is named after the emperor who dedicated it. They have only one well; from this alone they both drink and bathe, and they have no other water except indeed the rain from heaven in the winter season.

​They worship Artemis most of all, and they have a temple of Artemis; but I have not revealed what kind of image it is, for they hold it a custom to open the sanctuary twice and no more in each year. Whatever cattle they call sacred to Artemis, they say these grow up without disease and fatter than the others.

​The entrance from Chaeronea into the Phocian land is not only the straight road to Delphi, which goes through Panopeus and past Daulis and the Schiste road; another road, rough and for the most part mountainous, also leads from Chaeronea to the Phocian city Stiris, the length of the road being one hundred and twenty stades. The people here say they are not Phocians, but Athenians of old, and that they arrived from Attica together with Peteos, the son of Orneus, when he was driven out of Athens by Aegeus; and because the majority from the deme of Stiria followed Peteos, for this reason the city was named Stiris.

​The dwelling of the Stirienses is upon a high and rocky place; they are therefore in want of water in the summer season, for there are neither many wells there, nor is the water they provide suitable. These, indeed, serve them for baths and drink for beasts of burden, but the drinking water for the people they get from a spring, descending about four stades; it is dug out in the rocks, and they go down to the spring to draw it.

​There is in Stiris a sanctuary of Demeter surnamed Stiritis; the sanctuary is of unburnt brick, and the image is of Pentelic stone, the goddess holding torches. Beside her is another ancient image, wrapped with fillets, dedicated to the honor of Demeter.