Book 9
2.34
AcrsephiumThe ruins are situated at a short distance south of Kardhitza. The site of Cierium, the modern village Mataranga, was first discovered by Leake, who identifies it with Arne, and supposes, with much probability, that the name Arne may have been disused by the Thessalian conquerors, because it was of Boeotian origin, and that the new appellation may have been taken from the neighboring river Curalius or Cuarius. itself is situated upon a height. This, it is said, is the place called Arne by the poet, having the same name as the Thessalian Arnē.
2.35
Some say that Arnē and Mideia were swallowed up by the lake. Zenodotus, however, when he writes the verse thus, they who occupied Ascra abounding with vines,Il. ii. 507.Il. ii. 507. does not seem to have read Hesiod’s description of his native country, and what has been said by Eudoxus, who relates things much more to the disparagement of Ascra. For how could any one believe that such a place could have been described by the poet as abounding with vines? Neither are those persons in the right, who substitute in this passage Tarnē for Arnē, for there is not a place of the name of Tarne to be found in Boeotia, although there is in Lydia. Homer mentions it, Idomeneus then slew Phaestus, the son of Borus, the artificer, who came from the fruitful soil of Tarn.Il. v. 43. Besides Alalcomenae and Tilphossium, which are near the lake, Chaeroneia, Lebadia, and Leuctra, are worthy of notice.
