HALUS
HALUS or
ALUS (
ὁ or
ἡ Ἅλος,
Ἄλος: Eth.
Ἁλεύς), a town of Phthiotis in Thessaly, mentioned by Homer. (
Il. 2.682.)
It is described by Strabo as situated near the sea, at the extremity of Mount Othrys, above the plain called Crocium, of which the part around Halus was called Athamantium, from Athamas, the reputed founder of Halus. (Strab. ix. pp. 432, 433.) Strabo also says that the river Amphrysus, on the banks of which Apollo is said to have fed the oxen of Admetus, flowed near the walls of Halus. [
AMPHRYSUS] Halus is likewise mentioned by a few other writers. (
Hdt. 7.173; Dem.
de Fals. Leg. p. 392; Mela, 2.3;
Plin. Nat. 4.7. s. 14.) Leake places Halus at
Kefálosi, which is situated at a short distance from the sea on a projecting extremity of Mt. Othrys above the Crocian plain, exactly as Strabo has described. “A Hellenic citadel occupied the summit of the projecting height; and remains of the walls are seen also on the northern slope of the hill, having short flanks at intervals, and formed of masonry which, although massive, is not so accurately united as we generally find it in the southern provinces of Greece.
The walls. may be traced also on the descent to the south-east, and seem to have been united at the foot of the hill to a quadrangular inclosure situated entirely in the plain, and of which the northern side followed the course of the stream, and the western the foot of the height.
The walls of this lower inclosure are nine feet and a half thick, are flanked with towers, and their masonry, wherever traceable, is of the most accurate and regular kind; two or three courses of it still exist in some places.” (Leake,
Northern Greece, vol. iv. p. 336.)
