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Clear and good as is this description in general, the direction of the coast is wrongly given. H. evidently thought that the road through the pass ran from north to south, since he here describes various features on either side as lying east or west of it, and later (ch. 199, 200. 1, 201 ad fin.) speaks of points on the road as lying north or south of each other. In reality the coast and road bend to the east near Trachis. But the error is natural if, as appears likely from the route-map given (ch. 198-200), and from the expression ‘before’ and ‘behind’ Thermopylae (§ 2), H. visited Thermopylae while on a journey from the north to Greece, since the road from Lamia runs due north and south across the plain, and the bend in the ancient road may have been more gradual than that in the modern. Macan is surely wrong in doubting whether H. had been at Thermopylae (cf. Grundy, Quart. Rev., vol. ccii, p. 136). The head of the Maliac gulf has now receded about four miles, and the pass itself is now separated from the sea by a tract of marshy ground a mile or more in width formed of the alluvial deposits brought down by the rivers and encircled by the precipitous sides of Mount Oeta and Callidromus (cf. ch. 198; Strabo 428). Even now, however, between the Asopus and the Middle Gate of Thermopylae the ground to the left of the road is impassable marsh. For H.'s sea and marsh cf. Liv. xxxvi. 18 ‘loca usque ad mare invia palustri limo et voraginibus’. θερμὰ λουτρά. The hot springs, which are copious and over 120° F. in temperature, rise on the side of Callidromus, a great cliff mounting almost sheer to a height of 3,000 ft. and on the edge of a great fan-shaped mass of stream débris. The stream, which is of a bright clear green (cf. Paus. iv. 35. 9), first enters the baths and then turns two mills (cf. Grundy, p. 286). Χύτροι: two ‘cauldrons’ or baths devoted in ancient times one to male and the other to female bathers; cf. Paus. iv. 35. 9 “γλαυκότατον μὲν οἶδα ὕδωρ θεασάμενος τὸ ἐν Θερμοπύλαις οὔτε που πᾶν ἀλλ᾽ ὅσον κάτεισιν ἐς τὴν κολυμβήθραν ἥντινα ὀνομάζουσιν οἱ ἐπιχώριοι Χύτρους γυναικείους”. Warm springs were usually Ἡράκλεια λουτρά (Aristoph. Nub. 1051), being created by Athene or Hephaestus, according to different myths, to refresh the weary hero. So Peisander, ap. Schol. Ar. Nub. 1050 τῷ δ᾽ ἐν Θερμοπύλῃσι θεὰ γλαυκῶπις Ἀθήνη ποιεῖ θερμὰ λοετρὰ παρὰ ῥηγμῖνι θαλάσσης. The whole district was the scene of many incidents in the life of Heracles and of his death (cf. ch. 193. 2, 198. 2, 216; and Sophocles, Trachiniae). For the wall cf. ch. 208, 223, 225. The existing remains of wall foundations on the neck by which the first mound is attached to the mountain side are believed by Grundy (pp. 288, 289) to be relics of a wall identical, at least in site, with the one which the Phocians built. It lies a little east of the Middle Gate and of the springs. It seems clear that the Phocians used the springs to channel (§ 4) the road in front, i. e. west of the wall, and so to hinder the Thessalian cavalry.
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