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[18]

Next he speaks of the country subject to Eurypylus: “"and those who held the fountain Hypereia, and those who held Asterium and the white summits of Titanus."
1Now at the present time Ormenium is called Orminium; it is a village situated at the foot of Pelion near the Pagasitic Gulf, one of the cities included in the settlement of Demetrias, as I have said.2 And Lake Boebeïs, also, must be near, since Boebe, as well as Ormenium itself, was one of the dependencies of Demetrias. Now Ormenium is distant by land twenty-seven stadia from Demetrias, whereas the site of Iolcus, which is situated on the road, is distant seven stadia from Demetrias and the remaining twenty stadia from Ormenium. The Scepsian3 says that Phoenix was from Ormenium, and that he fled thence from his father Amyntor the son of Ormenus into Phthia to Peleus the king; for this place, he adds, was founded by Ormenus the son of Cercaphus the son of Aeolus; and he says that both Amyntor and Euaemon were sons of Ormenus, and that Phoenix was son of the former and Eurypylus of the latter, but that the succession to the throne, to which both had equal right, was kept for Eurypylus, inasmuch as Phoenix had gone away from his homeland. Furthermore, the Scepsian writes thus, “"as when first I left Ormenium rich in flocks,"
4 instead of “"I left Hellas, land of fair women."
5But Crates makes Phoenix a Phocian, judging this from the helmet of Meges, which Odysseus used at the time of his night spying, concerning which the poet says, “"Autolycus filched it from Eleon, from Amyntor the son of Ormenus, having broken into his close-built home."
6For Eleon, he says, is a town of Parnassus; and Amyntor, son of Ormenus, means no other than the father of Phoenix; and Autolycus, who lived on Parnassus, must have broken into the house of a neighbor (as is the way of any housebreaker), and not into that of people far away. But the Scepsian says that there is no place called Eleon to be seen on Parnassus, though there is a place called Neon, founded in fact after the Trojan War, and also that housebreakings are not confined to neighbors only. And there are other arguments which one might give, but I hesitate to spend further time on this subject. Others write "from Heleon,"7 but Heleon is a place in Tanagria, and this reading would increase the absurdity of the statement, “"Then I fled afar off through Hellas and came to Phthia."
8The fountain Hypereia is in the middle of the city of the Pheraeans, which belonged to Eumelus. It is absurd, therefore, to assign the fountain to Eurypylus. Titanus9 was named from the fact in the case there; for the region near Arne and Aphetae has white soil. Asterium, also, is not far from these.

1 Hom. Il. 2.734

2 9. 5. 15.

3 Demetrius of Scepsis.

4 Demetrius of Scepsis Fr.

5 Hom. Il. 9.447

6 Hom. Il. 10.266

7 Instead of "from Eleon."

8 Hom. Il. 9.478

9 "White earth."

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load focus English (H.C. Hamilton, Esq., W. Falconer, M.A., 1903)
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