Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/70

 62 STRABO. CASA.TJB. 379. wards, and is visible everywhere. The summit has upon it a small temple of Venus, and below it is the fountain Peirene, which has no efflux, but is continually full of water, which is transparent, and fit for drinking. They say, that from the compression of this, and of some other small under-ground veins, originates that spring at the foot of the mountain, which runs into the city, and furnishes the inhabitants with a suf- ficient supply of water. There is a large number of wells in the city, and it is said in the Acrocorinthus also, but this I did not see. When Euripides says, " I c.ome from the Acrocorinthus, well-watered on all sides, the sacred hill and habitation of Venus," the epithet " well-watered on all sides," must be understood to refer to depth ; pure springs and under-ground rills are dis- persed through the mountain ; or we must suppose, that, an- ciently, the Peirene overflowed, and irrigated the mountain. There, it is said, Pegasus was taken by Bellerophon, while drinking ; this was a winged horse, which sprung from the neck of Medusa when the head of the Gorgon was severed from the body. This was the horse, it is said, which caused the Hippocrene, or Horse's Fountain, to spring up in iTelicon by striking the rock with its hoof. Below Peirene is the Sisypheium, which preserves a large portion of the ruins of a temple, or palace, built of white mar- ble. From the summit towards the north are seen Parnassus and Helicon, lofty mountains covered with snow ; then the Crissasan Gulf, 1 lying below both, and surrounded by Phocis, Boeotia, Megaris, by the Corinthian district opposite to Phocis, and by Sicyonia on the west. * * * * Above all these are situated the Oneia 2 mountains, as they are called, extending as far as Bceotia and Cithasron, from the Sceironides rocks, where the road leads along them to Attica. 22. Lechaeum is the commencement of the coast on one side ; and on the other, Cenchreae, a village with a harbour, distant from the city about 70 stadia. The latter serves for the trade with Asia, and Lechaeum for that with Italy. Lechasum is situated below the city, and is not well in- 1 Strabo here gives the name of Crissaean Gulf to the eastern half of the Gulf of Corinth. 2 Of or belonging to asses.