Straby Geography Book 10 Origin of Pagan Musical Worship
They too hold Rhea (Eve, Zoe) in honor and worship her
with orgies, calling her Mother of the gods and Agdistis and Phrygia
the Great Goddess, and also, from the places where she is worshipped,
Idaea and Dindymene and Sipylene and Pessinuntis and Cybele and Cybebe See Strabo, Geography 9
Strabo defines the geography as well as the religious practices of the
ancient world. He supplies background to the Israelites fall into
musical idolatry as well as defining all such national religious
systems. This is vital to a Disciple of Christ. Dionysus or
Bacchus was the "god" of the Hebrews according to Plutarch and the
context of the musical idolatry at Mount Sinai and the fact that God
turned them over to worship the starry host.
Strab. 10.1.1 Since Euboea lies parallel to the whole of the coast from Sunium to Thessaly, with the exception of the ends on either side,1
it would be appropriate to connect my description of the island with
that of the parts already described before passing on to Aetolia and
Acarnania, which are the remaining parts of Europe to be described.
Strabo 10.1.[2] In its length,
then, the island extends parallel to the coast for a distance of about
one thousand two hundred stadia from Cenaeum to Geraestus, but its
breadth is irregular and generally only about one hundred and fifty
stadia. Now Cenaeum lies opposite to Thermopylae and, to a slight
extent, to the region outside Thermopylae, whereas Geraestus and
Petalia lie towards Sunium. Accordingly, the island lies across the
strait and opposite Attica, Boeotia, Locris,and the Malians. Because of
its narrowness and of the above-mentioned length, it was named Macris2
by the ancients. It approaches closest to the mainland at Chalcis,
where it juts out in a convex curve towards the region of Aulis in
Boeotia and forms the Euripus. Concerning the Euripus I have already
spoken rather at length,3
as also to a certain extent concerning the places which lie opposite
one another across the strait, both on the mainland and on the island,
on either side of the Euripus, that is, the regions both inside and
outside4
the Euripus. But if anything has been left out, I shall now explain
more fully. And first, let me explain that the parts between Aulis and
the region of Geraestus are called the Hollows of Euboea; for the coast
bends inwards, but when it approaches Chalcis it forms a convex curve
again towards the mainland.
Strabo 10.1.[3] The island was
called, not only Macris, but also Abantis; at any rate, the poet,
although he names Euboea, never names its inhabitants "Euboeans," but
always "Abantes":“And those who held Euboea, the courage-breathing
Abantes . . .
”5“And with him6 followed the Abantes.
”7 Aristotle8
says that Thracians, setting out from the Phocian Aba, recolonized the
island and renamed those who held it "Abantes." Others derive the name
from a hero,9 just as they derive "Euboea" from a heroine.10
But it may be, just as a certain cave on the coast which fronts the
Aegaean, where Io is said to have given birth to Epaphus, is called
Böos Aule,11 that the island got the name Euboea12
from the same cause. The island was also called Oche; and the largest
of its mountains bears the same name. And it was also named Ellopia,
after Ellops the son of Ion. Some say that he was the brother of Aïclus
and Cothus; and he is also said to have founded Ellopia, a place in
Oria, as it is called, in Histiaeotis13
near the mountain Telethrius, and to have added to his dominions
Histiaea, Perias, Cerinthus, Aedepsus, and Orobia; in this last place
was an oracle most averse to falsehood (it was an oracle of Apollo
Selinuntius). The Ellopians migrated to Histiaea and enlarged the city,
being forced to do so by Philistides the tyrant, after the battle of
Leuctra. Demosthenes says that Philistides was set up by Philip as
tyrant of the Oreitae too;14
for thus in later times the Histiaeans were named, and the city was
named Oreus instead of Histiaea. But according to some writers,
Histiaea was colonized by Athenians from the deme of the Histiaeans, as
Eretria was colonized from that of the Eretrians. Theopompus says that
when Pericles overpowered Euboea the Histiaeans by agreement migrated
to Macedonia, and that two thousand Athenians who formerly composed the
deme of the Histiaeans came and took up their abode in Oreus.
Strabo 10.1.[4] Oreus is situated at the foot of the mountain Telethrius in the Drymus,15
as it is called, on the River Callas, upon a high rock; and hence,
perhaps, it was because the Ellopians who formerly inhabited it were
mountaineers that the name Oreus16
was assigned to the city. It is also thought that Orion was so named
because he was reared there. Some writers say that the Oreitae had a
city of their own, but because the Ellopians were making war on them
they migrated and took up their abode with the Histiaeans; and that,
although they became one city, they used both names, just as the same
city is called both Lacedaemon and Sparta. As I have already said,17
Histiaeotis in Thessaly was also named after the Histiaeans who were
carried off from here into the mainland by the Perrhaebians.
Strabo 10.1.[5] Since Ellopia
induced me to begin my description with Histiaea and Oreus, let me
speak of the parts which border on these places. In the territory of
this Oreus lies, not only Cenaeum, near Oreus, but also, near Cenaeun,
Dium18
and Athenae Diades, the latter founded by the Athenians and lying above
that part of the strait where passage is taken across to Cynus; and
Canae in Aeolis was colonized from Dium. Now these places are in the
neighborhood of Histiaea; and so is Cerinthus, a small city by the sea;
and near it is the Budorus River, which bears the same name as the
mountain in Salamis which is close to Attica.
Strabo 10.1.[6] Carystus is at
the foot of the mountain Oche; and near it are Styra and Marmarium, in
which latter are the quarry of the Carystian columns19
and a temple of Apollo Marmarinus; and from here there is a passage
across the strait to Halae Araphenides. In Carystus is produced also
the stone which is combed and woven,20
so that the woven material is made into towels, and, when these are
soiled, they are thrown into fire and cleansed, just as linens are
cleansed by washing. These places are said to have been settled by
colonists from the Marathonian Tetrapolis21
and by Steirians. Styra was destroyed in the Malian war by Phaedrus,
the general of the Athenians; but the country is held by the Eretrians.
There is also a Carystus in the Laconian country, a place belonging to
Aegys, towards Arcadia; whence the Carystian wine of which Alcman
speaks.
Strabo 10.1.[7] Geraestus is not named in the Catalogue of Ships, but still the poet mentions it elsewhere:“and at night they landed at Geraestus.
”22And
he plainly indicates that the place is conveniently situated for those
who are sailing across from Asia to Attica, since it comes near to
Sunium. It has a temple of Poseidon, the most notable of those in that
part of the world, and also a noteworthy settlement.
Strabo 10.1.[8] After Geraestus
one comes to Eretria, the greatest city in Euboea except Chalcis; and
then to Chalcis, which in a way is the metropolis of the island, being
situated on the Euripus itself. Both are said to have been founded by
the Athenians before the Trojan War. And after the Trojan War, Aïclus
and Cothus, setting out from Athens, settled inhabitants in them, the
former in Eretria and the latter in Chalcis. There were also some
Aeolians from the army of Penthilus23
who remained in the island, and, in ancient times, some Arabians who
had crossed over with Cadmus. Be this as it may, these cities grew
exceptionally strong and even sent forth noteworthy colonies into
Macedonia; for Eretria colonized the cities situated round Pallene and
Athos, and Chalcis colonized the cities that were subject to Olynthus,
which later were treated outrageously by Philip. And many places in
Italy and Sicily are also Chalcidian. These colonies were sent out, as
Aristotle24 states, when the government of the Hippobatae,25
as it is called, was in power; for at the head of it were men chosen
according to the value of their property, who ruled in an aristocratic
manner. At the time of Alexander's passage across,26
the Chalcidians enlarged the circuit of the walls of their city, taking
inside them both Canethus and the Euripus, and fortifying the bridge
with towers and gates and a wall.27
Strabo 10.1.[9] Above
the city of the Chalcidians is situated the Lelantine Plain. In this
plain are fountains of hot water suited to the cure of diseases, which
were used by Cornelius Sulla, the Roman commander. And in this plain
was also a remarkable mine which contained copper and iron together, a
thing which is not reported as occurring elsewhere; now, however, both
metals have given out, as in the case of the silver mines at Athens.
The whole of Euboea is much subject to earthquakes, but particularly
the part near the strait, which is also subject to blasts through
subterranean passages, as are Boeotia and other places which I have
already described rather at length.28
And it is said that the city which bore the same name as the island was
swallowed up by reason of a disturbance of this kind. This city is also
mentioned by Aeschylus in his Glaucus Pontius:“Euboeïs, about the bending shore of Zeus Cenaeus, near the very tomb of wretched Lichas.
”29In Aetolia, also, there is a place called by the same name Chalcis:“and Chalcis near the sea, and rocky Calydon,
”30and in the present Eleian country:“and they went past Cruni and rocky Chalcis,
”31that is, Telemachus and his companions, when they were on their way back from Nestor's to their homeland.
Strabo 10.1.[10] As
for Eretria, some say that it was colonized from Triphylian Macistus by
Eretrieus, but others say from the Eretria at Athens, which now is a
marketplace. There is also an Eretria near Pharsalus. In the Eretrian
territory there was a city Tamynae, sacred to Apollo; and the temple,
which is near the strait, is said to have been founded by Admetus, at
whose house the god served as an hireling for a year. In earlier times
Eretria was called Melaneïs and Arotria. The village Amarynthus, which
is seven stadia distant from the walls, belongs to this city. Now the
old city was razed to the ground by the Persians, who "netted" the
people, as Herodotus32
says, by means of their great numbers, the barbarians being spread
about the walls (the foundations are still to be seen, and the place is
called Old Eretria); but the Eretria of today was founded on it.33
As for the power the Eretrians once had, this is evidenced by the
pillar which they once set up in the temple of Artemis Amarynthia. It
was inscribed thereon that they made their festal procession with three
thousand heavy-armed soldiers, six hundred horsemen, and sixty
chariots. And they ruled over the peoples of Andros, Teos, Ceos, and
other islands. They received new settlers from Elis; hence, since they
frequently used the letter r,34
not only at the end of words, but also in the middle, they have been
ridiculed by comic writers. There is also a village Oechalia in the
Eretrian territory, the remains of the city which was destroyed by
Heracles; it bears the same name as the Trachinian Oechalia and that
near Tricce, and the Arcadian Oechalia, which the people of later times
called Andania, and that in Aetolia in the neighborhood of the
Eurytanians.
