Triton River

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The Triton River in Boeotia, Greece ran into Lake Copais. The towns of Athenae and Eleusis were located on the river and were both destroyed in an inundation. [1] [2]

A temple to Athena was located on the river in the town of Alalcomenae. [3]

Notes

  1. Strabo. Geographica . Vol. ix. p.407. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon 's edition.
  2. Pausanias. Description of Greece. Vol. 9.24.2.
  3. Pausanias. Description of Greece. Vol. 9.3.4., 9.33.5, et seq.

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Pheneus or Pheneos was a town in the northeast of ancient Arcadia. Its territory, called Pheniatis, was bounded on the north by that of the Achaean towns of Aegeira and Pellene, east by the Stymphalia, west by the Cleitoria, and south by the Caphyatis and Orchomenia. This territory is shut in on every side by lofty mountains, offshoots of Mount Cyllene and the Aroanian chain; and it is about 7 miles in length and the same in breadth. Two streams descend from the northern mountains, and unite their waters about the middle of the valley; the united river bore in ancient times the name of Olbius and Aroanius. There is no opening through the mountains on the south; but the waters of the united river are carried off by subterranean channels (katavóthra) in the limestone rocks, and, after flowing underground, reappear as the sources of the river Ladon. In order to convey the waters of this river in a single channel to the katavóthra, the inhabitants at an early period constructed a canal, 50 stadia in length, and 30 feet in breadth. This great work, which was attributed to Heracles, had become useless in the time of Pausanias, and the river had resumed its ancient and irregular course; but traces of the canal of Heracles are still visible, and one bank of it was a conspicuous object in the valley when it was visited by William Martin Leake in 1806. The canal of Heracles, however, could not protect the valley from the danger to which it was exposed, in consequence of the katavóthra becoming obstructed, and the river finding no outlet for its waters. The Pheneatae related that their city was once destroyed by such an inundation, and in proof of it they pointed out upon the mountains the marks of the height to which the water was said to have ascended. Pausanias evidently refers to the yellow border which is still visible upon the mountains and around the plain: but in consequence of the great height of this line upon the rocks, it is difficult to believe it to be the mark of the ancient depth of water in the plain, and it is more probably caused by evaporation; the lower parts of the rock being constantly moistened, while the upper are in a state of comparative dryness, thus producing a difference of colour in process of time. It is, however, certain that the Pheneatic plain has been exposed more than once to such inundations. Pliny the Elder says that the calamity had occurred five times; and Eratosthenes related a memorable instance of such an inundation through the obstruction of the katavóthra, when, after they were again opened, the water rushing into the Ladon and the Alpheius overflowed the banks of those rivers at Olympia. The account of Eratosthenes has been confirmed by a similar occurrence in modern times. In 1821 the katavóthra became obstructed, and the water continued to rise in the plain till it had destroyed 7 to 8 square miles of cultivated country. Such was its condition till 1832, when the subterraneous channels again opened, the Ladon and Alpheius overflowed, and the plain of Olympia was inundated. Other ancient writers allude to the katavóthra and subterraneous course of the river of Pheneus.

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Coroneia, or Coronea, was a town of ancient Boeotia, and a member of the Boeotian League. It is described by Strabo as situated upon a height near Mount Helicon; its territory was called Κορωνειακή. The town stood upon an insulated hill at the entrance of a valley leading southwards to Mt. Helicon, the principal summit of which is seen at the head of the valley. From this hill there was a fine view over the Lake Copais, and at its foot there was a broad plain extending as far as the marshes of the lake. On either side of the hill flowed two streams, one on the eastern or right hand side, called Coralius or Cuarius, and the other on the left, named Phalarus: a tributary of the latter was the Isomantus or Hoplias. Coroneia is said to have been founded by the Boeotians from Arne in Thessaly, after they had been driven out of their original homes by the Thessalians; and they appear to have called it Coroneia after the Thessalian town of this name. At the same time they built in the plain in front of the city a temple of Athena Itonica, also named after the one in Thessaly, and likewise gave to the river which flowed by the temple the name of Cuarius or Curalius, after the Thessalian river. In this temple was held the festival of the Pamboeotia, which was common to all the Boeotians. The Thessalian origin of Coroneia is also attested by Pausanias, who ascribes its foundation, as well as that of Haliartus, to Athamas and his descendants, who came from Thessaly.

Gortys, or Gortyna (Γόρτυνα), was a town of ancient Arcadia in the district Cynuria, situated near the river Gortynius (Γορτύνιος), also called Lusius (Λούσιος) nearer its sources, which was a tributary of the Alpheius, and was remarkable for the coldness of its waters. The town is said to have been founded by Gortys, a son of Stymphalus, and is described by Pausanias as a village in his time, though it had formerly been a considerable city. Most of its inhabitants were removed to Megalopolis upon the foundation of the latter city in 371 BCE; but it must have continued to be a place of some importance, since Polybius says that it was taken by Euripidas, the general of the Eleians, in the Social War in 219 BCE. At that time it was subject to Thelpusa. It contained a celebrated temple of Asclepius, built of Pentelic marble, and containing statues of Asclepius and Hygieia by Scopas. Cicero alludes to this temple, when he says that near the river Lusius was the sepulchre of one of the Aesclepii, of whom he reckoned three.

Eira, also known as Hira or Ira (Ἰρά), and Hire or Ire (Ἱρὴ), was a fortified settlement on a mountain of the same name, in the north of ancient Messenia, near the Neda River. During the Second Messenian War the Messenians fortified the place, and Aristomenes defended it for ten years against the Spartans. Pausanias dates the capture of the city by the Lacedaemonians to the first year of the 28th Olympiad (668 BCE). The Arcadians welcomed many Messenians who withdrew thither after the capture of Eira, while the captured Messenian prisoners were converted to helots by the Lacedaemonians, and the rest of Messenians who lived on the coast were exiled to Cyllene, in Elis. Pausanias adds that 297 years after the capture of Eira, in the third year of the 102nd Olympiad (370 BCE), the Messenians regained their territory.