Concerning the Hyperborean people, neither the Scythians nor any other inhabitants of these lands tell us anything, except perhaps the Issedones. And, I think, even they say nothing; for if they did, then the Scythians, too, would have told, just as they tell of the one-eyed men. But Hesiod speaks of Hyperboreans, and Homer too in his poem The Heroes' Sons, if that is truly the work of Homer.
But the Delians say much more about them than any others do. They say that offerings wrapped in straw are brought from the Hyperboreans to Scythia; when these have passed Scythia, each nation in turn receives them from its neighbors until they are carried to the Adriatic sea, which is the most westerly limit of their journey; from there, they are brought on to the south, the people of Dodona being the first Greeks to receive them. From Dodona they come down to the Melian gulf, and are carried across to Euboea, and one city sends them on to another until they come to Carystus; after this, Andros is left out of their journey, for Carystians carry them to Tenos, and Tenians to Delos.
This extract is from: Herodotus. The Histories (ed. A. D. Godley, 1920), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Feb 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Maliacus Sinus (o Maliakos kolpos; Meliakos Thuc. iii. 96; Strab. ix. p. 403; o Melieus kolpos, Herod. iv. 33; Polyb. ix. 41: Gulf of Zituni), a long gulf of the sea, lying between the southern coast of Thessaly and the northern coast of the Locri Epicnemidii, and which derived its name from the country of the Malians, situated at its head. At the entrance of the gulf is the northwestern promontory of Euboea, and the islands Lichades, and into its furthest extremity the river Spercheius flows. The gulf is called Lamiacus Sinus (d Damiakos kolpos) by Pausanias (i. 4. § 3, vii. 15. § 2, x. 1. § 2), from the important town of Lamia; and in the same way the gulf is now called Zituni, which is the modern name of Lamia. Livy, who usually terms it Maliacus Sinus, gives it in one place the name of Aenianum Sinus (xxviii. 5), which is borrowed from Polybius (x. 42). (Comp. Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 4.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Lamiacus Sinus (ho Lamiakos kolpos), a name given by Pausanias to the Maliac gulf,
from the important town of Lamia. (Paus. i. 4. § 3, vii. 15. § 2, x. 1. § 2.)
In the same way the gulf is now called Zituni, which is the modern name of Lamia.
Anticyra, a town in Thessaly in the district Malis at the mouth of the Spercheus. (Herod. vii. 198; Strab. pp. 418, 434.) According to Stephanus (s. v. Antikurai) the best hellebore was grown at this place, and one of its citizens exhibited the medicine to Heracles, when labouring under madness in this neighbourhood
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