Description of Greece

​Before arriving at Coroneia from Alalcomenae, there is the sanctuary of Itonian Athena; it is named after Itonius, the son of Amphictyon, and there the Boeotians assemble for their common council. Within the temple are bronze statues of Itonian Athena and Zeus; they are the work of Agoracritus, a pupil and beloved of Pheidias. In my time they also dedicated statues of the Graces.

​The following is also told: that Iodama, who was priestess to the goddess, entered the sacred precinct by night, and Athena appeared to her, with the head of Medusa the Gorgon upon the goddess’s chiton; and Iodama, when she saw it, turned to stone. And on this account, a woman, when placing fire every day upon the altar of Iodama, thrice repeats in the Boeotian dialect that Iodama lives and asks for fire.

​Coroneia offered for memory in the marketplace an altar of Hermes Epimelius, and another of the Winds. A little lower down is a temple of Hera with an ancient statue, the work of Pythodorus a Theban, carrying Sirens on her hand; for they say that the daughters of Achelous, having been persuaded by Hera, entered into a contest of song against the Muses; and the Muses, having won, are said to have plucked the feathers of the Sirens and made crowns from them.

​About forty stades from Coroneia is the mountain Libethrium, and on it are statues of the Muses and nymphs under the title of Libethrian; and there are springs—one they call Libethrias, and the other Petra—resembling the breasts of a woman, and water like milk rises from them.

​To the mountain Laphystium and to the precinct of Laphystian Zeus, it is about twenty stades from Coroneia. The statue is of stone; and they say that when Athamas was about to sacrifice Phrixus and Helle here, a ram with golden fleece was sent to the children by Zeus, and that they escaped on this ram. Higher up is a sanctuary of Heracles surnamed Charops; and here the Boeotians say that Heracles came up bringing the dog of Hades. Down from Laphystium, as one goes to the sanctuary of Itonian Athena, is the river Phalarus, which empties into the lake Cephisis.

​On the other side of the mountain Laphystium is Orchomenus, which is as illustrious for glory as any other city among the Greeks. Having once been raised to the highest degree of prosperity, it too was destined to receive an end not much different from Mycenae and Delos. Concerning its ancient affairs, such were the things which they remember. They say that Andreus, son of the river-god Peneus, first settled here, and after him the land was named Andreis;

​and when Athamas came to him, Andreus assigned to Athamas a portion of his own land, both the region around Laphystium and what is now Coroneia and the territory of Haliartus. But Athamas, since he thought that none of his male children was left to him—for as to Learchus and Melicertes, he himself had committed outrages against them, and Leucon happened to have died of disease, while of Phrixus he did not know whether he was surviving himself or had left any offspring behind—for these reasons he adopted Haliartus and Coronus, the sons of Thersander, the son of Sisyphus; for Athamas was a brother of Sisyphus.

​But later, when either Phrixus himself—as some say—or Presbon, as others say (and they say that Presbon was born to Phrixus by the daughter of Aeetes), returned from Colchis, the sons of Thersander agreed that the house of Athamas belonged to Athamas and his descendants; and they themselves—since Athamas gave them a portion of the land—became the founders of Haliartus and Coroneia.

​And even before these events, Andreus took to wife Euippe, daughter of Leucon, from Athamas, and a son Eteocles was born to him, but according to the rumor of the citizens, his father was the river Cephisus, so that some of the poets in their epic verses called Eteocles ‘son of Cephisus’ (Cephisiades).

​When this Eteocles became king, he allowed the country to keep its name from Andreus, but established two tribes, the Cephisian, and the other named after himself. And when Almus, the son of Sisyphus, came to him, he gave him a small portion of the land to dwell in, and a village was then called Almones from this Almus; but in course of time the name Olmones later prevailed for the village.