Book 9
5.9
Since the poet oftenThree times only, Hom. Il. 16.174, 176; 23.144 mentions the Spercheius as a river of this country,i.e., of Achilles’ domain. and since it has its sources in Typhrestus, the Dryopian mountain which in earlier times was called . . .,See critical note. and empties near Thermopylae and between it and Lamia, he plainly indicates that both the region inside the Gates, I mean in so far as it belonged to the Maliac Gulf, and the region outside the Gates, were subject to Achilles. The Spercheius is about thirty stadia distant from Lamia, which is situated above a certain plain that extends down to the Maliac Gulf. And he plainly indicates that the Spercheius was a river of this country, not only by the assertion of Achilles that he “fostered the growth of his hair as an offering to Spercheius,”Hom. Il. 23.142 but also by the fact that Menesthius, one of his commanders, was called the son of Spercheius and the sister of Achilles.Hom. Il. 16.173-175 And it is reasonable to suppose that all the people, the subjects of Achilles and Patroclus, who had accompanied Peleus in his flight from Aegina, were called Myrmidons. And all the Phthiotae were called Achaeans.
