In Greek mythology Halos and Orchomenus are variously recorded as starting point of Phrixos' and Helle's flight to Colchis.

[5] The Hellenistic city lies very close to the surface and is greatly disturbed, but several houses have been excavated by Dutch archaeologists.

Strabo also says that the river Amphrysus, on the banks of which Apollo is said to have fed the oxen of Admetus, flowed near the walls of Halus.

[7] The city is mentioned by Herodotus as one of the places where the Persian king Xerxes stayed in the summer of 480 BCE during his attack on Greece.

[11] In the sixth-century gazetteer Ethnica, Stephanus erroneously refers to the city as "Alea", confusing it with a town in Arcadia.