Page:History of Greece Vol II.djvu/291

 THESSALY. 275 of Othrys with its lateral projections northerly into the Thessa- lian plain, and southerly even to its junction with (Eta. The three tribes of the Malians dwelt between Achasa Phthiotis and ' Thermopylae, including both Trachin and Herakleia. Westward of Achsea Phthiotis, the lofty region of Pindus or Tymphrestus, with its declivities both westward and eastward, was occupied by the Dolopes. All these five tribes, or subdivisions, Perrhaebians, Magnetes, Achaeans of Phthiotis, Malians, and Dolopes, together with cer- tain Epirotic and Macedonian tribes besides, beyond the boun- daries of Pindus and Olympus, were in a state of irregular dependence upon the Thessalians, who occupied the central plain or basin drained by the Peneius. That river receives the streams from Olympus, from Pindus, and from Othrys, flowing through a region which was supposed by its inhabitants to have been once a lake, until Poseidon cut open the defile of Tempe, through which the waters found an efflux. In travelling northward from Thermopylae, the commencement of this fertile region the am- plest space of land continuously productive which Hellas presents is strikingly marked by the steep rock and ancient fortress of Thaumaki ; l from whence the traveller, passing over the moun- tains of Achaea Phthiotis and Othrys, sees before him the plains and low declivities which reach northward across Thessaly to Olympus. A narrow strip of coast in the interior of the gulf of Pagasa?, between the Magnetes and the Achasans, and con- taining the towns of Amphanasum and Pagasae 2 belonged to territory of Trachin in the limits of Phthiotis (Strabo, /. c.). Herodotus considers Phthiotis as terminating a little north of the river Spercheius (vii. 198). 1 See the description of Thaumaki in Livy, xxxii. 4, and in Dr. Holland's Travels, ch. xvii. vol. ii. p. 112, now Thomoko. 2 Skylax, Peripl. c, 65. Hesychius (v. Ila/aov'r^f 'A^o/l/lwv) seems to reckon Pagasa; as Achtean. About the towns in Thessaly, and their various positions, see Manncrt, Geograph. der Gr. und Rumcr, part vii. book iii. ch. 8 and 9. There was an ancient religious ceremony, celebrated by the Delphians every ninth year (Ennaeteris) : a procession was sent from Delphi to the pass of Tempe, consisting of well-born youths under an archi-theor, who represented the proceeding ascribed by an old legend to Apollo ; that god was believed to have gone thither to receive expiation after the slaughter of