DRYMAEA
DRYMAEA (
Δρυμαία, Paus.;
Δρύμος, Herod.;
Δρυμία,
Steph. B. sub voce Drymiae, Liv.), a frontier town of Phocis, on the side of Doris, whence it is included in the limits of Doris by Livy.
It was one of the Phocian towns destroyed by the army of Xerxes. Pausanias describes it as 80 stadia from Amphicleia: but this number appears to be an error of the copyists, since in the same passage he says that Amphicleia was only 15 stadia from Tithronium, and Tithronium 15 stadia from Drymaea, which would make Drymaea only 35 stadia from Amphicleia.
He also speaks of an ancient temple of Demeter at Drymaea, containing an upright statue of the goddess in stone, in whose honour the annual festival of the Thesmophoria was celebrated. Its more ancient name is said to have been Nauboleis (
Ναυβολεῖς), which was derived from Naubolus, an ancient Phocian hero, father of Iphitus. (
Hom. Il. 2.518.) According to Leake the site of Drymaea is indicated by some ruins, situated midway between
Kamáres and
Glúnista, and occupying a rocky point of the mountain on the edge of the plain. “Some of the towers remain nearly entire.
The masonry is generally of the third order, but contains some pieces of the polygonal kind; the space enclosed is a triangle, of which none of the sides is more than 250 yards.
At the summit is a circular acropolis of about two acres, preserving the remains of an opening into the town” (
Hdt. 8.33;
Paus. 10.3.2,
10.33.11;
Liv. 28.7;
Plin. Nat. 4.3. s. 4;
Steph. B. sub voce Leake,
Northern Greece, vol. ii. pp. 73, 87.)