Strabo 10.1.[11] Now at the
present time Chalcis by common consent holds the leading position and
is called the metropolis of the Euboeans; and Eretria is second. Yet
even in earlier times these cities were held in great esteem, not only
in war, but also in peace; indeed, they afforded philosophers a
pleasant and undisturbed place of abode. This is evidenced by the
school of the Eretrian philosophers, Menedemus and his disciples, which
was established in Eretria, and also, still earlier, by the sojourn of
Aristotle in Chalcis, where he also ended his days.35
Strabo 10.1.[12] Now
in general these cities were in accord with one another, and when
differences arose concerning the Lelantine Plain they did not so
completely break off relations as to wage their wars in all respects
according to the will of each, but they came to an agreement as to the
conditions under which they were to conduct the fight. This fact, among
others, is disclosed by a certain pillar in the Amarynthium, which
forbids the use of long distance missiles. 36
In fact among all the customs of warfare and of the use of arms there
neither is, nor has been, any single custom; for some use long distance
missiles, as, for example, bowmen and slingers and javelin-throwers,
whereas others use close-fighting arms, as, for example, those who use
sword, or outstretched spear; for the spear is used in two ways, one in
hand-to-hand combat and the other for hurling like a javelin; just as
the pike serves both purposes, for it can be used both in close combat
and as a missile for hurling, which is also true of the sarissa37 and the hyssus.38
Strabo 10.1.[13] The
Euboeans excelled in "standing" combat, which is also called "close"
and "hand-to-hand" combat; and they used their spears outstretched, as
the poet says:“spearmen eager with outstretched ashen spears to shatter
corselets.
”39Perhaps
the javelins were of a different kind, such as probably was the "Pelian
ashen spear," which, as the poet says,“Achilles alone knew how to hurl;
”40and he41 who said,“And the spear I hurl farther than any other man can shoot an arrow,
”42means
the javelin-spear. And those who fight in single combat are first
introduced as using javelin-spears, and then as resorting to swords.
And close fighters are not those who use the sword alone, but also the
spear hand-to-hand, as the poet says:“he pierced him with bronze-tipped
polished spear, and loosed his limbs.
”43Now
he introduces the Euboeans as using this mode of fighting, but he says
the contrary of the Locrians, that“they cared not for the tolls of
close combat, . . . but relying on bows and well-twisted slings of
sheep's wool they followed with him to Ilium.
”44There
is current, also, an oracle which was given out to the people of
Aegium,“Thessalian horse, Lacedemonian woman, and men who drink the
water of sacred Arethusa,
”meaning that the Chalcidians are best of all, for Arethusa is in their territory.
Strabo 10.1.[14] There
are now two rivers in Euboea, the Cereus and the Neleus; and the sheep
which drink from one of them turn white, and from the other black. A
similar thing takes place in connection with the Crathis River, as I
have said before.45
Strabo 10.1.[15] When
the Euboeans were returning from Troy, some of them, after being driven
out of their course to Illyria, set out for home through Macedonia, but
remained in the neighborhood of Edessa, after aiding in war those who
had received them hospitably; and they founded a city Euboe. There was
also a Euboea in Sicily, which was founded by the Chalcidians of
Sicily, but they were driven out of it by Gelon; and it became a
stronghold of the Syracusans. In Corcyra, also, and in Lemnos, there
were places called Euboea; and in the Argive country a hill of that
name.
Strabo 10.1.[16] Since the
Aetolians, Acarnanians, and Athamanians (if these too are to be called
Greeks) live to the west of the Thessalians and the Oetaeans, it
remains for me to describe these three, in order that I may complete
the circuit of Greece; I must also add the islands which lie nearest to
Greece and are inhabited by the Greeks, so far as I have not already
included them in my description.
2.
Strab. 10.2.1 Now the Aetolians and the Acarnanians border on one another,
having between them the Acheloüs River, which flows from the north and
from Pindus on the south through the country of the Agraeans, an
Aetolian tribe, and through that of the Amphilochians, the Acarnanians
holding the western side of the river as far as that part of the
Ambracian Gulf which is near Amphilochi and the temple of the Actian
Apollo, but the Aetolians the eastern side as far as the Ozalian
Locrians and Parnassus and the Oetaeans. Above the Acarnanians, in the
interior and the parts towards the north, are situated the
Amphilochians, and above these the Dolopians and Pindus, and above the
Aetolians are the Perrhaebians and Athamanians and a part of the
Aenianians who hold Oeta. The southern side, of Acarnania and Aetolia
alike, is washed by the sea which forms the Corinthian Gulf, into which
empties the Acheloüs River, which forms the boundary between the coast
of the Aetolians and that of Acarnania. In earlier times the Acheloüs
was called Thoas. The river which flows past Dyme bears the same name
as this, as I have already said,46 and also the river near Lamia.47 I have already stated, also, that the Corinthian Gulf is said to begin at the mouth of this river.48
Strabo 10.2.[2] As
for cities, those of the Acarnanians are Anactorium, which is situated
on a peninsula near Actium and is a trading center of the Nicopolis of
today, which was founded in our times;49
Stratus, where one may sail up the Acheloüs River more than two hundred
stadia; and Oeneiadae, which is also on the river—the old city, which
is equidistant from the sea and from Stratus, being uninhabited,
whereas that of today lies at a distance of about seventy stadia above
the outlet of the river. There are also other cities, Palaerus, Alyzia,
Leucas,50
Argos Amphilochicum, and Ambracia, most of which, or rather all, have
become dependencies of Nicopolis. Stratus is situated about midway of
the road between Alyzia and Anactorium.51
Strabo 10.2.[3]The
cities of the Aetolians are Calydon and Pleuron, which are now indeed
reduced, though in early times these settlements were an ornament to
Greece. Further, Aetolia has come to be divided into two parts, one
part being called Old Aetolia and the other Aetolia Epictetus.52
The Old Aetolia was the seacoast extending from the Acheloüs to
Calydon, reaching for a considerable distance into the interior, which
is fertile and level; here in the interior lie Stratus and Trichonium,
the latter having excellent soil. Aetolia Epictetus is the part which
borders on the country of the Locrians in the direction of Naupactus
and Eupalium, being a rather rugged and sterile country, and extends to
the Oetaean country and to that of the Athamanians and to the mountains
and tribes which are situated next beyond these towards the north.
Strabo 10.2.[4] Aetolia also has
a very large mountain, Corax, which borders on Oeta; and it has among
the rest of its mountains, and more in the middle of the country than
Corax, Aracynthus, near which New Pleuron was founded by the
inhabitants of the Old, who abandoned their city, which had been
situated near Calydon in a district both fertile and level, at the time
when Demetrius, surnamed Aetolicus,53
laid waste the country; above Molycreia are Taphiassus and Chalcis,
rather high mountains, on which were situated the small cities Macynia
and Chalcis, the latter bearing the same name as the mountain, though
it is also called Hypochalcis. Near Old Pleuron is the mountain Curium,
after which, as some have supposed, the Pleuronian Curetes were named.
Strabo 10.2.[5] The Evenus River
begins in the territory of those Bomians who live in the country of the
Ophians, the Ophians being an Aetolian tribe (like the Eurytanians and
Agraeans and Curetes and others), and flows at first, not through the
Curetan country, which is the same as the Pleuronian, but through the
more easterly country, past Chalcis and Calydon; and then, bending back
towards the plains of Old Pleuron and changing its course to the west,
it turns towards its outlets and the south. In earlier times it was
called Lycormas. And there Nessus, it is said, who had been appointed
ferryman, was killed by Heracles because he tried to violate Deïaneira
when he was ferrying her across the river.
Strabo 10.2.[6] The poet also names Olenus and Pylene as Aetolian cities.54
Of these, the former, which bears the same name as the Achaean city,
was razed to the ground by the Aeolians; it was near New Pleuron, but
the Acarnanians claimed possession of the territory. The other, Pylene,
the Aeolians moved to higher ground, and also changed its name, calling
it Proschium. Hellanicus does not know the history of these cities
either, but mentions them as though they too were still in their early
status; and among the early cities he names Macynia and Molycreia,
which were founded even later than the return of the Heracleidae,
almost everywhere in his writings displaying a most convenient
carelessness.
Strabo 10.2.[7] Upon the whole,
then, this is what I have to say concerning the country of the
Acarnanians and the Aetolians, but the following is also to be added
concerning the seacoast and the islands which lie off it: Beginning at
the mouth of the Ambracian Gulf the first place which belongs to the
Acarnanians is Actium. The temple of the Actian Apollo bears the same
name, as also the cape which forms the mouth of the Gulf and has a
harbor on the outer side. Anactorium, which is situated on the gulf, is
forty stadia distant from the temple, whereas Leucas is two hundred and
forty.
Strabo 10.2.[8] In early times Leucas was a peninsula of Acarnania, but the poet calls it "shore of the mainland,"55
using the term "mainland" for the country which is situated across from
Ithaca and Cephallenia; and this country is Acarnania. And therefore,
when he says, "shore of the mainland," one should take it to mean
"shore of Acarnania." And to Leucas also belonged, not only Nericus,
which Laertes says he took “(verily I took Nericus, well-built citadel,
shore of the mainland, when I was lord over the Cephallenians),
”56but also the cities which Homer names in the Catalogue“(and dwell in Crocyleia and rugged Aegilips).
