Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/80

 64 AETOLIA. the Caretes were said to have derived their name. It is a branch of Aracjnthus. (Strab. x. p. 451.) The two chief rivers of Aetolla were the Achelous and the Evenus^ which flowed in the lower part of their course nearly parallel to one another. [Ache- ix>ns: EvEirus.] There were no other rivers in the country worthy d£ mention, with the exception of the Gampylus and Cyathus, both of which were tribu- taries of the Achelous. [Ach£L0U3.] There were several lakes in the two great plains of Aetolia. The upper plain, N. of Mt Aracynthus, contained two large lakes, which conununicatodwith each other. The eastern and the larger of the two was called Trichonis (Tptxofvls^ PoL v. 7, xL 4 : LaJse ofApokuro)j the western was named Hyria (^Lake 4f Zygoi) ; and from the latter issued the river Cyathus, which flowed into the Achelous near the town of Conope, afterwards Arsinoe (Ath. x. p. 424). This lake, named Hyrie by Ovid (3fe& vii. 371, seq.) is called Hydra CTSpa) in the common text of Strabo, from whom we learn that it was afterwards called Lysimachia (Avo-i/iax^a) from a town of that name upon its southern shore. (Strab. p. 460.) Its proper name appears to have been Hyria, which might easily bo changed into Hydra. (Mliller, Dorians^ vol. ii. p. 481.) This lake is also named Oonope by Anto- ninus Liberalis {Met. 12). The mountain Aracynthus runs down towards the ^oies of both lakes, and near the lake Hyrie there is a raine, which Ovid {I. c.) calls the " Cycneia Tempe," because Cycnus was said to have been here changed into a swan by Apollo. The principal sources which form both the lakes are at the foot of the steep mountain overhanging the eastern, or lake Trichonis; a current flows from £. to W. through the two lakes; and the river of Cyathus is nothing more than a continuation of the same stream (Leake, vol. i. p. 154). In the lower plain of Aetolia there were several smaller lakes or lagoons. Of these Strabo (pp. 459, 460) mentions three. 1. Cynia(KvWa), wluch was 60 stadia long and 20 broad, and communicated with the sea. 2. Uria (Ovp^a), which vras much smaller than the preceding and half a stadium from the sea. 3. A large lake near Calydon, belonging to the Romans of Patrae : this lake, according to Strabo, abounded in fish (ciioifos), and the gastronomic poet Archestratus said that it was celebrated for the labrax (AcCS^), a ravenous kind of fish. (Ath. vii. p. 311, a.) There is some difficulty in identifying these lakes, as the coast has undergone numerous changes; but Leake supposes that the lagoon of Anatoliko was Cynia, that oi MeaolonghiXins^ and that oiBokhori the lake of Calydon. The last of these lakes is perhaps the same as the lake Onthb {'OvOls% which Nicander (ap. Schol. ad Nicand. Thai'. 214) speaks of in connection vvith Kaupactns. (Leake, vd. iii. p. 573, &c.) In the two great plains of Aetolia excellent com was grown, and the slopes of the mountains produced good wine and oil. These plains also afforded abun- dance of pasture for horses ; and the Aetolian horses were reckoned only second to those of Thessaly. In the mountains there were many wild beasts, among which we find mention of boars and even of lions, for Herodotus gives the Thracian Ncstus and the Achelous as the limits within which lions were found in Europe. (Herod, v. 126.) The original inhabitants of Aetolia asz said to have been Ouretes, who according to some aocoimts had come from Euboea. (Strab. x. p. 465.) They inhabited the plains between the Achelous and the AETOLIA. Evenns, and the country received in oooseqaenoe the name of Curetis. Beddes them we also find mciiti(« of the Leleges and the Hyantes, the latter of whom had been driven out of Boeotia. (Strab. pp. 322, 464.) These three peoples probably belonged to tho great Pelade race, and were at all events not Hel- lenes. The first great Hellenic settlement in the countiy is said to have been that of the Epeans, led by Aetolus, the son of Endymion, who crossed oTer from Elis in Peloponnesus, subdued the Curetes, and gave his name to the country and the people, ox generations before the Trojan war. Aetolns fonnded the town of Calydon, which he called after his son, and which became the capital of his dominions. The Curetes continued to reside at their ancient capital Pleuron at the foot of Mt. Ciuium, and for a long time carried on war with the inhabitants of Calydon. Subsequently the Curetes were driven out of Pleuron, and are said to have crossed over into Acamania. At the time of the Trojan war Pleuron as well as Calydon were governed by the Aetolian chief Thoas. (Pans. V. 1. § 8; Horn. //. ix. 529, seq.; Strab. p. 463.) Since Pleuron appears in the later period c^ the heroic age as an Aetolian city, it is reinesented as such from the beginning in some legends. Hence • Pleuron, like Calydon, is said to have derived its name from a son of Aetolus (ApoUod. L 7. § 7); and at the very time that some l^ends represent it as the capital of the Curetes, and engaged in war with Oeneus, king of Calydon, others relate that it was governed by his own brother Thestius. Aetolia was celebrated in the heroic age <^ Greece on account of the hunt of the Calydonian boar, and the exploits of Tydeus, Meleager and the other heroes tS Calydon and Pleuron. The Aetolians also took part in the Trojan war under the command of Thoas; they came in 40 ships from Pleuron, Calydon, Olenus, Pylesne and Chalcis (Horn. Jl. ii. 638). Sixty years after the Trojan war some Aeolians, who had been driven out of Thessaly along with the Boeotians, migrated into Aetolia, and settled in the country around Pkuron and Calydon, which was hence called Aeolis after thenL (Strab. p. 464; Thuc iii. 102.) Ephonis (ap. Strab. p. 465) however places this migration ot the Aeolians much earlier, for he relates " that the Aeolians once invaded the district of Pleuron, which was inhabited by the Curetes and called Curetis, and expelled this people." Twenty years afterwards occurred the great Dorian invasion of Pdoponnesos under the command of the descendants of Heracles. The Aetolian chief Oxylus took part in this invasion, and conducted the Dorians across tlic Corinthian gulf. In return for his services he received Elis upon the conquest of Peloponnesus. From this time till tiie commencement of the Peloponnesian war wo know nothing of the histoiy of the Aetolians. Notwithstandmg their fiime in the heroic age, they appear at the time of the Peloponnesian war as one of the most uncivilized of the Grecian tribes; and Thucydides (L 5) mentions them, together with their neighbours the Ozolian Locrians and Acamanians, as retaining all the habits of a rude and barbarous age. At this period there were three main divisions of the Aetolians, the Apodoti, Ophioncnses, and Eurytanes. The last, who were the most numerous of the three, spoke a language which waa unintelligible, and were in the habit of eating raw meat. (Thuc. iii. 102.) Thucydides, however, does not call them Bap^apoi ; and notwithstanding their low culture and uncivilized habits, the Aetolians ranked as Hellenes, partly,