Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1175

 THEBAE BOEOTIAE. yet at a great distance from it. Cut as Boeotia lies between two seas, the founders of Thebes chose a spot in the centre of the country, vvhei'e water was very plentiful, and where the nature of the ground was admirably adapted for defence. The hill, upon which the town stands, rises about 150 feet above the plain, and lies about 2 miles northward of the highest part of the ridge. It is bounded on the east and west by two small rivers, distant from each other about 6 or 7 stadia, and which run in such deep ravines as to form a natural defence on either side of the city. These rivers, which rise a little south of the city, and flow northward into the plain of Thebes, are the celebrated streams of Ismenus and Dirce. Between them flows a smaller stream, which divided the city into two parts, the western division containing the Cadmeia*, and the southern the hill Ismenius and the Ampheion. This middle torrent is called Cnopus by Leake, but more correctly Stro- phia (CalHm. Hymn, in Del. 76) by Forchhammer. The Cnopus is a torrent flowing from the town Cnopia, and contributing to form the Ismenus, whence it is correctly described by the Scholiast on Nicander ns the same as the Ismenus. (Strab. ix. p. 404; Nicand. Theriac. 889, with Schol.) The three streams of Ismenus, Dirce, and Strojihia unite in the plain below the city, to which Callimachus (/. c.) appears to allude: — AipKTj re ^Tpocpiri re fi.eAaiJLif/7)(p'iSos txovcrai 'l(T/xi]vou x^P"- "■"'rpcis. The middle torrent is rarely mentioned by the ancient writers; and the Ismenus and Dirce are the Ktieams alluded to when Thebes is called ^ntoTafxos ■n6is. (Eurip. Siippl. 622 ; comp. Fhoen. 825. Bacch. 5, Here. Fur. 572.) Both the Ismenus and Dirce, though so celebrated in aniiquity, are nothing but torrents, which are only full of water in the winter after heavy rains. The Ismenus is the pastern stream, now called Ai Idnni, which rises from a clear and copious fountain, where the small eluirch of St. John stands, from which the river de- rives its name. This fountain was called in anti- quity Melia, who was represented as the mother of Ismenus and Tenerus, the hero of the plain which the Ismenus inundates. It was sacred to Ares, who was said to have stationed a dragon to guard it. (Callimach. Hymn, in Del. 80; Sfianheim, a<Z foe; VmA. Pyth.sS. 6; Paus. ix. 10. § 5; Forchhammer, Hellenica, p. 1 1 3.) The Dirce is the western stream, now called Platziotissa, which rises from several fountains, and not from a single one, like the Is- menus. A considerable quantity of the water of the I'lti/ziotigsa is now diverted to supply tlie fountains of the town, and it is represented as the purest of the Theban streams; and it appears to have been so regarded in antiquity likewise, judging from the epithets bestowed upon it by the poets. {'Ayvov iiScop, rind. Is/km. vi. 109, KaWippoos, Istlim. viii. 43; vSwp Aipicaiov evrpatpeararov irup-aroiv^ Aesch. Sept. c. Tilth. 307; KaKKnrnTafj.0^, Eurip. Phoen. 647 ; A'lpKTjs va/xa evK6v, Here. Fur. 578.) Though the position of Thebes and of its cele- brated streams is certain, almost every point con- nected with its topography is more or less doubtful. In the other cities of Greece, which have been inha- bited continu(jusly, most of the ancient buildings and the question as to which of them was the Cad- meia will be discussed below. THEBAE BOEOTIAE. 1151 have disappeared; but nowhere has this taken place more completely than at Thebes. Not a single trace of an ancient building remains; and with the ex- ception of a few scattered remains of architecture and sculpture, and some fragments of the ancient walls, there is nothing but the site to indicate where the ancient city stood. In the absence of all ancient monuments, there must necessarily be great uncer- tainty; and the three writers who have investigated the subject upon the spot, differ so widely, that Leake places the ancient city to the south of the Cad- meia, and Ulrichs to the north of it, while Forch- hammer supposes both the western heiglits between the Strophia and the Dirce to have been in a certain sense the Cadmeia, and the lower city to have stooil eastward, between tlie Strophia and the Ismenus. In the great difficulty of arriving at any independ- ent judgment upon the subject without a personal inspection of the site, we have adopted the hypo- thesis of Forchhammer, which seems consistent with the statements of the ancient writers. The most interesting point in Theban topography is the position of the seven celebrated Theban gates. They are alluded to by Homer (0^§7j$ tSoj fTTTavv- mo, Od. si. 263) and Hesiod {iwraTrvAoi Bi'iSri, Op. 161); and their names are given by seven difl'e- rent authors, whose statements will be more easily compared by consulting the following table. The numeral represents the order in which the gates are mentioned by each writer. The first line gives the names of the gates, the second the names of the Ar- give chiefs, the third the emblems upon their shields, and the fourth the names of the Theban chiefs. Nonnus designates five of the gates by the names of the gods and the planets, and to the other two, to which he gives the names of Electrae and Oncaea, he also adds their position. Hyginus calls the gates by the names of the daugliters of Amphion; and that of Ogvgia alone agrees with those in the other writers. But, dismissing the statements of Non- nus and Hyginus, whose authority is of no value upon such a question, we find that the remaining five writers agree as to the names of .all the seven gates, with two or three exceptions, which will be pointed out presently. The position of three of the gates is quite clear from the description of I'ausanias alone. Tliese are the Electrae, Pro etui kb, and Nei- TAE. Pausanias says that Electrae is the gale by which a traveller from Plataea enters Thebes (ix. 8. § 6); that there is a hill, on the right hand of the gate, sacred to Apollo, called the Ismenian, since the river Ismenus runs in this direction (ix. 10. § 2); and that on the left hand of the gate arc the ruins of a house, where it was said that Amphitryon lived, which is followed by an account of other ancient mo- numents on the Cadmeia (ix. 1 1. § 1). Hence it is evident that the gate Electrae w.as in the south of tl-.e city, between the hills Ismenius and Cudnieia. The gate Proetidcs was on the north-eastern side of the city, since it led to Chalcis (ix. 18. § 1). The g;ite Ne'itae was on the north-western side of the city, since it led to Onche-stus and Delphi; and the river which Pausanias cro.ssed, could have been no other than the Dirce (ix. 25. §§1,3, ix. 20. § 5). The naine.s of the.se three gates are the same in all the five writers: the manuscri|its of Apollodorus have the corrupt word 'Ox^nioa^, which has been altered by the editors into '07x«^5aj, instead of NiVirai, which was the reading suggested by Porson {ad. Eurip. Phaen. 1150), and adopted by Valckenacr. (See Ungcr, Thehnna Pdvadoxa, vol. i. p. 31.3.)
 * The western division contains two eminences,