”57But the Corinthians sent by Cypselus58
and Gorgus took possession of this shore and also advanced as far as
the Ambracian Gulf; and both Ambracia and Anactorium were colonized at
this time; and the Corinthians dug a canal through the isthmus of the
peninsula and made Leucas an island; and they transferred Nericus to
the place which, though once an isthmus, is now a strait spanned by a
bridge, and they changed its name to Leucas, which was named, as I
think, after Leucatas; for Leucatas is a rock of white 59 color jutting out from Leucas into the sea and towards Cephallenia and therefore it took its name from its color.
Strabo 10.2.[9] It
contains the temple of Apollo Leucatas, and also the "Leap," which was
believed to put an end to the longings of love.“Where Sappho is said to
have been the first,
”as Menander says,“when through frantic longing
she was chasing the haughty Phaon, to fling herself with a leap from
the far-seen rock, calling upon thee in prayer, O lord and master.
”Now
although Menander says that Sappho was the first to take the leap, yet
those who are better versed than he in antiquities say that it was
Cephalus, who was in love with Pterelas the son of Deïoneus. It was an
ancestral custom among the Leucadians, every year at the sacrifice
performed in honor of Apollo, for some criminal to be flung from this
rocky look-out for the sake of averting evil, wings and birds of all
kinds being fastened to him, since by their fluttering they could
lighten the leap, and also for a number of men, stationed all round
below the rock in small fishing-boats, to take the victim in, and, when
he had been taken on board,60 to do all in their power to get him safely outside their borders. The author of the Alcmaeonis61
says that Icarius, the father of Penelope, had two sons, Alyzeus and
Leucadius, and that these two reigned over Acarnania with their father;
accordingly, Ephorus thinks that the cities were named after these.
Strabo 10.2.[10] But though at
the present time only the people of the island Cephallenia are called
Cephallenians, Homer so calls all who were subject to Odysseus, among
whom are also the Acarnanians. For after saying,“but Odysseus led the
Cephallenians, who held Ithaca and Neritum with quivering foliage
”62(Neritum being the famous mountain on this island, as also when he says,“and those from Dulichium and the sacred Echinades,
”63Dulichium itself being one of the Echinades; and“those who dwelt in Buprasium and Elis,
”64Buprasium being in Elis; and“those who held Euboea and Chalcis and Eiretria,
”65meaning that these cities were in Euboea; and“Trojans and Lycians and Dardanians,
”66meaning
that the Lycians and Dardanians were Trojans)—however, after mentioning
"Neritum, he says,“and dwelt in Crocyleia and rugged Aegilips, and
those who held Zacynthos and those who dwelt about Samos, and those who
held the mainland and dwelt in the parts over against the islands.
”67By "mainland,"68 therefore, he means the parts over against the islands, wishing to include, along with Leucas, the rest of Acarnania as well,69 concerning which he also speaks in this way,“twelve herd on the mainland, and as many flocks of sheep,
”70perhaps
because Epeirotis extended thus far in early times and was called by
the general name "mainland." But by "Samos" he means the Cephallenia of
today, as, when he says,“in the strait between Ithaca and rugged Samos;
”71for
by the epithet he differentiates between the objects bearing the same
name, thus making the name apply, not to the city, but to the island.
For the island was a Tetrapolis,72
and one of its four cities was the city called indifferently either
Samos or Same, bearing the same name as the island. And when the poet
says,“for all the nobles who hold sway over the islands, Dulichium and
Same and woody Zacynthos,
”73he is evidently making an enumeration of the islands and calling "Same" that island which he had formerly74 called Samos. But Apollodorus,75 when he says in one passage that ambiguity is removed by the epithet when the poet says“and rugged Samos,
”76showing that he meant the island, and then, in another passage, says that one should copy the reading,“Dulichium and Samos,
”77instead
of "Same," plainly takes the position that the city was called "Same"
or "Samos" indiscriminately, but the island "Samos" only; for that the
city was called Same is clear, according to Apollodorus, from the fact
that, in enumerating the wooers from the several cities, the poet78 said,“from Same came four and twenty men,
”79and also from the statement concerning Ktimene,“they then sent her to Same to wed.
”80But
this is open to argument, for the poet does not express himself
distinctly concerning either Cephallenia or Ithaca and the other places
near by; and consequently both the commentators and the historians are
at variance with one another.
Strabo 10.2.[11] For instance, when Homer says in regard to Ithaca,“those who held Ithaca and Neritum with quivering foliage,
”81he
clearly indicates by the epithet that he means the mountain Neritum;
and in other passages he expressly calls it a mountain;“but I dwell in
sunny Ithaca, wherein is a mountain, Neritum, with quivering leaves and
conspicuous from afar.
”82But
whether by Ithaca he means the city or the island, is not clear, at
least in the following verse,“those who held Ithaca and Neritum;
”83for
if one takes the word in its proper sense, one would interpret it as
meaning the city, just as though one should say "Athens and
Lycabettus," or "Rhodes and Atabyris," or "Lacedaemon and Taÿgetus";
but if he takes it in a poetical sense the opposite is true. However,
in the words,“but I dwell in sunny Ithaca, wherein is a mountain,
Neritum,
”84his
meaning is clear, for the mountain is in the island, not in the city.
But when he says as follows,“we have come from Ithaca below Neïum,
”85it
is not clear whether he means that Neïum is the same as Neritum or
different, or whether it is a mountain or place. However, the critic
who writes Nericum86 instead of Neritum, or the reverse, is utterly mistaken; for the poet refers to the latter as "quivering with foliage,"87 but to the former as "well-built citadel,"88 and to the latter as "in Ithaca,"89 but to the former as "shore of the mainland."90
Strabo 10.2.[12] The
following verse also is thought to disclose a sort of
contradiction:“Now Ithaca itself lies chthamale, panypertate on the sea;
”91
for chthamale means "low," or "on the ground," whereas panypertate
means "high up," as Homer indicates in several places when he calls
Ithaca "rugged."92 And so when he refers to the road that leads from the harbor as“rugged path up through the wooded place,
”93and when he says“for not one of the islands which lean upon the sea is eudeielos94 or rich in meadows, and Ithaca surpasses them all.
”95
Now although Homer's phraseology presents incongruities of this kind,
yet they are not poorly explained; for, in the first place, writers do
not interpret chthamale as meaning "low-lying" here, but "lying near
the mainland," since it is very close to it, and, secondly, they do not
interpret panypertate as meaning "highest," but "highest towards the
darkness," that is, farthest removed towards the north beyond all the
others; for this is what he means by "towards the darkness," but the
opposite by "towards the south," as in“but the other islands lie
aneuthe towards the dawn and the sun,
”96for
the word aneuthe is "at a distance," or "apart," implying that the
other islands lie towards the south and farther away from the mainland,
whereas Ithaca lies near the mainland and towards the north. That Homer
refers in this way to the southerly region is clear also from these
words,“whether they go to the right, towards the dawn and the sun, or
yet to the left towards the misty darkness,
”97and
still more clear from these words,“my friends, lo, now we know not
where is the place of darkness, nor of dawn, nor where the sun, that
gives light to men, goes beneath the earth; nor where he rises.
”98For it is indeed possible to interpret this as meaning the four "climata,"99
if we interpret "the dawn" as meaning the southerly region (and this
has some plausibility), but it is better to conceive of the region
which is along the path of the sun as set opposite to the northerly
region, for the poetic words are intended to signify a considerable
change in the celestial phenomena,100
not merely a temporary concealment of the "climata," for necessarily
concealment ensues every time the sky is clouded, whether by day or by
night; but the celestial phenomena change to a greater extent as we
travel farther and farther towards the south or in the opposite
direction. Yet this travel causes a hiding, not of the western or
eastern sky, but only of the southern or northern, and in fact this
hiding takes place when the sky is clear; for the pole is the most
northerly point of the sky, but since the pole moves and is sometimes
at our zenith and sometimes below the earth, the arctic circles also
change with it and in the course of such travels sometimes vanish with
it,101 so that you cannot know where the northern "clima" is, or even where it begins.102 And if this is true, neither can you know the opposite "clima." The circuit of Ithaca is about eighty stadia.103 So much for Ithaca.
Strabo 10.2.[13] As
for Cephallenia, which is a Tetrapolis, the poet mentions by its
present name neither it nor any of its cities except one, Same or
Samos, which now no longer exists, though traces of it are to be seen
midway of the passage to Ithaca; and its people are called Samaeans.
The other three, however, survive even to this day in the little cities
Paleis, Pronesus, and Cranii. And in our time Gaius Antonius, the uncle
of Marcus Antonius, founded still another city, when, after his
consulship, which he held with Cicero the orator, he went into exile,104
sojourned in Cephallenia, and held the whole island in subjection as
though it were his private estate. However, before he could complete
the settlement he obtained permission to return home,105 and ended his days amid other affairs of greater importance.
Strabo 10.2.[14] Some,
however, have not hesitated to identify Cephallenia with Dulichium, and
others with Taphos, calling the Cephallenians Taphians, and likewise
Teleboans, and to say that Amphitryon made an expedition thither with
Cephalus, the son of Deïoneus, whom, an exile from Athens, he had taken
along with him, and that when Amphitryon seized the island he gave it
over to Cephalus, and that the island was named after Cephalus and the
cities after his children. But this is not in accordance with Homer;
for the Cephallenians were subject to Odysseus and Laertes, whereas
Taphos was subject to Mentes:“I declare that I am Mentes the son of
wise Anchialus, and I am lord over the oar loving Taphians.
