Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/166

 134 HISTORY OF GREECE. land so named, near the harbor of Troezen, in Peloponnesus, was sacred to Poseidon, and an asylum of inviolable sanctity. At the temple of Poseidon, in Kalauria, there had existed, from unknown date, a periodical sacrifice, celebrated by seven cities in common Hermione, Epidaurus, -ZEgina, Athens, Prasiae, Nauplia, and the Minyeian Orchomenos. This ancient religious combination dates from the time when Nauplia was independent of Argos, and Prasiae of Sparta : Argos and Sparta, according to the usual practice in Greece, continued to fulfil the obligation each on the part of its respective dependent. 1 Six out of the seven states are at once sea-towns, and near enough to Kalauria to account for their participation in this Amphiktyony. But the junction ol Orchomenos, from its comparative remoteness, becomes inexpli- cable, except on the supposition that its territory reached the sea, and that it enjoyed a considerable maritime traffic a fact which helps to elucidate both its legendary connection with lolkos, and its partnership in what is called the Ionic emigration. 2 The my- thical genealogy, whereby Ptoos, Schreneus and Erythrios are enumerated among the sons of Athamas, goes farther to confirm the idea that the towns and localities on the south-east of the lake recognized a fraternal origin with the Orchomenian Minyae, not less than Koroneia and Haliartus on the south-west. 3 The great power of Orchomenos was broken down, and the city reduced to a secondary and half-dependent position by the Boeotians of Thebes ; at what time, and under what circumstances, history has not preserved. The story, that the Theban hero, Herakles, rescued his native city from servitude and tribute to Orchomenos, since it comes from a Kadmeian and not from an Orchomenian legend, and since the details of it were favorite subjects of commemoration in the Thebian temples, 4 affords a presumption that Thebes was really once dependent on Orcho- 1 Strabo, viii. p. 374. T Hi/ 6e KO.I 'A/^xrww'a Ttf Kepi rd iepdv TOVTO, Trofauv at fierelxov TW &vaiaf ijaavtie 'E/^uwr, 'Emdovpof, lytva, 'Ai9^va Upacfielf, NavTT/Uetf, 'Op^o/wfOf 6 Mivveioe. 'Tn-ep fiev ovv TUV NavTr/Uem 'Apyetot, vnep Hpaaieuv de kaKe8aifj.6vioi, S-wtTihovv. "Pausan. ix. 17, 1 ; 26,1. 3 See Muller, Orchomenos und die Minyer, p. 214. Pausan. ix. 23, 9 24, 3. The genealogy is as old as the poet Asios, 4 Herod, i. 146. Pausan. vii. 2, 2.