Book 9
2.14
Near Anthedon is a place called Isus, and esteemed sacred, belonging to Boeotia; it contains remains of a city, and the first syllable of Isus is short. Some persons are of opinion, that the verse ought to be written, ̓͂ισόν τε ζαθέην?̓ανθηδόνα τ̓ ἐσχατόωσαν, The sacred Isus, and the extreme Anthedon, lengthening the first syllable by poetical licence for the sake of the metre, instead of νῖσάν τε ζαθέην, The sacred Nisa; for Nisa is not to be found anywhere in Boeotia, as Apollodorus says in his observations on the Catalogue of the Ships; so that Nisa could not stand in this passage, unless by Nisa Homer meant Isus, for there was a city Nisa, in Megaris, from whence Isus was colonized, situated at the base of Cithaeron, but it exists no longer.This passage is very corrupt. Some however write κρεῦσιάν τε ζαθέην, The sacred Creusa, meaning the present Creusa, the arsenal of the Thespieans, situated on the Crisaean Gulf. Others write the passage φαοͅάς τε ζαθέας, The sacred Pharae, Pharae is one of the four villages, (or Tetracomiae,) near Tanagra, namely, Heleon, Harma, Mycalessus, Pharae. Others again write the passage thus, νῦσάν τρ ζαθέηα The sacred Nysa. Nysa is a village of Helicon.
2.14
Such then is the description of the sea-coast opposite Euboea.
2.15
The places next in order, in the inland parts, are hollow plains, surrounded everywhere on the east and west by mountains; on the south by the mountains of Attica, on the north by those of Phocis: on the west, Cithaeron inclines, obliquely, a little above the Crisaean Sea; it begins contiguous to the mountains of Megaris and Attica, and then makes a bend towards the plains, and terminates near the Theban territory.