”106Taphos is now called Taphius. Neither is Hellanicus107 in accord with Homer when he identifies Cephallenia with Dulichium, for Homer108
makes Dulichium and the remainder of the Echinades subject to Meges;
and their inhabitants were Epeians, who had come there from Elis; and
it is on this account that he calls Otus the Cyllenian“comrade of
Phyleides109 and ruler of the high-hearted Epeians;
”110“but Odysseus led the high-hearted Cephallenians.
”111According to Homer, therefore, neither is Cephallenia Dulichium nor is Dulichium a part of Cephallenia, as Andron112
says; for the Epeians held possession of Dulichium, whereas the
Cephallenians held possession of the whole of Cephallenia and were
subject to Odysseus, whereas the Epeians were subject to Meges. Neither
is Paleis called Dulichium by the poet, as Pherecydes writes. But that
writer is most in opposition to Homer who identifies Cephallenia with
Dulichium, if it be true that "fifty-two" of the suitors were "from
Dulichium" and "twenty-four from Same";113
for in that case would not Homer say that fifty-two came from the
island as a whole and a half of that number less two from a single one
of its four cities? However, if one grants this, I shall ask what Homer
can mean by "Same" in the passage,“Dulichium and Same and woody
Zacynthos.
”114
Strabo 10.2.[15] Cephallenia
lies opposite Acarnania, at a distance of about fifty stadia from
Leucatas (some say forty), and about one hundred and eighty from
Chelonatas. It has a perimeter of about three hundred115 stadia, is long, extending towards Eurus, 116
and is mountainous. The largest mountain upon it is Aenus, whereon is
the temple of Zeus Aenesius; and where the island is narrowest it forms
an isthmus so low-lying that it is often submerged from sea to sea.
Both Paleis and Crannii are on the gulf near the narrows.
Strabo 10.2.[16] Between Ithaca and Cephallenia is the small island Asteria (the poet calls it Asteris), which the Scepsian117 says no longer remains such as the poet describes it,“but in it are harbors safe for anchorage with entrances on either side;
”118Apollodorus,
however, says that it still remains so to this day, and mentions a town
Alalcomenae upon it, situated on the isthmus itself.
Strabo 10.2.[17] The poet also
uses the name "Samos" for that Thrace which we now call Samothrace. And
it is reasonable to suppose that he knows the Ionian Samos, for he also
appears to know of the Ionian migration; otherwise he would not have
differentiated between the places of the same name when referring to
Samothrace, which he designates at one time by the epithet,“high on the
topmost summit of woody Samos, the Thracian,
”119and at another time by connecting it with the islands near it,“unto Samos and Imbros and inhospitable120 Lemnos.
”121And again,“between Samos and rugged Imbros.
”122He
therefore knew the Ionian island, although he did not name it; in fact
it was not called by the same name in earlier times, but Melampylus,
then Anthemis, then Parthenia, from the River Parthenius, the name of
which was changed to Imbrasus. Since, then, both Cephallenia and
Samothrace were called Samos at the time of the Trojan War (for
otherwise Hecabe would not be introduced as saying that he123 was for selling her children whom he might take captive "unto Samos and unto Imbros"), 124
and since the Ionian Samos had not yet been colonized, it plainly got
its name from one of the islands which earlier bore the same name.
Whence that other fact is also clear, that those writers contradict
ancient history who say that colonists came from Samos after the Ionian
migration and the arrival of Tembrion125
and named Samothrace Samos, since this story was fabricated by the
Samians to enhance the glory of their island. Those writers are more
plausible who say that the island came upon this name from the fact
that lofty places are called "samoi,"126“for thence all Ida was plain to see, and plain to see were the city of Priam and the ships of the Achaeans
”127
But some say that the island was called Samos after the Saïi, the
Thracians who inhabited it in earlier times, who also held the adjacent
mainland, whether these Saïi were the same people as the Sapaeï or
Sinti (the poet calls them Sinties) or a different tribe. The Saïi are
mentioned by Archilochus:“One of the Saïi robbed me of my shield,
which, a blameless weapon, I left behind me beside a bush, against my
will.
”128
Strabo 10.2.[18] Of
the islands classified as subject to Odysseus, Zacynthos remains to be
described. It leans slightly more to the west of the Peloponnesus than
Cephallenia and lies closer to the latter. The circuit of Zacynthos is
one hundred and sixty stadia.129
It is about sixty stadia distant from Cephallenia. It is indeed a woody
island, but it is fertile; and its city, which bears the same name, is
worthy of note. The distance thence to the Libyan Hesperides is three
thousand three hundred stadia.
Strabo 10.2.[19] To the east of
Zacynthos and Cephallenia are situated the Echinades Islands, among
which is Dulichium, now called Dolicha, and also what are called the
Oxeiae, which the poet called Thoae.130
Dolicha lies opposite Oeneiadae and the outlet of the Acheloüs, at a
distance of one hundred stadia from Araxus, the promontory of the
Eleians; the rest of the Echinades (they are several in number, all
poor soiled and rugged) lie off the outlet of the Acheloüs, the
farthermost being fifteen stadia distant and the nearest five. In
earlier times they lay out in the high sea, but the silt brought down
by the Acheloüs has already joined some of them to the mainland and
will do the same to others. It was this silt which in early times
caused the country called Paracheloïtis,131
which the river overflows, to be a subject of dispute, since it was
always confusing the designated boundaries between the Acarnanians and
the Aetolians; for they would decide the dispute by arms, since they
had no arbitrators, and the more powerful of the two would win the
victory; and this is the cause of the fabrication of a certain myth,
telling how Heracles defeated Acheloüs and, as the prize of his
victory, won the hand of Deïaneira, the daughter of Oeneus, whom
Sophocles represents as speaking as follows:“For my suitor was a
river-god, I mean Acheloüs, who would demand me of my father in three
shapes, coming now as a bull in bodily form, now as a gleaming serpent
in coils, now with trunk of man and front of ox.
”132133 Some writers add to the myth, saying that this was the horn of Amaltheia,134
which Heracles broke off from Acheloüs and gave to Oeneus as a wedding
gift. Others, conjecturing the truth from the myths, say that the
Acheloüs, like the other rivers, was called "like a bull" from the
roaring of its waters, and also from the the bendings of its streams,
which were called Horns, and "like a serpent" because of its length and
windings, and "with front of ox"135
for the same reason that he was called "bull-faced"; and that Heracles,
who in general was inclined to deeds of kindness, but especially for
Oeneus, since he was to ally himself with him by marriage, regulated
the irregular flow of the river by means of embankments and channels,
and thus rendered a considerable part of Paracheloïtis dry, all to
please Oeneus; and that this was the horn of Amaltheia.136
Now, as for the Echinades, or the Oxeiae, Homer says that they were
ruled over in the time of the Trojan War by Meges,“who was begotten by
the knightly Phyleus, dear to Zeus, who once changed his abode to
Dulichium because he was wroth with his father.
”137His
father was Augeas, the ruler of the Eleian country and the Epeians; and
therefore the Epeians who set out for Dulichium with Phyleus held these
islands.
Strabo 10.2.[20] The islands of
the Taphians, or, in earlier times, of the Teleboans, among which was
Taphos,. now called Taphius, were distinct from the Echinades; not in
the matter of distances (for they lie near them), but in that they are
classified as under different commanders, Taphians and Teleboans.138
Now in earlier times Amphitryon made an expedition against them with
Cephalus the son of Deïoneus, an exile from Athens, and gave over their
government to him, but the poet says that they were marshalled under
Mentes,139 calling them pirates,140 as indeed all the Teleboans are said to be pirates. So much, then, for the islands lying off Acarnania.
Strabo 10.2.[21] Between
Leucas and the Ambracian Gulf is a salt lake, called Myrtuntium. Next
after Leucas one comes to Palaerus and Alyzia, cities of Acarnania; of
these, Alyzia is fifteen stadia distant from the sea, where is a harbor
sacred to Heracles and a sacred precinct. It is from this precinct that
one of the commanders carried to Rome the "Labours of Heracles," works
of Lysippus, which were lying out of place where they were, because it
was a deserted region. Then one comes to Cape Crithote, and the
Echinades, and the city Astacus, which bears the same name as the city
near Nicomedeia and Gulf Astacenus,141
the name being used in the feminine gender. Crithote also bears the
same name as one of the little cities in the Thracian Chersonesus.142
All parts of the coast between these places have good harbors. Then one
comes to Oeniadae and the Acheloüs; then to a lake of the Oeniadae,
called Melite, which is thirty stadia in length and twenty in breadth;
and to another lake, Cynia, which is twice the size of Melite, both in
length and in breadth; and to a third, Uria, which is much smaller than
those. Now Cynia empties into the sea, but the others lie about half a
stadium above it. Then one comes to the Evenus, to which the distance
from Actium is six hundred and seventy stadia. After the Evenus one
comes to the mountain Chalcis, which Artemidorus has called Chalcia;
then to Pleuron; then to the village Halicyrna, above which thirty
stadia in the interior, lies Calydon; and near Calydon is the temple of
the Laphrian Apollo. Then one comes to the mountain Taphiassus; then to
the city Macynia; then to Molycreia and, near by, to Antirrhium, the
boundary between Aetolia and Locris, to which the distance from the
Evenus is about one hundred and twenty stadia. Artemidorus, indeed,
does not give this account of the mountain, whether we call it Chalcis
or Chalcia, since he places it between the Acheloüs and Pleuron, but
Apollodorus, as I have said before,143
places both Chalcis and Taphiassus above Molycreia, and he also says
that Calydon is situated between Pleuron and Chalcis. Perhaps, however,
we should postulate two mountains, one near Pleuron called Chalcis, and
the other near Molycreia called Chalcis. Near Calydon, also, is a lake,
which is large and well supplied with fish; it is held by the Romans
who live in Patrae.
