PARNAHYBA. [Beam.] l'AItNASSOS (ilaprecoos), the name of a mountain-chain in Phocis, which extends in a north-easterly direction from the country of the Locri Ozolre to Mount (Eta, and in a south-westerly direction through the middle of Phocis till it joins Mount Helicon on the borders of lIceotie. The name was usually restricted to the lofty mountain upon which Delphi was situated. It is called at the present day Liakurs. Parnassus is the highest mountain in central Greece. Straho says (via. 379) that it could be seen from the Acroeorinthus in Corinth, and also states (viii. 409) that it was of the same height as Mount Helicon ; but in the latter point he was mistaken, according to Colonel Leake, who informs us (' Travels in Northern Greece,' voL iL p. 527), that Liakurs is somo hundreds of feet higher than Paleorunn, which is the highest point of Helicon. Parnassus was covered the greatest part of the year with snow, whence the epithet of snowy,' so generally applied to it by the poets. (Soph., ' (Ed. Tyr.,' 473 ; Eurip., 'Phcon.,'
214.) The mountain is sometimes called the two-headed,' from two lofty rocks below which Delphi was situated. Between these two rocks the celebrated Castrdian fount flows from the upper part of the treastain„ which is clear, and forms en excellent beverage. Above this wring, at the distance of 60 stadia from Delphi, we. the Corycian cave, sacred to Pan and the Corycian nymph*. When the Persians were marching against Delphi, a great part of the inhabitants took refuge in this cavern. (!feral., viii. 37.) It is described by a modern traveller (Rau, In Walpole's ' &a, voL L p. 312), as 330 feet low and nearly 200 feet wide. Above this cave, and near the summit of Parruseene, at the distance of 80 stadia from Delphi, (Pan*, x. se 6), was the tosses of Tithorea or Neon, the ruins of which are near the modern village of Velitze. For an account of the towns M the neighbourhood of the Parnassus, see Pnocis.