The
Permessus or
Permessos () was a stream rising in
Mount Helicon, which, after uniting with the
Olmeius, flowed into
Lake Copais near
Haliartus. William Martin Leake, visiting the site in the 19th century, regarded the Kefalári as the Permessus, and the river of Zagará as the Olmeius.
[Schol. ad Hesiod Theog. 5][William Martin Leake, Travels in Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 212.]
This river, apparently sacred to Apollo (patron deity of poets), is referred to in Propertius' poem (2.10.25-6) to Augustus, 'Nondum etenim Ascraeos norunt mea carmina fontes, Sed modo Permessi flumine lavit Amor.' The Permessus is also mentioned in Hesiod's Theogony, which describes the Muses using the river to bathe in line 5, "And having bathed their silken skin in Permessos."