Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/725

 CRISSA. Hut CnssA likewise was on the coast, more to th» ^east, in the direction of Anticjra. Strabo, who had never visited thb part of Greeo*, was probably led into this error from the name of the Crissaean gulf, which seemed to imply the existence of a maritime Crissa. Between Crissa and Cirrha was a fertile plain, bounded on the north by Pamassos, on the east by Cirphis, and on the west by the moontains of the Ozolian Locrions. On the western side it extended as far north as Amphissa, which was situated at the head of that part of the plain. (Herod, viii 32 ; Strab. ix. p. 419.) This plain, as lying between Crissa «nd Cinlia, might be called either the Crissaean or Cirrhaean, and is sometimes so designated by the ancient writers; but, properly speaking, there ap- pears to have been a distinction between the two plains. The Cirrhaean plain was the small plain near the town of Cirrha, extending from the sea as far as the modem village of XeropSffodOj where it is divided by two projecting rocks from the larger and more fertile Crissaean plain, which stretches, as we have already said, as far as Crissa and Am- phissa. The small Cirrhaean pUdn on the coast was the one dedicated to Apollo after the destmction of Cirrha, as related below {rh Ktfficuoy wcSi!»y, Aeschin. c. Ctetiph. p. 68, ed. Steph. ; ^ Kif^a X^pa, Dem. de Cor. pp. 277, 278, ReLske ; Diod. xvi. 23; Dion Cass. Ixiii. 14; Polyaen. iii. 5; Uph 70, Bockh, Corp. Irucr. no. 1688; 4i Ki^aia, Pans. X. 37. § 6). The name of the Crissaean plain in its more extended sense might include the Cirrhaean, so that the latter may be regarded as a part of the former. The boundaries of the land dedicated to the god were inscribed on one of the walls of the Del- pliian temple, and may perhaps be yet discovered among the ruins of the temple. (Bockh, Corp, Inter, no. 1711.) Crissa was r^arded as one of the most ancient cities in Greece. It is mentioned in the Catalogue of the Iliad as the ** divine Crissa" (Kpiaa (a9^, //. iL 520). According to the Homeric hymn to Apollo, it was founded by a colony of Cretans, who were led to the spot by Apollo himself, and whom the god had chosen to be his priests in the sanc- tuary which he had intended to establish at Pytho. (Horn. Symn* in ApolL 438.) In this hymn, Crissa is described (1. 269) as situated under Par- nassus, where no chariots rc^ed, and no trampUng of horses was heard, — a description suitable to the site of Crissa upon the rocks, as explained above, but quite inappUcable to a town upon the sea-shwe. In like manner, Nonnus, following the description of the ancient epic poets, speaks of Crissa as surrounded by rodu. {Dwn^. p. 358, vs. 127.) Moreover, the statement ot Pindar, that the road to Delphi from the Hippodrome on the coast led over the Crissaean hiU {Pyth. v. 46), leaves no doubt of the true position of Crissa, since the road from the plain to Delphi must pass by the projecting spur of Par- nassus on which Chrysd stands. In the Homeric iiymn to Apollo, Crissa appears as a powerful place, possessing as its territ<»7 the rich plain stretching down to the sea, and also the adjoining sanctuary of Pytho itself, wMch had not yet become a separate town. In fiict, Crissa is in this hymn identified with Delphi (1. 282, where the position of Delphi is clearly described under the name (tf Crissa). Even in Pindar, the name of Crissa is used as synonymous with Delphi, just as Pisa occurs in the poets as equivalent to Olympia. (Pind. IsthoL ii. 26.) Meta- CMTALLA. 707 pontium in Italy is said to have been a colony of Crissa. (Strab. vi. p. 264.) In course of time the sea-port town of Cirrha in- creased at the expense of Crissa; and the sanctuary of Pytho grew into the town of Delphi, which chumed to be independent of Crissa. Thus Crissa declined, as Cirrha and Delphi rose in importance. The power of Cirrha excited the jealousy of the Delphians, UAore especially as the inhabitants of the former city com- manded the approach to the temple by sea. Hoi^ over, the Cirrhaeans levied exorbitant tolls upon the pilgrims who landed at the town upon their way to Delphi, and were said to have maltreated Phociaa women on their return from the temple. (Aeschin. c. Ctetiph. p. 68; Strab. ix. p. 418; Athen. xiii. p» 560/) In consequence of these outrages, the Am- phictyons declared war against the Cirrhaeans about B. c. 595, and at the end of ten years succeeded in taking the city, which was razed to the ground, and the plain in its neighbourhood dedicated to the god, and curses imprecated upon any one who should till or dwell in it. Cirrha is said to have been taken bj a stratagem which is ascribed by some to Solon. The town was supplied with water by a canal from the river Pleistus. This canal was turned o£^ filled with hellebore, and then allowed to resume its former course; but scarcely had the thirsty Crissaeans drank of the poisoned water, than they were so weakened by its puigative effects that they could no longer defend their walls. (Pans. x. 37. § 7 ; Polyaen. iii. 6; Frontin. StraUg. iii. 7. § 6.) This account sounds like a romance; but it is a curious circum- stance that near the ruins of Cirrha there is a salt spring havmg a purgative effect like the hellebore sk the ancients. Cirrha was thus destroyed; but the fate of Crissa is uncertain. It is not improbable that Crissa had sunk into insignificance before this war, and that some of its inhabitants had settled at Delphi, and others at Cirrha. At all events, it is certain that Cirrha was the town against which the vengeance of the Amphictyons was directed; and Strabo, in his account of the war, substitutes Crissa for Cirrha, because he supposed Crissa to have been situated upon the coast. The spoils of Cirrha were employed by the Am- phictyons in founding the Pythian games. Near the ruins of the town in the Cirrhaean plain was the Hippodrome (Pans. x. 37. § 4), and in the time of Pindar the Stadium also. (P^tA. xi. 20, 73.) The Hippodrome always remained in the maritime plain; but at a later time the Stadium was removed to Delphi. [Delphi.] Cirrha remained 'm ruins, and the Cirrhaean plain continued uncultivated down to the time of Philip, the £!tther of Alexander the Great, when the Am- phissians dared to cultivate again the sacred phun, and attempted to rebuild the ruined town. This led to the Second Sacred War, in which Amphissa was taken by Philip, to whom the Amphictyons had en- trusted the conduct of the war, b. c. 338. [Am- puiasA.] Cirrlia, however, was afterwards rebuilt as the port of Delphi. It is first mentioned again by Po- ly bins (t. 27); and in the time of Pausanias it contained a temple common to Apollo, Artemis, and Leto, in which were statues of Attic work* (Leake, Northern Greecey vol ii. p. 583; and more espe- daUy Ulrichs, Reiten in Griechenlandj p. 7, seq.) CRISSAEUS SINUS. [Corintriacus Simub.] CRITALLA (ri f^roAAa), a place in Cappa- z z 2