DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4098#0269
238 THE KATABATHRA, OR EMISSARIES OF THE LAKE.
occasioned by the inundation of the lake. I allude to the subterra-
neous passages in Mount Ptoon, through which the superfluous wa-
ters of Kopais are discharged into the lake of Hyla, and into the
Eubcean sea. Strabo calls them x^o-para. and tkfiWftdk Pausanias
also names them ^ao-^aTa; he calls that of the lake of Pheneos
/3apa8pov, and those of Stjnnphalos fiepeQpx, and affirms, that the Arca^
dians call them Zepsdpa.: he names that of the Asterion, near Mycenae,
cpoc^tx.yZ .-1 Aristotle2 terms these outlets (pccpa.yysg, and Eustathius3 gives
them the usual appellation of ^ao-^ara : they are at present called
katabathra. They do not appear to have been visited by Pausanias,
although he was within a short distance of them at Kopai and
Akraiphnion. In the month of March an inundation of the lake
prevented me from inspecting these extraordinary outlets, and Pau-
sanias probably experienced the same impediment. I was however
enabled to examine them at the end of May, in my way to Thessaly.
They are in a calcareous rock, of a hard though friable quality, and
full of natural caverns and fissures. Strabo4 thinks that they were
produced by earthquakes, and that they were sometimes destroyed
and rendered impervious by the same means. He says, that Kopai
being nearly demolished by an inundation, it occasioned an aper-
ture, by which the waters passed under ground for thirty stadia, and
entered the sea near Larymna.
The number of these chasms is unknown. Spon enumerates
five; Pococke, with his usual inaccuracy, makes their number
eighty. The inhabitants of the vicinity affirm that there are
fifteen. I only observed four, one of which is at the foot of Mount
Ptoon, and is visible from the ruins of Akraiphnion ; it conducts
the waters of Kopais to the lake of Hylika, a distance of about
two miles. In the month of May the water of Kopais did not
reach the mouth of this katabathron; nevertheless Hylika was well
supplied. The waters of the former probably find their way to it
1 B. 2. c. 17. s Meteorol. b. 1. c. 13.
3 In Homer. Iliad. 2. * r_ 9, p. 406.
occasioned by the inundation of the lake. I allude to the subterra-
neous passages in Mount Ptoon, through which the superfluous wa-
ters of Kopais are discharged into the lake of Hyla, and into the
Eubcean sea. Strabo calls them x^o-para. and tkfiWftdk Pausanias
also names them ^ao-^aTa; he calls that of the lake of Pheneos
/3apa8pov, and those of Stjnnphalos fiepeQpx, and affirms, that the Arca^
dians call them Zepsdpa.: he names that of the Asterion, near Mycenae,
cpoc^tx.yZ .-1 Aristotle2 terms these outlets (pccpa.yysg, and Eustathius3 gives
them the usual appellation of ^ao-^ara : they are at present called
katabathra. They do not appear to have been visited by Pausanias,
although he was within a short distance of them at Kopai and
Akraiphnion. In the month of March an inundation of the lake
prevented me from inspecting these extraordinary outlets, and Pau-
sanias probably experienced the same impediment. I was however
enabled to examine them at the end of May, in my way to Thessaly.
They are in a calcareous rock, of a hard though friable quality, and
full of natural caverns and fissures. Strabo4 thinks that they were
produced by earthquakes, and that they were sometimes destroyed
and rendered impervious by the same means. He says, that Kopai
being nearly demolished by an inundation, it occasioned an aper-
ture, by which the waters passed under ground for thirty stadia, and
entered the sea near Larymna.
The number of these chasms is unknown. Spon enumerates
five; Pococke, with his usual inaccuracy, makes their number
eighty. The inhabitants of the vicinity affirm that there are
fifteen. I only observed four, one of which is at the foot of Mount
Ptoon, and is visible from the ruins of Akraiphnion ; it conducts
the waters of Kopais to the lake of Hylika, a distance of about
two miles. In the month of May the water of Kopais did not
reach the mouth of this katabathron; nevertheless Hylika was well
supplied. The waters of the former probably find their way to it
1 B. 2. c. 17. s Meteorol. b. 1. c. 13.
3 In Homer. Iliad. 2. * r_ 9, p. 406.