DEFILE OF TEMPE. 363 
city of Atrakia'. This is not the first time chap. 
that antient geography has been indebted to . 
mineralogy for its ilhistration. The situation of 
Megara, in the Isthmus of Corinth, if every other 
trace of its existence has disappeared, might in 
a similar manner be ascertained, by the preva- 
lence of the marmor conchyte about the place. 
Other instances could also be adduced ; but it 
would lead us too far from the main subject. 
We entered the modern village, whose name, village of 
although written A^jt.'Xi'kcx.KiDc^, is always pro- 
nounced ^mbeldkia. All the heights around it 
(l) See also Plolemy (Geog, lib. iii. cap. 13.) who places it among 
tlie towns of the Pelasgiota. Also Strabo, lib. ix. for its situatioQ 
near the Peneus. Z/it'^ stations it " in Pelagoniwfaucibus." {f^id. 
lib.wx'i. cap. 24.) " Sed apuJ eum perperam scribitur ^</jaco pro 
Atraci, dativo casu." {Stephan. de Urbib. p. 136. Not. 40. Jmst, 
1678. 
"Quails per nubila Pboebes 
Atracia rubet arte labor." 
Statius, Theb. lib. i. v. 105. torn. I. p. 20. Lut. Paris. 1685. 
(2) This word, as it is thus written, is said to signify " The little 
Vineyard" {ab affriXm vinea); but by attending to the etymology 
of antient names after their corruption into a modern language, the 
greatest confusion maybe introduced. As a proof of this, we shall 
mention only one instance. The word Naupactus has been corrupted 
by the Turks into Ai'ne/i Bakfil ; and this, if it have any meaning, 
should signify " 77<e mirror of fortune." The v/ord Ampeldkia is by 
Dr. Holland written Amphilochia. (See Travels in the Ionian Isles, Hfc. 
p. 287. Lond. 1815.) which was the name of a district of Acarnaniai 
upon the Simts Ainbraciits. 