Strabo 10.2.[22] Apollodorus says
that in the interior of Acarnania there is a people called
Erysichaeans, who are mentioned by Alcman:“nor yet an Erysichaean nor
shepherd, but from the heights of Sardeis.
”144
But Olenus, which Homer mentions in the Aetolian catalogue, was in
Aetolia, though only traces of it are left, near Pleuron at the foot of
Aracynthus. Near it, also, was Lysimachia; this, too, has disappeared;
it was situated by the lake now called Lysimachia, in earlier times
Hydra, between Pleuron and the city Arsinoe. In earlier times Arsinoe
was only a village, and was called Conopa, but it was first founded as
a city by Arsinoe, who was both wife and sister of Ptolemy the Second;145 it was rather happily situated at the ford across the Acheloüs. Pylene146 has also suffered a fate similar to that of Olenus. When the poet calls Calydon both "steep"147 and "rocky,"148 one should interpret him as referring to the country; for, as I have said,149 they divided the country into two parts and assigned the mountainous part, or Epictetus,150 to Calydon and the level country to Pleuron.
Strabo 10.2.[23] At
the present time both the Acarnanians and the Aetolians, like many of
the other tribes, have been exhausted and reduced to impotence by their
continual wars. However, for a very long time the Aetolians, together
with the Acarnanians, stood firm, not only against the Macedonians and
the other Greeks, but also finally against the Romans, when fighting
for autonomy. But since they are often mentioned by Homer, as also both
by the other poets and by historians, sometimes in words that are easy
to interpret and about which there is no disagreement, and sometimes in
words that are less intelligible (this has been shown in what I have
already said about them), I should also add some of those older
accounts which afford us a basis of fact to begin with, or are matters
of doubt.
Strabo 10.2.[24] For instance, in the case of Acarnania, Laertes and the Cephallenians acquired possession of it, as I have said;151
but as to what people held it before that time, many writers have
indeed given an opinion, but since they do not agree in their
statements, which have, however, a wide currency, there is left for me
a word of arbitration concerning them. They say that the people who
were called both Taphians and Teleboans lived in Acarnania in earlier
times, and that their leader Cephalus, who had been set up by
Amphitryon as master over the islands about Taphos, gained the mastery
over this country too. And from this fact they go on to add the myth
that Cephalus was the first to take the leap from Leucatas which became
the custom, as I have said before.152
But the poet does not say that the Taphians were ruling the Acarnanians
before the Cephallenians and Laertes came over, but only that they were
friends to the Ithacans, and therefore, according to the poet, they
either had not ruled over the region at all, or had yielded Acarnania
to the Ithacans voluntarily, or had become joint occupants with them.
It appears that also a colony from Lacedaemon settled in Acarnania, I
mean Icarius, father of Penelope, and his followers; for in the Odyssey
the poet represents both Icarius and the brothers of Penelope as
living:“who153 shrink from going to the house of her father, Icarius, that he himself may exact the bride-gifts for his daughter,
”154and, concerning her brothers,“for already her father and her brothers bid her marry Eurymachus;
”155for,
in the first place, it is improbable that they were living in
Lacedaemon, since in that case Telemachus would not have lodged at the
home of Menelaüs when he went to Lacedaemon, and, secondly, we have no
tradition of their having lived elsewhere. But they say that Tyndareus
and his brother Icarius, after being banished by Hippocoön from their
homeland, went to Thestius, the ruler of the Pleuronians, and helped
him to acquire possession of much of the country on the far side of the
Acheloüs on condition that they should receive a share of it; that
Tyndareus, however, went back home, having married Leda, the daughter
of Thestius, whereas Icarius stayed on, keeping a portion of Acarnania,
and by Polycaste, the daughter of Lygaeus, begot both Penelope and her
brothers. Now I have already set forth that the Acarnanians were
enumerated in the Catalogue of Ships,156 that they took part in the expedition to Ilium, and that among these were named "those who lived on the 'shore,'"157 and also“those who held the mainland and dwelt in parts opposite.
”158 But as yet neither had the mainland been named "Acarnania" nor the shore "Leucas."
Strabo 10.2.[25] Ephorus
denies that they joined the Trojan expedition, for he says that
Alcmaeon, the son of Amphiaraüs, made an expedition with Diomedes and
the other Epigoni, and had brought to a successful issue the war
against the Thebans, and then joined Diomedes and with him took
vengeance upon the enemies of Oeneus, after which he himself, first
giving over Aetolia to them,159
passed into Acarnania and subdued it; and meanwhile Agamemnon attacked
the Argives and easily prevailed over them, since the most of them had
accompanied the army of Diomedes; but a little later, when the
expedition against Troy confronted him, he conceived the fear that,
when he was absent on the expedition, Diomedes and his army might come
back home (and in fact it was reported that a great army had gathered
round him) and seize the empire to which they had the best right, for
one160 was the heir of Adrastus and the other161 of his father;162
and accordingly, after thinking this all over, Agamemnon invited them
both to resume possession of Argos and to take part in the war; and
although Diomedes was persuaded to take part in the expedition,
Alcmaeon was vexed and refused to heed the invitation; and for this
reason the Acarnanians alone refused to share in the expedition with
the Greeks. And it was probably by following this account that the
Acarnanians tricked the Romans, as they are said to have done, and
obtained from them their autonomy, urging that they alone had had no
part in the expedition against the ancestors of the Romans, for they
were named neither in the Aetolian catalogue163 nor separately, and in fact their name was not mentioned in the Epic poems at all.
Strabo 10.2.[26] Ephorus,
then, makes Acarnania subject to Alcmaeon even before the Trojan War;
and he not only declares that the Amphilochian Argos was founded by
him, but also says that Acarnania was named after Alcmaeon's son
Acarnan, and the Amphilochians after Alcmaeon's brother Amphilochus;
therefore his account is to be cast out amongst those contrary to
Homeric history. But Thucydides164
and others say that Amphilochus, on his return from the Trojan
expedition, was displeased with the state of affairs at Argos, and took
up his abode in this country, some saying that he came by right of
succession to the domain of his brother, others giving a different
account. So much may be said of the Acarnanians specifically; I shall
now speak of their history in a general way, in so far as their history
is interwoven with that of the Aetolians, in so far as I have thought
best to add to my previous narrative.
3.
Strab. 10.3.1 As for the Curetes, some assign them to the
Acarnanians, others to the Aetolians; and some assert that they
originated in Crete, but others in Euboea; but since Homer mentions
them, I should first investigate his account. It is thought that he
means that they were Aetolians rather than Acarnanians, if indeed the
sons of Porthaon were“Agrius and Melas, and, the third, Oeneus the
knight;
and they lived in Pleuron and steep Calydon.
”165These
are both Aetolian cities, and are referred to in the Aetolian
catalogue; and therefore, since, even according to the poet, the
Curetes obviously lived in Pleuron, they would be Aetolians. Those
writers who oppose this view are misled by Homer's mode of expression
when he says,“the Curetes were fighting, and the Aetolians steadfast in
battle, about the city of Calydon;
”166for,
they add, neither would he have spoken appropriately if he had said,
"the Boeotians and the Thebans were fighting against one another"; or
"the Argives and the Peloponnesians." But, as I have shown heretofore,167
this habit of expression not only is Homeric, but is much used by the
other poets also. This interpretation, then, is easy to defend; but let
those writers explain how the poet could catalogue the Pleuronians
among the Aetolians if they were not Aetolians or at least of the same
race.
Strab. 10.3.2 Ephorus,168
after saying that the Aetolians were a race which had never become
subject to any other people, but throughout all time of which there is
any record had remained undevastated, both because of the ruggedness of
their country and because of their training in warfare, says at the
outset that the Curetes held possession of the whole country, but when
Aetolus,169
the son of Endymion, arrived from Elis and overpowered them in war, the
Curetes withdrew to what is now called Acarnania, whereas the Aetolians
came back with Epeians and founded the earliest of the cities of
Aetolia, and in the tenth generation after that Elis was settled by
Oxylus170
the son of Haemon, who had crossed over from Aetolia. And he cites as
evidence of all this two inscriptions, the one at Therma in Aetolia
(where it is their ancestral custom to hold their elections of
magistrates), engraved on the base of the statue of Aetolus:“Founder of
the country, once reared beside the eddies of the Alpheius, neighbor of
the race-courses of Olympia, son of Endymion, this Aetolus has been set
up by the Aetolians as a memorial of his valor to behold;
” and the
other inscription in the marketplace of the Eleians on the statue of
Oxylus:“Aetolus once left this autochthonous people, and through many a
toil with the spear took possession of the land of Curetis; but the
tenth scion of the same stock, Oxylus, the son of Haemon, founded this
city in early times.”
Strab. 10.3.3 Now
through these inscriptions Ephorus correctly signifies the kinship of
the Eleians and Aetolians with one another, since both inscriptions
agree, not merely as to the kinship of the two peoples, but also that
each people was the founder of the other, through which he successfully
convicts of falsehood those who assert that, while the Eleians were
indeed colonists of the Aetolians, the Aetolians were not colonists of
the Eleians. But here, too, Ephorus manifestly displays the same
inconsistency in his writing and his pronouncements as in the case of
the oracle at Delphi, which I have already set forth;171
for, after saying that Aetolia has been undevastated throughout all
times of which there is any record, and after saying also that in the
beginning the Curetes held possession of this country, he should have
added as a corollary to what he had already said that the Curetes
continued to hold possession of the Aetolian land down to his own time,
for only thus could it have been rightly said that the land had been
undevastated and that it had never come under the power of others; and
yet, utterly forgetting his promise,172
he does not add this, but the contrary, that when Aetolus arrived from
Elis and overpowered the Curetes in war, they withdrew into Acarnania.
What else, pray, is specifically characteristic of a devastation than
being overpowered in war and abandoning the country? And this is
evidenced also by the inscription among the Eleians, for Aetolus, it
says,“through many a toil with the spear took possession of the land of
Curetis.”
