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[1] Before reaching Koroneia from Alalkomenai we come to the sanctuary of Itonian Athena. It is named after Itonios the son of Amphiktyon, and here the Boeotians gather for their general assembly. In the temple are bronze images of Itonian Athena and Zeus; the artist was Agorakritos, pupil and loved one of Pheidias. In my time they dedicated too images of the Graces.
[2] The following tale, too, is told. Iodama, who served the goddess as priestess, entered the precinct by night, where there appeared to her Athena, upon whose tunic was worked the head of Medusa the Gorgon. When Iodama saw it, she was turned to stone. For this reason a woman puts fire every day on the altar of Iodama, and as she does this she thrice repeats in the Boeotian dialect that Iodama is living and asking for fire.
[3] On the marketplace of Coroneia I found two remarkable things, an altar of Hermes Epimelios (Keeper of flocks) and an altar of the winds. A little lower down is a sanctuary of Hērā with an ancient image, the work of Pythodoros of Thebes; in her hand she carries Sirens. For the story goes that the daughters of Akhelōos were persuaded by Hērā to compete with the Muses in singing. The Muses won, plucked out the Sirens’ feathers (so they say) and made garlands for themselves out of them.
[4] Some forty stadium-lengths from Coroneia is Mount Libethrios, on which are images of the Muses and Nymphs surnamed Libethrian. There are springs too, one named Libethrias and the other Rock (Petra), which are shaped like a woman’s breasts, and from them rises water like milk.
[5] The distance from Coroneia to Mount Laphystios and the precinct of Laphystian Zeus is about twenty stadium-lengths. The image is of stone. They say that when Athamas was about to sacrifice here Phrixos and Helle, a ram with his fleece of gold was sent by Zeus to the children, and that on the back of this ram they made good their escape. Higher up is a Hēraklēs surnamed Kharops (With bright eyes). Here, say the Boeotians, Hēraklēs ascended with the hound of Hades. On the way down from Mount Laphystios to the sanctuary of Itonian Athena is the river Phalarus, which runs into the Cephisian lake.
[6] Over against Mount Laphystios is Orkhomenos, as famous a city as any in Greece. Once raised to the greatest heights of prosperity, it too was fated to fall almost as low as Mycenae and Delos. Its ancient history is confined to the following traditions. They say that Andreus, son of the river Peneios, was the first to settle here, and after him the land Andreis was named.
[7] When Athamas joined him, he assigned to him, of his own land, the territory round Mount Laphystios with what are now the territories of Coroneia and Haliartos. Athamas, thinking that none of his male children were left, adopted Haliartos and Koronos, the sons of Thersandros, the son of Sisyphus, his brother. For he himself had put to death Learkhos and Melikertes; Leucon had fallen sick and died; while as for Phrixos, Athamas did not know if he survived or had descendants surviving.
[8] When later Phrixos himself, according to some, or Presbon, according to others, returned from Kolkhis—Presbon was a son of Phrixos by the daughter of Aietes—the sons of Thersandros agreed that the house of Athamas belonged to Athamas and his descendants, while they themselves became founders of Haliartos and Coroneia, for Athamas gave them a part of his land.
[9] Even before this Andreus took to wife from Athamas Euippe, daughter of Leucon, and had a son, Eteokles. According to the report of the citizens, Eteokles was the son of the river Kephisos, wherefore some of the poets in their verses called him Cephisiades.
[10] When this Eteokles became king, he let the country be still called after Andreus, but he established two tribes, naming one Cephisias, and the other after himself. When Almus, the son of Sisyphus, came to him, he gave him to dwell in a little of the land, and a village was then called Almones after this Almus. Afterwards the name of the village that was generally adopted was Olmones.
Description of Greece. Pausanias. ed. W. H. S. Jones, ed. H. A. Ormerod, ed. Gregory Nagy. . .