(Strabo, Pindar, Virgil), a mountain of Phocis, near Delphi, and the mounts Cithaeron and Helicon, with two tops (Ovid, Lucan); the one called Cirrha, sacred to Apollo; and the other Nysa, sacred to Bacchus, (Juvenal). It was covered with bay trees, (Virgil); and originally called Lar- naeus, from Deucalion's larnax or ark, thither conveyed by the flood, (Stephanus, Scholast on Apollonius); after the flood, Parnassus; from Har Nahas, changing the b into p, the hill of divination or augury (Peucerus); the oracle of Delphi standing at its foot.

Chandler *, who visited it, thus describes it:— * Travels. "Parnassus was the western boundary of Phocis, and in Greece stretching northward from about Delphi toward the Parnassus, Cretan mountains, separated the western Locri from those who possessed the sea coast before Eutoca. It was a place of refuge to the Delphians in times of danger. In the deluge, which happened under Deucalion, the natives were saved on it by following the cry of wolves. On the invasion by Xerxes, some transported their families over to Achaea, but many concealed them in the mountain, and in Corycium, a grotto of the Nymphs. All Parnassus was renowned for sanctity, but Corycium was the most noted among the hallowed caves and places. On the way to the summits of Parnassus, says Pausanias, as much as 60 stadia beyond Delphi, is a brazen image; and from thence the ascent to Corycium is easier for a man on foot, and for mules and horses. Of all the caves in which I have been, this appeared to me the best worth seeing. On the coasts, and by the seaside, are more than can be numbered; but some are very famous both in Greece and in other countries. The Corycian cave exceeds in magnitude those I have mentioned, and for the most part may be passed through without a light. It is sufficiently high; and has water, some springing up, and yet more from the roof, which petrifies; so that the bottom of the whole cave is covered with sparry icicles. The inhabitants of Parnassus esteem it sacred to the Corycian Nymphs, and particularly to Pan. From the cave to reach the summits of the mountain is difficult even to a man on foot. The summits are above the clouds, and the women called Thyiades madden on them in the rites of Bacchus and Apollo. Their frantic orgies were performed yearly. Wheler and his company ascended Parnassus from Delphi, some on horses, by a track between the Stadium and the cliffs of the mountain. Stairs were cut in the rock, with a strait channel, perhaps a water-duct. In a long hour, after many traverses, they gained the top, and entering a plain turned to the right, towards the summits of Caïtalia, which are divided by deep precipices. From this eminence they had a fine prospect of the gulf of Corinth, and of the coast; mount Cirphis appearing beneath them as a plain, bounded on the east by the bay of Atropotis, and on the west by that of Salona. A few shepherds had huts there. They returned to the way which they had quitted, and crossed a hill covered with pines and snow. On their left was a lake, and beyond it a peak, exceedingly high, white with snow. They travelled to the foot of it through a valley, four or five miles in compass; and refreshed by a plentiful fountain called Drosopigo, the stream boiling up a foot in diameter, and nearly as much above the surface of the ground. It runs into the lake, which is about a quarter of a mile distant to the southeast. They did not discover Corycium, or proceed farther on, but keeping the lake on their right, came again to the brink of the mountain, and descended by a deep and dangerous track to Racovi, a village four or five miles eastward from Delphi. It was the opinion of Wheler, that no mountain in Greece was higher than Parnassus; that it was not inferior to mount Cenis among the Alps; and that, if detached, it would be seen at a greater distance than even mount Athos. The summits are perpetually increasing, every new fall of snow adding to the perennial heap, while the sun has power only to thaw the superfluous. Caïtalia Pleiades and innumerable springs are fed, some invisibly, from the lakes and reservoirs, which, without these drains and subterraneous vents, would swell, especially after heavy rain and the melting of snow, so as to fill the valleys, and run over the tops of the rocks down upon Delphi, spreading wide an inundation, similar, as has been surmised, to the Deucalionean deluge."