ITON
ITON or
ITO´NUS (
Ἴτων,, Hom.;
Ἴτωνος, Strab.), a town of Phthiotis in Thessaly, called by Homer “mother of flocks” (
Il. 2.696), was situated 60 stadia from Alus, upon the river Cuarius or Coralius, and above the Crocian plain. (
Strab. ix. p.435.) Leake supposes the
Kholó to be the Cuarius, and places Itonus near the spot where the river issues from the mountains ; and as, in that case, Iton possessed a portion of the pastoral highlands of Othrys, the epithet “mother of flocks” appears to have been well adapted to it. (Leake,
Northern Greece, vol. iv. pp. 356, 357.) Iton had a celebrated temple of Athena, whose worship, under the name of the Itonian Athena, was carried by the Boeotians, when they were expelled from Thessaly, into the country named after them. (Strab.
l.c.; Steph. B. sub voce Apollod. 2.7.7.; Appollon. 1.551, with Schol.; Callim.
Hymn. in Cer. 74.;
Paus. 1.13.2,
3.9.13,
9.34.1,
10.1.10 ;
Plut. Pyrrh. 26.)
