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[6]

As for Phthia, some say that it is the same as Hellas and Achaea, and that these constitute the other, the southern, of the two parts into which Thessaly as a whole was divided; but others distinguish between Hellas and Achaea. The poet seems to make Phthia and Hellas two different things when he says, “"and those who held Phthia and Hellas,"
1as though there were two, and when he says, “"And then (I fled) far away through spacious Hellas, and I came to Phthia,"
2and, “"There are many Achaean women throughout Hellas and Phthia."
3So the poet makes them two, but he does not make it plain whether they are cities or countries. As for later authorities, some, speaking of Hellas as a country, say that it stretches from Palaepharsalus4 to Phthiotic Thebes. In this country also is the Thetideium,5 near both Pharsaluses, both the old and the new; and they infer from the Thetideium that this country too is a part of that which was subject to Achilles. As for those, however, who speak of Hellas as a city, the Pharsalians point out at a distance of sixty stadia from their own city a city in ruins which they believe to be Hellas, and also two springs near it, Messeïs and Hypereia, whereas the Melitaeans say that Hellas was situated about ten stadia distant from themselves on the other side of the Enipeus, at the time when their own city was named Pyrrha, and that it was from Hellas, which was situated in a low-lying district, that the Hellenes migrated to their own city; and they cite as bearing witness to this the tomb of Hellen, son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, situated in their marketplace. For it is related that Deucalion ruled over Phthia, and, in a word, over ThessaIy. The Enipeus, flowing from Othrys past Pharsalus, turns aside into the Apidanus, and the latter into the Peneius. Thus much, then, concerning the Hellenes.

1 Hom. Il. 2.683

2 Hom. Il. 9.478

3 Hom. Il. 9.395

4 Old Pharsalus.

5 Temple of Thetis, mother of Achilles.

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load focus English (H.C. Hamilton, Esq., W. Falconer, M.A., 1903)
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