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ΚΟΙΤΗ ΑΚΤΑΙΩΝΟΣ

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Colin N. Edmonson
Colin N. Edmonson
Affiliation:
University of Washington
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Extract

Pausanias began the ninth book of his Periegesis with a brief topographical observation on the contiguity of Boeotia and Attica and specifically of the Plataiis and Eleutherai, followed by two digressions, the first legendary and toponymic, the second historical; together they occupy the remainder of the first chapter. The only topographical facts to be gathered from these digressions are: (1) that there was a direct road from Thebes to Plataia, and (2) that there was a road from Thebes leading to Hysiai in the direction of Eleutherai and Attica (cf. Thuc. iii 24; Arrian, Anab. i 7), which gave indirect access to Plataia (ix 1.6). The topographical thread is resumed at ix 2.1: Hysiai with its unfinished temple of Apollo and oracular well, Erythrai, and—closer to Plataia—the so-called Tomb of Mardonios were all located to the right of the road from Eleutherai to Plataia.

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Type
Notes
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 84 , November 1964, pp. 153 - 155
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1964

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References

1 CR xii (1898) 161 (Grundy), 206 f. (Frazer).

2 Pritchett, W. K., AJA lxi (1957) 9–28CrossRefGoogle Scholar (esp. 16–21; this article is cited hereafter by author's name only). My own investigations in this region have fully confirmed Pritchett's conclusions regarding the major routes and passes.

3 Whatever the date of the various roads, this route was doubtless ancient: Bölte, , RE ix 1172Google Scholar; Pritchett, 16. Note that the road from Thebes to Hysiai need not be identical with the road from Thebes to Eleutherai (pace Pritchett, 22), and neither Pausanias nor Thucydides says that such was the case.

4 This is what Pritchett, 16 ff., calls ‘Zikos' road’.

5 It would have been possible to turn off to Hysiai after emerging from the mountains but as the map shows (Fig. 1), this route is longer. The Thebans under Neokles doubtless used a more direct route from Hysiai to Plataia than did Pausanias, who returned to the Eleutherai-Plataia road in order to visit the tomb of Mardonios.

6 Pritchett, 18–20 with his fig. 8, pl. 9. Again, my own investigations have substantiated Pritchett's conclusions on this point. ‘Pass 3’ is supposed to have crossed the saddle of Mt. Kithairon where the -N of ‘MT. Kithairon’ appears on my map (Fig. 1).

7 Hammond, N. G. L., BSA xlix (1954) 103–22Google Scholar; Pritchett, 19. Wilamowitz', hasty characterisation of Pausanias' description of this road as ‘schwerlich aus Autopsie’, Hermes ix (1875) 320Google Scholar n. 2 (followed by Pieske, , RE Suppl. iv 905Google Scholar and Hitzig-Blümner, , Pausanias iii 394Google Scholar), is groundless. It is likely, however, that this portion of Book Nine was inserted here by Pausanias from notes made on an earlier occasion, probably at the time of his visits to Pagai, Aigosthena and Ereneia (i 44.4 f.).

8 Pritchett, 19, 22 f. (My map, Fig. 1, with ‘contours’ at 100 m. intervals, is slightly misleading; compare the more detailed map at the end of Grundy, 's Topography of the Battle of Plataea [London 1894].)Google ScholarBursian, , Geographie von Griechenland i 247 n. 5Google Scholar, placed the bed of Aktaion even closer to Plataia at the Spilia Daveli, but the site was rejected on other grounds by Hitzig-Blümner, , Pausanias iii 394.Google Scholar The original identification with Vergutiani was made by Leake, , Northern Greece ii 333 ff.Google Scholar; cf. Frazer, , Pausanias v 7.Google Scholar

9 Pritchett's tentative locations (19 f.) west of Pass 2 must be rejected, since they are on the right as one approaches Plataia not only from Megara, as indicated by Pausanias, but from almost any point of origin to the south or east of Plataia.