Strab. 10.3.4 Perhaps,
however, one might say that Ephorus means that Aetolia was undevastated
from the time when it got this name, that is, after Aetolus arrived
there; but Ephorus has deprived himself of the argument in support of
this idea by saying in his next words that this, meaning the tribe of
the Epeians, constituted the greatest part of the people who stayed on
among the Aetolians, but that later, when Aeolians, who at the same
time with Boeotians had been compelled to migrate from Thessaly, were
intermingled with them, they in common with these held possession of
the country. Is it credible, pray, that without war they invaded the
country of a different people and divided it up with its possessors,
when the latter had no need of such a partnership? Or, since this is
not credible, is it credible that those who were overpowered by arms
came out on an equality with the victors? What else, pray, is
devastation than being overpowered by arms? Apollodorus, also, says
that, according to history, the Hyantes left Boeotia and settled among
the Aetolians. But Ephorus, as though he had achieved success in his
argument, adds: "It is my wont to examine such matters as these with
precision, whenever any matter is either altogether doubtful or falsely
interpreted."
Strab. 10.3.5 But though Ephorus is such, still he is better than others. And Polybius173 himself, who praises him so earnestly, and says concerning the Greek histories that Eudoxus174
indeed gave a good account, but Ephorus gave the best account of the
foundings of cities, kinships, migrations, and original founders, "but
I," he says, “shall show the facts as they now are, as regards both the
position of places and the distances between them; for this is the most
appropriate function of Chorography.”175But assuredly you, Polybius, who introduce "popular notions"176
concerning distances, not only in dealing with places outside of
Greece, but also when treating Greece itself, must also submit to an
accounting, not only to Poseidonius,177
and to Apollodorus, but to several others as well. One should therefore
pardon me as well, and not be vexed, if I make any mistakes when I
borrow from such writers most of my historical material, but should
rather be content if in the majority of cases I improve upon the
accounts given by others, or if I add such facts as have elsewhere,
owing to lack of knowledge, been left untold.
Strab. 10.3.6 Concerning the
Curetes still further accounts, to the following effect, are given,
some of them being more closely related to the history of the Aetolians
and the Acarnanians, others more remotely. More closely related are
such accounts as I have given before—that the Curetes were living in
the country which is now called Aetolia, and that the Aetolians came
with Aetolus and drove them into Acarnania; and also accounts of this
kind, that, when Pleuronia was inhabited by the Curetes and was called
Curetis, Aeolians made an invasion and took it away from them, and
drove out its occupants. Archemachus the Euboean178
says that the Curetes settled at Chalcis, but since they were
continually at war for the Lelantine Plain and the enemy would catch
them by the front hair and drag them down, he says, they let their hair
grow long behind but cut short the part in front, and because of this
they were called "Curetes," from the cut of their hair,179
and they then migrated to Aetolia, and, after taking possession of the
region round Pleuron, called the people who lived on the far side of
the Acheloüs "Acarnanians," because they kept their heads "unshorn."180
But some say that each of the two tribes got its name from a hero;
others, that the Curetes were named after the mountain Curium, which is
situated about Pleuron, and also that this is an Aetolian tribe, like
the Ophians and the Agraeans and the Eurytanians and several others.
But, as I have already stated,181
when Aetolia was divided into two parts, the region round Calydon, they
say, was in the possession of Oeneus, whereas a certain part of
Pleuronia was in the possession of the sons of Porthaon, that is,
Agrius and his followers, if it be true that“they lived in Pleuron and
steep Calydon;
”182the
mastery over Pleuronia, however, was held by Thestius (the
father-in-law of Oeneus and father of Althaea), who was leader of the
Curetes; but when war broke out between the sons of Thestius, on the
one hand, and Oeneus and Meleager, on the other (“about the hog's head
and skin,
”183as the poet says, following the mythical story of the boar,184
but in all probability about the possession of a part of the
territory), according to the words of the poet,“the Curetes were
fighting, as also the Aetolians steadfast in battle.
”185So much for the accounts which are more closely related.
Strab. 10.3.7 The
accounts which are more remotely related, however, to the present
subject, but are wrongly, on account of the identity of the names,
brought into the same connection by the historians—I mean those
accounts which, although they are called "Curetan History" and "History
of the Curetes," just as if they were the history of those Curetes who
lived in Aetolia and Acarnania, not only are different from that
history, but are more like the accounts of the Satyri, Sileni, Bacchae,
and Tityri; for the Curetes, like these, are called genii or ministers
of gods by those who have handed down to us the Cretan and the Phrygian
traditions, which are interwoven with certain sacred rites, some
mystical, the others connected in part with the rearing of the child
Zeus186
in Crete and in part with the orgies in honor of the mother of the gods
which are celebrated in Phrygia and in the region of the Trojan Ida.
But the variation in these accounts is so small that, whereas some
represent the Corybantes, the Cabeiri, the Idaean Dactyli, and the
Telchines as identical with the Curetes, others represent them as all
kinsmen of one another and differentiate only certain small matters in
which they differ in respect to one another; but, roughly speaking and
in general, they represent them, one and all, as a kind of inspired
people and as subject to Bacchic frenzy, and, in the guise of
ministers, as inspiring terror at the celebration of the sacred rites
by means of war-dances, accompanied by uproar and noise and cymbals and
drums and arms, and also by flute and outcry; and consequently these
rites are in a way regarded as having a common relationship, I mean
these and those of the Samothracians and those in Lemnos and in several
other places, because the divine ministers are called the same.
However, every investigation of this kind pertains to theology, and is
not foreign to the speculation of the philosopher.
Strab. 10.3.8 But since also
the historians, because of the identity of name of the Curetes, have
classed together things that are unlike, neither should I myself shrink
from discussing them at greater length, by way of digression, adding
such account of their physical habits as is appropriate to history. And
yet some historians even wish to assimilate their physical habits with
those others, and perhaps there is something plausible in their
undertaking. For instance, they say that the Curetes of Aetolia got
this name because, like "girls,"187
they wore women's clothes, for, they add, there was a fashion of this
kind among the Greeks, and the Ionians were called "tunic-trailing,"188 and the soldiers of Leonidas were "dressing their hair"189
when they were to go forth to battle, so that the Persians, it is said,
conceived a contempt for them, though in the battle they marvelled at
them. Speaking generally, the art of caring for the hair consists both
in its nurture and in the way it is cut, and both are given special
attention by "girls" and "youths";190
so that there are several ways in which it is easy to derive an
etymology of the word "Curetes." It is reasonable to suppose, also,
that the war-dance was first introduced by persons who were trained in
this particular way in the matter of hair and dress, these being called
Curetes, and that this dance afforded a pretext to those also who were
more warlike than the rest and spent their life under arms, so that
they too came to be called by the same name, "Curetes "—I mean the
Curetes in Euboea, Aetolia, and Acarnania. And indeed Homer applied
this name to young soldiers,“choose thou the noblest young men191 from all the Achaeans, and bring the gifts from the swift ship, all that we promised yesterday to Achilles";
”192and again,“the young men of the Achaeans brought the gifts.
”193
So much for the etymology of the word "Curetes." The war-dance was a
soldiers' dance; and this is plainly indicated both by the "Pyrrhic
dance,"194
and by "Pyrrichus," who is said to be the founder of this kind of
training for young men, as also by the treatises on military affairs.195
Strabo 10.3.[9] But
I must now investigate how it comes about that so many names have been
used of one and the same thing, and the theological element contained
in their history.
Now this is common both to the Greeks and to the
barbarians,
to perform their sacred rites in connection with the
relaxation of a festival,
these rites being performed
sometimes with
religious frenzy, sometimes without it;
sometimes with music, sometimes
not;
and sometimes in secret, sometimes openly.
And it is in accordance
with the dictates of nature that this should be so, for, in the first
place, the relaxation draws the mind away from human occupations and
turns the real mind towards that which is divine; and, secondly, the
religious frenzy seems to afford a kind of divine inspiration and to be
very like that of the soothsayer; and, thirdly, the secrecy with which
the sacred rites are concealed induces reverence for the divine, since
it imitates the nature of the divine, which is to avoid being perceived
by our human senses;
and, fourthly, music, which includes dancing as
well as rhythm and melody, at the same time,
by the delight it affords
and by its artistic beauty,
brings us in touch with the divine, and
this for the following reason;
for although it has been well said that
human beings then act most like the gods
when they are doing good to
others,
yet one might
better say, when they are happy;
and such
happiness consists of rejoicing, celebrating festivals, pursuing
philosophy,
and engaging in music;
for, if music is perverted when
musicians turn their art to sensual delights at symposiums and in
orchestric and scenic performances and the like, we should not lay the
blame upon music itself, but should rather examine the nature of our
system of education, since this is based on music.
Strabo 10.3.[10] And on this account Plato, and even before his time the Pythagoreians, called philosophy music;196 and they say that the universe is constituted in accordance with harmony,197
assuming that every form of music is the work of the gods.
And in this
sense, also, the Muses are goddesses,
and Apollo is leader of the
Muses,
and poetry as a whole is laudatory of the gods.
And by the same
course of reasoning they also attribute to music the upbuilding of
morals, believing that everything which tends to correct the mind is
close to the gods. Now most of the Greeks assigned to Dionysus, Apollo,
Hecate, the Muses, and above all to Demeter, everything of an orgiastic
or Bacchic or choral nature, as well as the mystic element in
initiations; and they give the name "Iacchus" not only to Dionysus but
also to the leader-in-chief of the mysteries, who is the genius of
Demeter.
And branch-bearing, choral dancing, and initiations are common
elements in the worship of these gods.
As for the Muses and Apollo,
the
Muses preside over the choruses,
whereas Apollo presides both over
these and the rites of divination.
