PY´THIUM
PY´THIUM (
Πύθιον), a town of Perrhaebia in Thessaly, situated at the foot of Mount Olympus, and forming a Tripolis with the two neighbouring towns of Azorus and Doliche. Pythium derived its name from a temple of Apollo Pythius situated on one of the summits of Olympus, as we learn from an
[p. 2.689]epigram of Xeinagoras, a Greek mathematician, who measured the height of Olympus from these parts (ap.
Plut. Aem. 15). Games, were also celebrated here in honour of Apollo. (
Steph. B. sub voce Πύθιον.) Pythium commanded an important pass across Mount Olympus.
This pass and that of Tempe are the only two leading from Macedonia into the north-east of Thessaly. Leake therefore places Pythium on the angle of the plain between
Kokkinopló and
Livádhi, though no remains of the ancient town have been discovered there. (
Liv. 42.53; Plut.,
Steph. B. sub voce ll. cc.;
Ptol. 3.13; § 42; Leake,
Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 341, seq.)
