CRISA or CRISSA, an ancient city of Greece, is in Phocis, on one of the spurs of Parnassus. In the Iliad and the Homeric Hymns, it is described as powerful, with rich fertile territory, reaching from the sea to the sanctuary of Pytho. As the town of. Delphi grew up around Pytho, and the seaport of Cirrha arose on the Crisean Gulf, Crisa lost importance. By the ancients the name of Cirrha was often substituted for that of Crisa. From its position Cirrha commanded the approach to Delphi, and be came obnoxious to Greeks from the heavy tolls exacted from pilgrims. The Amphictyonic Council declared the first "Sacred War" against it in 595 B.C., razed the town to the ground, and consecrated its territory to the temple at Delphi, selling the plunder to defray the expenses of the Pythian games. In 339 B.C. the people of Amphissa began to rebuild the town and to cultivate the plain. This act brought on the second "Sacred War," en trusted by the Amphictyons to Philip of Macedon, who took Amphissa (mod. Salona) in the following year. The ruins of Crisa are at the mouth of the Pleistus ravine; its name is probably preserved by the modern village of Chryso.
See J. G. Frazer, Pausanias, v. 459 (note on x. 375)•