But all educated men, and especially
the musicians, are ministers of the Muses; and both these and those who
have to do with divination are ministers of Apollo; and the initiated
and torch-bearers and hierophants, of Demeter; and the Sileni and
Satyri and Bacchae, and also the Lenae and Thyiae and Mimallones and
Naïdes and Nymphae and the beings called Tityri, of Dionysus.
Strabo 10.3.[11] In Crete, not
only these rites, but in particular those sacred to Zeus,
were
performed along with orgiastic worship and with the kind of ministers
who were in the service of Dionysus, I mean the Satyri.
These ministers
they called "Curetes," young men who executed movements in armour,
accompanied by dancing, as they set forth the mythical story of the
birth of Zeus; in this they introduced Cronus as accustomed to swallow
his children immediately after their birth, and Rhea as trying to keep
her travail secret and, when the child was born, to get it out of the
way and save its life by every means in her power; and to accomplish
this it is said that she took as helpers the Curetes,
who, by
surrounding the goddess with tambourines and similar noisy instruments
and with war-dance and uproar, were supposed to strike terror into
Cronus and without his knowledge
to steal his child away; and that,
according to tradition, Zeus was actually reared by them with the same
diligence; consequently the Curetes, either because, being young, that
is "youths,"198 they performed this service, or because they "reared" Zeus "in his youth"199
(for both explanations are given), were accorded this appellation, as
if they were Satyrs, so to speak, in the service of Zeus. Such, then,
were the Greeks in the matter of orgiastic worship.
Strabo 10.3.[12] But as for the Berecyntes,200
a tribe of Phrygians, and the Phrygians in general, and those of the
Trojans who live round Ida, they too hold Rhea in honor and worship her
with orgies, calling her Mother of the gods and Agdistis and Phrygia
the Great Goddess, and also, from the places where she is worshipped,
Idaea and Dindymene and Sipylene and Pessinuntis and Cybele and Cybebe.201
The Greeks use the same name "Curetes" for the ministers of the
goddess, not taking the name, however, from the same mythical story,202
but regarding them as a different set of "Curetes," helpers as it were,
analogous to the Satyri; and the same they also call Corybantes.
See Paul's hope that these people who troubled the church in Galatia would
go all the way and emasculate themselves. The musical priests were
emasculated in order to perform for Cybele. Music was always the weapon
or instrument of witchcraft.
Strabo 10.3.[13] The poets bear
witness to such views as I have suggested. For instance, when Pindar,
in the dithyramb which begins with these words,
“In earlier times there
marched203 the lay of the dithyrambs long drawn out,
”mentions
the hymns sung in honor of Dionysus, both the ancient and the later
ones, and then, passing on from these, says,“To perform the prelude in
thy honor, great Mother, the whirling of cymbals is at hand, and among
them, also, the clanging of castanets, and the torch that blazeth
beneath the tawny pine-trees,
”he bears witness to the common
relationship between the rites exhibited
in the worship of Dionysus
among the Greeks
and those in the worship of the Mother of the gods
among the Phrygians,
for he makes these rites closely akin to one
another. And Euripides does likewise, in his Bacchae, citing
the Lydian usages at the same time with those of Phrygia, because of
their similarity:“
But ye who left Mt. Tmolus, fortress of Lydia,
revel-band of mine,
women whom I brought from the land of barbarians as
my assistants and travelling companions,
uplift the tambourines native
to Phrygian cities, inventions of mine and mother Rhea.
”204And
again,“happy he who, blest man, initiated in the mystic rites, is pure
in his life, . . . who, preserving the righteous orgies of the great
mother Cybele, and brandishing the thyrsus on high, and wreathed with
ivy, doth worship Dionysus. Come, ye Bacchae, come, ye Bacchae,
bringing down205 Bromius,206 god the child of god, out of the Phrygian mountains into the broad highways of Greece.
”207And again, in the following verses he connects the Cretan usages also with the Phrygian:“O thou hiding-bower208 of the Curetes, and sacred haunts of Crete that gave birth to Zeus, where for me209 the triple-crested210 Corybantes211 in their caverns invented this hide-stretched circlet,212
and blent its Bacchic revelry with the high-pitched, sweet-sounding
breath of Phrygian flutes, and in Rhea's hands placed its resounding
noise, to accompany the shouts of the Bacchae,213 and from Mother Rhea frenzied Satyrs obtained it and joined it to the choral dances of the Trieterides,214 in whom Dionysus takes delight.
”215 And in the Palamedes the Chorus says,216“Thysa, daughter of Dionysus, who on Ida rejoices with his dear mother in the Iacchic revels of tambourines.
Strabo 10.3.[14] And
when they bring Seilenus and Marsyas and Olympus into one and the same
connection, and make them the historical inventors of flutes, they
again, a second time, connect the Dionysiac and the Phrygian rites; and
they often in a confused manner drum on217
Ida and Olympus as the same mountain. Now there are four peaks of Ida
called Olympus, near Antandria; and there is also the Mysian Olympus,
which indeed borders on Ida, but is not the same. At any rate,
Sophocles, in his Polyxena, representing Menelaus as in haste
to set sail from Troy, but Agamemnon as wishing to remain behind for a
short time for the sake of propitiating Athena, introduces Menelaüs as
saying,“But do thou, here remaining, somewhere in the Idaean land
collect flocks of Olympus and offer them in sacrifice.
”218
Strabo 10.3.[15] They
invented names appropriate to the flute, and to the noises made by
castanets, cymbals, and drums, and to their acclamations and shouts of
"ev-ah," and stampings of the feet;219
and they also invented some of the names by which to designate the
ministers, choral dancers, and attendants upon the sacred rites,
I mean
"Cabeiri" and "Corybantes" and "Pans" and "Satyri" and "Tityri,"
and
they called the god "Bacchus," and Rhea "Cybele" or "Cybebe" or
"Dindymene"
according to the places where she was worshipped.
Sabazius
also belongs to the Phrygian group and in a way is the child of the
Mother,
since he too transmitted the rites of Dionysus.220
Strabo 10.3.[16] Also
resembling these rites are the Cotytian and the Bendideian rites
practiced among the Thracians, among whom the Orphic rites had their
beginning. Now the Cotys who is worshipped among the Edonians, and also
the instruments used in her rites, are mentioned by Aeschylus; for he
says,“O adorable Cotys among the Edonians, and ye who hold
mountain-ranging221 instruments;
”and he mentions immediately afterwards the attendants of Dionysus:“one, holding in his hands the bombyces,222
toilsome work of the turner's chisel, fills full the fingered melody,
the call that brings on frenzy, while another causes to resound the
bronze-bound cotylae223
”and
again,“stringed instruments raise their shrill cry, and frightful
mimickers from some place unseen bellow like bulls, and the semblance224 of drums, as of subterranean thunder, rolls along, a terrifying sound;
”for
these rites resemble the Phrygian rites, and it is at least not
unlikely that, just as the Phrygians themselves were colonists from
Thrace, so also their sacred rites were borrowed from there. Also when
they identify Dionysus and the Edonian Lycurgus, they hint at the
homogeneity of their sacred rites.
Strabo 10.3.[17] From its melody
and rhythm and instruments, all Thracian music has been considered to
be Asiatic. And this is clear, first, from the places where the Muses
have been worshipped, for Pieria and Olympus and Pimpla and Leibethrum
were in ancient times Thracian places and mountains, though they are
now held by the Macedonians; and again, Helicon was consecrated to the
Muses by the Thracians who settled in Boeotia, the same who consecrated
the cave of the nymphs called Leibethrides. And again, those who
devoted their attention to the music of early times are called
Thracians, I mean Orpheus, Musaeus, and Thamyris; and Eumolpus,225
too, got his name from there. And those writers who have consecrated
the whole of Asia, as far as India, to Dionysus, derive the greater
part of music from there. And one writer says, "striking the Asiatic
cithara"; another calls flutes "Berecyntian" and "Phrygian"; and some
of the instruments have been called by barbarian names, "nablas,"
"sambyce," "barbitos," "magadis," and several others.
Strabo 10.3.[18] Just as in all
other respects the Athenians continue to be hospitable to things
foreign, so also in their worship of the gods; for they welcomed so
many of the foreign rites that they were ridiculed therefore by comic
writers; and among these were the Thracian and Phrygian rites. For
instance, the Bendideian rites are mentioned by Plato,226 and the Phrygian by Demosthenes,227
when he casts the reproach upon Aeschines' mother and Aeschines himself
that he was with her when she conducted initiations, that he joined her
in leading the Dionysiac march, and that many a time he cried out "evoe
saboe," and "hyes attes, attes hyes"; for these words are in the ritual
of Sabazius and the Mother.
Strab. 10.3.19 Further, one
might also find, in addition to these facts concerning these genii and
their various names, that they were called, not only ministers of gods,
but also gods themselves. For instance, Hesiod says that five daughters
were born to Hecaterus and the daughter of Phoroneus,“from whom sprang
the mountain-ranging nymphs, goddesses,
and the breed of Satyrs,
creatures worthless and unfit for work,
and also the Curetes, sportive
gods, dancers.
phi^lo-paigmōn ,
on, gen.
onos, (
paizō)
A.
fond of play, sportive, “
orkhēthmos”
Od.23.134; “
orkhēstēres”
Hes.Fr.198, cf.
Ar.Ra.333 (lyr.),
Them.Or.24.301c,
Lib.Decl.30.68: of the lion, “
pros ta suntropha kai sunēthē sphodra ph.”
Arist.HA629b11: epith. of Pan
, BCH50.240 (Thasos, iii/ii B. C.). The more Att. form
philopaismōn occurs in
Pl.R.452e,
Cra.406c; cf.
Poll.5.161. Adv.
-monōs ibid.
