Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/428

 410 BOEBE. district ; a village called Bobia^ near the edge of the plain of Mesard, is supposed to indicate the site. (Pashley, Trav. vol. i. p. 299.) [E. B. J.] BOEBE (Bol€fi: Eth, BoiUvs, fem. Bot^nts), a town of Magnesia in Thessaly, mentioned hj Homer, and sitnated on the eastern side of the lake, called after it Boebeis Lacus (Boi^ts Xifumi, Horn. //. ii. 712 ; Herod, vii. 129, et alii ; also Bot^Ia M/un;, Eurip. Ale. 690; and Boigjiiy, Find. Pyih. iii. 34.) The lake is frequently mentioned by the ancient writers, bnt the name of the town mrely occurs. The lake receives the rivers Onchestus, Amjrus, and several smaller streams, but has no outlet for its waters. From its proximity to Mt. Ossa, it is called ftaid to have bathed her feet in its waters (Hes. ap, Strob. ix. p. 442), which is perhaps the reason why Propertius (ii. 2. 11) speaks of " sanctae Bocbeidos nndae." The lake is a long narrow piece of water, and is now called Karla from a xnll^ which has disappeared. It produces at present a large quan- tity of fish, of which no mention is made in the an- cient writers, unless, as Leake suggests, Bo^^q should be substituted for Bolbe in a fragment of Arches- tratus quoted by Athenaeus (vii. p. 31 1, a.). The same writer remarks that the numerous flocks on the heights around the villages of Kdprena and Kandlia on the lake illustrate the epithet voXvfiriXjordni be- stowed upon Boebe by Euripdes (/. c); while the precipitous rocks of Petra are probably the Boi€idiZos Kfnin¥ol alluded to by Pindar {I c). The town of Boebe was at a later time dependent upon Demetrias. Its site and remains are described by Leake. " It occupied a height advanced in front of the mountain [o^ Kandlia]^ slopuig gradually to- wards the plain, and defended by a steep fall at the back of the hill. It appears to have been constructed of Hellenic masonry, properly so called. The acro- polis may be traced on the summit, where several large quadranguhir blocks of stones are still in their places, among more considerable ruins formed of small stones and mortar. Of the town walls there are some remains at a small church dedicated to St. Athanasius at the foot of the hill, where are several large masses of stone showing, by their dis- tance from the acropolis, that the city was not less than two miles in circumference." (Besides the references already given, see Strab. ix. pp. 430, 436, 441, soq. XL 503, 530; Liv. xxxi. 41; Plin. iv. 8. 8. 15; Ov. Met vii. 231 ; Steph. B. s. v.; Leake, Northern Greece^ vol. iv. pp. 421—431.) BOEBE'IS LACUS. [Boebe.] BOEO'TIA (BoLwrla : Eth. BowT«Jy), one of the political divisions of Greece, lying between Attica and Megaris on the south, and Locris and Phods on the north, and bouided on the other two sides by the En- boean sea and Corinthian gulf respectively. It may be described as a large hollow basin, shut in on the south by Mts. Cithaeron and Pames, on the west by Mt Helicon, on the north by the slopes of Mt Parnassus and the Opuntian mountfuns, and on the -,' wmI by mountains, a continuation of the Opnn- / tian range, which ertend along the Euripus under the names of Ptoum and Messapium as for as the mouth of the Asopus. This basin how- ever is not an unifonn tract, but is divided into two distinct portions by Mts. Ptoum and Phoeni- cium or Sphmgium, which run across the country from the Euboean sea to Mt Helicon. The northern of these two divisions is drained by the Ccphissus and its tributaries, the watera of which form the BOEOTIA. lake Copais : the southern is drained by the Asopus, which discharges its waters into the Euboean sea. Each of these two basins is again broken into smaller vallies and plains. The surface of Boeotia contains 1119 square miles, according to the calcu- lation of Clinton. I. Northern Boeotia. 1. Bcutn of the Copais and its subterraneous Channels. — This district is enclosed by mountains on every side; and like the vallies of Stympalus and Pheneus in Arcadia, the streams which flow into it only find an outlet for their waters by subter- raneous channels called katavdthra m the limestone mountains. There are several of these katavdthra at the eastern end of the lake Copais, which is se- parated from the sea by Mt Ptoum, about four or five miles acrass. The basin of the Copais is the receptacle of an extensive drainage. The river Cc- phissus, which finds its way into this phun through a cleft in the mountains, brings with it a large quan- tity of water from Doris and Phods, and receives in Boeotia numerous steams, descending from Mt He- lic<m and its ofivhoots. It flows in a south-easterly direction towards the katav6thra at the eastern end of the lake. If these katavdthra were sufficient to carry ofi^ the waters of the Cephissus and its tribu- taries, there would never be a lake in the plain. In the summer time the lake Copais almost entirely disappears; and even in the winter its waters scarcely deserve the name of a lake. Col. Mure, who visited it when its waters were at thdr full, describes it as "a large yellow swamp, overgrown with sedge, reeds, and canes, through which the river could be distinguished oozing its sluggish path for several miles. Even where the course of the stream could no longer be traced in one uninterrupted line, the partial openings among the reeds m the distance ap- peared but a continuation of its windings. Nor is the transition from dry land to water in any place distinctly perceptible; the only visible line of boun- dary between them, unless where the mountains stretch down to the shore, is the encroachment of the reeds on the arable soil, or the absence of the little vilUges with which the terra firma is hera studded in greater numbers than usual" {Tour tn Greece^ vol. i. p. 227.) The number of katavdthra of the lake Copus is considerable, but several of these unite under the mountains; and if we reckon their number by their separate outlets, there aro only four main dmnnels. Of these three flow from the eastern extremity of the lake, between the Opuntian mountains {CUmo) and Ptoum into the Euboean sea ; and the fourth from the southern side of the lake under Mt. Sphingium into the lake Hylica. The meet northerly of the three katavdthra issues from the mountains south of the southern long walls of Opus. The central one, which carries off the greater part of the waters of the Cephissus, after a subterraneous course of nearly four miles, emerges in a broad and rapid stream at Upper Lai7mna, from which it flows above ground for about a mile and a half, till it joins the sea at Lower Larymna. (Strab. ix. p. 405, seq.) The third katavdthrum on the east side falls into the Euboean sea at Skroponeri, the ancient Anthedon. The fourth katavdthrum, as mentioned above, flows under Mt Sphingion into the lake Hylica. From Hylica there is probably a subterraneous channel into the small lake of Moritzi or Paralimni, and
 * Ossaea Boebeis" by Lucan (vii. 176). Athena is