Geography (Books 6-14) (7.frag.2-7.frag.6)

Among the Thesprotians and the Molossians old women are called “peliai” and old men “pelioi,” as is also the case among the Macedonians; at any rate, those people call their dignitaries “peligones” (compare the “gerontes”[*] among the Laconians and the Massaliotes).[*] And this, it is said, is the origin of the myth about the pigeons in the Dodonaean oak-tree.

The proverbial phrase, “the copper vessel in Dodona,”[*] originated thus: In the temple was a copper vessel with a statue of a man situated above it and holding a copper scourge, dedicated by the Corcyraeans; the scourge was three-fold and wrought in chain fashion, with bones strung from it; and these bones, striking the copper vessel continuously when they were swung by the winds, would produce tones so long that anyone who measured the time from the beginning of the tone to the end could count to four hundred. Whence, also, the origin of the proverbial term, “the scourge of the Corcyraeans.”

Paeonia is on the east of these tribes and on the west of the Thracian mountains, but it is situated on the north of the Macedonians; and, by the road that runs through the city Gortynium[*] and Stobi,[*] it affords a passage to . . .[*] (through which the Axius[*] flows, and thus makes difficult the passage from Paeonia to Macedonia—just as the Peneius flows through Tempe and thus fortifies Macedonia on the side of Greece). And on the south Paeonia borders on the countries of the Autariatae, the Dardanii, and the Ardiaei; and it extends as far as the Strymon.

The Haliacmon[*] flows into the Thermaean Gulf.

Orestis is of considerable extent, and has a large mountain which reaches as far as Mount Corax[*] in Aetolia and Mount Parnassus, About this mountain dwell the Orestae themselves, the Tymphaei, and the Greeks outside the isthmus that are in the neighborhood of Parnassus, Oeta, and Pindus. As a whole the mountain is called by a general name, Boëum, but taken part by part it has many names. People say that from the highest peaks one can see both the Aegaean Sea and the Ambracian and Ionian Gulfs, but they exaggerate, I think. Mount Pteleum, also, is fairly high; it is situated around the Ambracian Gulf, extending on one side as far as the Corcyraean country and on the other to the sea at Leucas.