Lake Copais

Location of Lake Copais in antiquity.

Lake Copais, Kopais, or Kopaida (ancient Greek Κωπαΐς, modern Κωπαΐδα) used to be in the centre of Boeotia, Greece, west of Thebes until the late 19th century. The area where it was located, though now a plain, is still known as Kopaida.

Drainage

While it still existed, the towns of Aliartos (ancient Haliartus), Orchomenus, and Chaeronea were on its shores. Rivers running into the lake included the Cephissus, the Termessus, and the Triton. The lake was (and is) surrounded by fertile land, but the lake increasingly encroached on the surrounding land because of inadequate drainage. In response to this, in 1867–1887 Scots and French engineers reclaimed the land for the British company Lake Copais Ltd., by building channels to drain water from the lake to the Cephissus and from there to Lake Iliki (Ilíki Limní, ancient Hylice). In total about 200 km² were reclaimed. This land was returned to the Greek government in 1952.^[1]

Before this the lake drained into the sea by numerous subterranean channels. Some of these channels were artificial, as the 1st century geographical writer Strabo records.^[2] Modern excavation has discovered enormous channels created in the 14th century BCE which drained water into the sea to the northeast;^[3] Strabo mentions work being done on these channels by an engineer named Crates of Chalcis at the time of Alexander the Great.

Lake Copais in ancient literature and mythology

Map of ancient Boeotia.

Homer and other ancient authors refer to Copais as the "Cephisian lake", named for the river Cephissus.^[4] Strabo, however, argues that the poetic expression refers to the smaller Lake Hylice, between Thebes and Anthedon.^[5]

There was a legend that the lake came into being when the hero Heracles flooded the area by digging out a river, the Cephissus, which poured into the basin.^[6] Polyaenus explains that he did this because he was fighting the Minyans of Orchomenus: they were dangerous horseback fighters, and Heracles dug the lake in order to unhorse them.^[7] Another story has the lake overflow in the mythical time of Ogyges, resulting in the Ogygian deluge.^[8]

The travel writer Pausanias and the 5th century BCE comic playwright Aristophanes record that in antiquity Lake Copais was known for its fish, especially the eels.^[9]

References

External links

• Satellite image of the location of Lake Copais (maps.google.com)
• Strabo on Lake Copais — see especially 9.2.16-27 (Perseus, tr. H.L. Jones, 1924)
• Pausanias on Lake Copais (Perseus, tr. W.H.S. Jones and H.A. Ormerod, 1918)

Notes

1. ^ "Buildings of the Installations of Copais Company", Hellenic Ministry of Culture, accessed 10/2006; "Mycenaean Gla", accessed 10/2006.
2. ^ Strabo 9.2.18.
3. ^ "Buildings of the Installations of Copais Company", Hellenic Ministry of Culture, accessed 10/2006; "Technology in Ancient Greece", accessed 10/2006.
4. ^ E.g. Iliad 5.708; Pausanias 9.24.1 makes the identification explicit.
5. ^ Strabo 9.2.20.
6. ^ Diodorus Siculus 4.18.7; Pausanias 9.38.7.
7. ^ Polyaenus Strategemata 1.3.5.
8. ^ Entry "Ogyges" in Oskar Seyffert, A Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, Revised and edited by Henry Nettleship and J.E. Sandys, New York: Meridian Books, 1956.
9. ^ Pausanias 9.24.2; Aristophanes Acharnians 880.