34. The Teneric plain has its name from Tenerus. According to mythology, he was the son of Apollo and Melia, and declared the answers of the oracle at the mountain Ptoum,[391] which, the same poet says, had three peaks:
“At one time he occupied the caves of the three-headed Ptoum;”
“the prophet, dwelling in the temple, and having the same name as the soil on which it stands.”
The Ptoum is situated above the Teneric plain, and the lake Copaïs, near Acræphium.
Both [CAS. 413] the oracle and the mountain belonged to the Thebans.
Acræphium[392] itself is situated upon a height. This, it is said, is the place called Arnē by the poet, having the same name as the Thessalian Arnē.
35. Some say that Arnē and Mideia were swallowed up by the lake. Zenodotus, however, when he writes the verse thus,
“they who occupied Ascra abounding with vines,”[393]
does not seem to have read Hesiod’s description of his native country, and what has been said by Eudoxus, who relates things much more to the disparagement of Ascra. For how could any one believe that such a place could have been described by the poet as
Neither are those persons in the right, who substitute in this passage Tarnē for Arnē, for there is not a place of the name of Tarne to be found in Bœotia, although there is in Lydia. Homer mentions it,
“Idomeneus then slew Phæstus, the son of Borus, the artificer, who came from the fruitful soil of Tarnē.”[394]
Besides Alalcomenæ and Tilphossium, which are near the lake, Chæroneia, Lebadia, and Leuctra, are worthy of notice.
36. The poet mentions Alalcomenæ,[395] but not in the Catalogue;
“the Argive Juno and Minerva of Alalcomenæ.”[396]
It has an ancient temple of Minerva, which is held in great veneration. It is said that this was the place of her birth, as Argos was that of Juno, and that Homer gave to both these goddesses designations derived from their native places. Perhaps for this reason he has not mentioned, in the Catalogue, the inhabitants; for having a sacred character, they were exempted from military service. Indeed the city has never suffered devastation by an enemy, although it is inconsiderable in size, and its position is weak, for it is situated in a plain.
All in reverence to the goddess abstained from every act of violence; wherefore the Thebans, at the time of the expedition of the Epigoni, abandoning their own city, are said to have taken refuge here, and on the strong mountain above it, the Tilphossium.[397] Below Tilphossium is the fountain Tilphossa, and the monument of Teiresias, who died there on the retreat.