SCARPHE
SCARPHE or
SCARPHEIA (
Σκάρφη, Horn.;
Σκάρφεια, Strab., Paus.,
Steph. B. sub voce: Eth.
Σκαρφεύς, Eth.
Σκαρφαιεύς), a town of the Locri Epicnemidii, mentioned by Homer. (
Il. 2.532.)
According to Strabo it was 10 stadia from the sea, 30 stadia from Thronium, and a little less from some other place of which the name is lost, probably Nicaea. (
Strab. ix. p.426.)
It appears from Pausanias that it lay on the direct road from Elateia to Thermopylae by Thronium (8.15.3), and likewise from Livy, who states that Quintius Flamininus marched from Elateia by Thronium and
[p. 2.929]Scarpheia to Heracleia (33.3). Hence the town may be placed between the modern villages of
‘Andera and
Molo. (Leake,
Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 178.) Scarpheia is said by Strabo to have been destroyed by an inundation of the sea caused by an earthquake (i. p. 60), but it must have been afterwards rebuilt, as it is mentioned by subsequent writers down to a late period. (
Plin. Nat. 4.7. s. 12;
Ptol. 3.15.11; Hierocl. p. 643; Geog. Rav. 4.10; Const. Porphyr.
de Them. 2.5. p. 51, Bonn.) Scarpheia is also mentioned by Lycophr. 1147; Appian,
App. Syr. 19;
Paus. 2.29.3,
10.1.2.
