Opening Description of Greece (Books IX–X: Boeotia, Phocis) — Pausanias in Plato Scroll… Continue →
Pausanias · A. R. Shilleto (1886)
Bœotia is contiguous to Attica, and Platæa to Eleutheræ. The Bœotians got that name for all the race from Bœotus, who they say was the son of Itonus the son of Amphictyon and the Nymph Melanippe. Their towns are called sometimes after men but more frequently after women. The Platæans were I think the original inhabitants of the land, and they got their name from Platæa the daughter of the river-god Asopus. That they were originally ruled over by kings is I think clear: for in old times kingdoms were all over Greece, there were no democratic governments. But the Platæans know of no other kings but Asopus and still earlier Cithæron, one of whom gave his name to the mountain and the other to the river. And I cannot but think that Platæa, who gave her name to the town, was the daughter of the king Asopus and not of the river-god. The Platæans did nothing memorable before the battle which …
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