Crissa was more ancient than Cirrha, and was situated inland a little southwest of Delphi, at the southern end of a projecting spur of Mount Parnassus.
The power of Cirrha excited the jealousy of the Delphians, more especially as the inhabitants of the former city commanded the approach to the temple by sea.
Moreover, the Cirrhaeans levied exorbitant tolls upon the pilgrims who landed at the town upon their way to Delphi, and were said to have maltreated Phocian women on their return from the temple.
[6][7] In consequence of these outrages, the Amphictyons declared war, the First Sacred War, against the Cirrhaeans about 595 BCE, and at the end of ten years besieged (see Siege of Cirrha) and succeeded in taking the city, which was razed to the ground, and the plain in its neighbourhood dedicated to Apollo, and curses imprecated upon any one who should till or dwell in it.
This canal was turned off, filled with hellebore, and then allowed to resume its former course; but scarcely had the thirsty Crissaeans drank of the poisoned water, than they were so weakened by its purgative effects that they could no longer defend their walls.
[8][9] This account sounds like a romance; but it is a curious circumstance that near the ruins of Cirrha there is a salt spring having a purgative effect like the hellebore of the ancients.
It is first mentioned again by Polybius;[12] and in the time of Pausanias (2nd century) it contained a temple common to Apollo, Artemis, and Leto, in which were statues of Attic work.
Between Crissa and Cirrha was a fertile plain, bounded on the north by Parnassus, on the east by Cirphis, and on the west by the mountains of the Ozolian Locrians.