6.
hunt, pursue game, “
p. kat' alsos”
S. El.567.
Aristoph. Frogs 225
Frogs
Rightly so, you busybody.
the Muses of the fine lyre love us
And so does horn-crested Pan, playing his reed pipe.
And the harpist Apollo delights in us as well,
On account of the reed, which as a bridge for his lyre
I nourish in the water of the pond.
Brekekekex koax koax.
Dionysus
I've got blisters,
and for long now my rump's been sweating.
It's going to pop up and say—
Hom. Od. 23.129 Then Odysseus of many wiles answered him and said: [130] “Then will I
tell thee what seems to me to be the best way. First bathe yourselves,
and put on your tunics, and bid the handmaids in the halls to take
their raiment.
But let the divine minstrel with his clear-toned lyre in
hand be our leader in the gladsome dance,
[135] that any man who hears
the sound from without,
whether a passer-by or one of those who dwell
around,
may say that it is a wedding feast; and so the rumor
of the
slaying of the wooers shall not be spread abroad throughout the city
before we go forth to our well-wooded farm
Aristoph. Frogs 323 Chorus
Iacchus, here abiding in temples most reverend,
Iacchus, O Iacchus,
come to dance in this meadow;
to your holy mystic bands
Shake the leafy crown
around your head, brimming
with myrtle,
Boldly
stomp your feet in time
to the wild fun-loving rite,
with full share of the
Graces, the holy dance, sacred
to your
mystics.
Plat. Crat. 406c of the name of these deities. You
will have to ask others for the serious one; but there is nothing to
hinder my giving you the facetious account, for the gods also have a
sense of humor. Dionysus, the giver (
didous) of
wine (
oinos), might be called in jest Didoinysus, and wine, because it makes most drinkers think (
oiesthai) they have wit (
nous) when they have not, might very justly be called Oeonus (
oionous). As for Aphrodite, we need not oppose Hesiod; we can accept his derivation of the name
”228And the author of Phoronis229
speaks of the Curetes as "flute-players" and "Phrygians"; and others as
"earth-born" and "wearing brazen shields." Some call the Corybantes,
and not the Curetes, "Phrygians," but the Curetes "Cretes,"230
and say that the Cretes were the first people to don brazen armour in
Euboea, and that on this account they were also called "Chalcidians";231
still others say that the Corybantes, who came from Bactriana (some say
from among the Colchians), were given as armed ministers to Rhea by the
Titans. But in the Cretan accounts the Curetes are called "rearers of
Zeus," and "protectors of Zeus," having been summoned from Phrygia to
Crete by Rhea. Some say that, of the nine Telchines232 who lived in Rhodes, those who accompanied Rhea to Crete and "reared" Zeus "in his youth"233
were named "Curetes"; and that Cyrbas, a comrade of these, who was the
founder of Hierapytna, afforded a pretext to the Prasians234
for saying among the Rhodians that the Corybantes were certain genii,
sons of Athena and Helius. Further, some call the Corybantes sons of
Cronus, but others say that the Corybantes were sons of Zeus and
Calliope and were identical with the Cabeiri, and that these went off
to Samothrace, which in earlier times was called Melite, and that their
rites were mystical.
hēlios ,
ho, Ep.
ēelios , a
II.
[select]
as pr. n.,
Helios, the sun-god,
Od.8.271, etc.;
nē ton Hē.
Men.Sam. 108;
hupo Dia Gēn Hēlion, in manumission-formula,
POxy.48.6,
49.8 (i A.D.),
IG9(1).412(Aetolia),
IPE2.54.10(iii A.D.); [“
Hēlios doulous eleutherous poiei”
Artem.2.36; identified with Apollo,
Carm.Pop.12,
E.Fr.781.11; with Dionysus,
D.Chr.31.11, etc.
Strabo 10.3.[20] But though the Scepsian,235
who compiled these myths, does not accept the last statement, on the
ground that no mystic story of the Cabeiri is told in Samothrace, still
he cites also the opinion of Stesimbrotus the Thasian 236
that the sacred rites in Samothrace were performed in honor of the
Cabeiri: and the Scepsian says that they were called Cabeiri after the
mountain Cabeirus in Berecyntia. Some, however, believe that the
Curetes were the same as the Corybantes and were ministers of Hecate.
But the Scepsian again states, in opposition to the words of Euripides,237
that the rites of Rhea were not sanctioned or in vogue in Crete, but
only in Phrygia and the Troad, and that those who say otherwise are
dealing in myths rather than in history, though perhaps the identity of
the place-names contributed to their making this mistake. For instance,
Ida is not only a Trojan, but also a Cretan, mountain; and Dicte is a
place in Scepsia238 and also a mountain in Crete; and Pytna, after which the city Hierapytna239
was named, is a peak of Ida. And there is a Hippocorona in the
territory of Adramyttium and a Hippocoronium in Crete. And Samonium is
the eastern promontory of the island and a plain in the territory of
Neandria and in that of the Alexandreians.240
Strabo 10.3.[21] Acusilaüs,241
the Argive, calls Cadmilus the son of Cabeiro and Hephaestus, and
Cadmilus the father of three Cabeiri, and these the fathers of the
nymphs called Cabeirides. Pherecydes242
says that nine Cyrbantes were sprung from Apollo and Rhetia, and that
they took up their abode in Samothrace; and that three Cabeiri and
three nymphs called Cabeirides were the children of Cabeiro, the
daughter of Proteus, and Hephaestus, and that sacred rites were
instituted in honor of each triad. Now it has so happened that the
Cabeiri are most honored in Imbros and Lemnos, but they are also
honored in separate cities of the Troad; their names, however, are kept
secret. Herodotus243
says that there were temples of the Cabeiri in Memphis, as also of
Hephaestus, but that Cambyses destroyed them. The places where these
deities were worshipped are uninhabited, both the Corybanteium in
Hamaxitia in the territory now belonging to the Alexandreians near
Sminthium,244
and Corybissa in Scepsia in the neighborhood of the river Eurëeis and
of the village which bears the same name and also of the winter torrent
Aethalöeis. The Scepsian says that it is probable that the Curetes and
the Corybantes were the same, being those who had been accepted as
young men, or "youths," for the war-dance in connection with the holy
rites of the Mother of the gods, and also as "corybantes" from the fact
that they "walked with a butting of their heads" in a dancing way.245 These are called by the poet "betarmones":246“Come now, all ye that are the best 'betarmones' of the Phaeacians.
”247
And because the Corybantes are inclined to dancing and to religious
frenzy, we say of those who are stirred with frenzy that they are
"corybantising."
Strabo 10.3.[22] Some writers say
that the name "Idaean Dactyli" was given to the first settlers of the
lower slopes of Mt. Ida, for the lower slopes of mountains are called
"feet," and the summits "heads"; accordingly, the several extremities
of Ida (all of which are sacred to the Mother of the gods) were called
Dactyli.248 Sophocles249
thinks that the first male Dactyli were five in number, who were the
first to discover and to work iron, as well as many other things which
are useful for the purposes of life, and that their sisters were five
in number, and that they were called Dactyli from their number. But
different writers tell the myth in different ways, joining difficulty
to difficulty; and both the names and numbers they use are different;
and they name one of them "Celmis" and others "Damnameneus" and
"Heracles" and "Acmon." Some call them natives of Ida, others settlers;
but all agree that iron was first worked by these on Ida; and all have
assumed that they were wizards and attendants of the Mother of the
gods, and that they lived in Phrygia about Ida; and they use the term
Phrygia for the Troad because, after Troy was sacked, the Phrygians,
whose territory bordered on the Troad, got the mastery over it. And
they suspect that both the Curetes and the Corybantes were offspring of
the Idaean Dactyli; at any rate, the first hundred men born in Crete
were called Idaean Dactyli, they say, and as offspring of these were
born nine Curetes, and each of these begot ten children who were called
Idaean Dactyli.
Strabo 10.3.[23] I have been led
on to discuss these people rather at length, although I am not in the
least fond of myths, because the facts in their case border on the
province of theology. And theology as a whole must examine early
opinions and myths, since the ancients expressed enigmatically the
physical notions which they entertained concerning the facts and always
added the mythical element to their accounts. Now it is not easy to
solve with accuracy all the enigmas, but if the multitude of myths be
set before us, some agreeing and others contradicting one another, one
might be able more readily to conjecture out of them what the truth is.
For instance, men probably speak in their myths about the
"mountain-roaming" of religious zealots and of gods themselves, and
about their "religious frenzies," for the same reason that they are
prompted to believe that the gods dwell in the skies and show
forethought, among their other interests, for prognostication by signs.
Now seeking for metals, and hunting, and searching for the things that
are useful for the purposes of life, are manifestly closely related to
mountain-roaming, whereas juggling and magic are closely related to
religious frenzies, worship, and divination. And such also is devotion
to the arts, in particular to the Dionysiac and Orphic arts. But enough
on this subject.
4.
Strab. 10.4.1 Since I have already described the islands of the Peloponnesus
in detail, not only the others, but also those in the Corinthian Gulf
and those in front of it, I must next discuss Crete (for it, too,
belongs to the Peloponnesus) and any islands that are in the
neighborhood of Crete. Among these are the Cyclades and the Sporades,
some worthy of mention, others of less significance.
Strab. 10.4.2 But at present let me first discuss Crete.250
Now although Eudoxus says that it is situated in the Aegaean Sea, one
should not so state, but rather that it lies between Cyrenaea and that
part of Greece which extends from Sunium to Laconia, stretching
lengthwise parallel with these countries from west to east, and that it
is washed on the north by the Aegaean and the Cretan Seas, and on the
south by the Libyan Sea, which borders on the Aegyptian. As for its two
extremities, the western is in the neighborhood of Phalasarna; it has a
breadth of about two hundred stadia and is divided into two
promontories (of these the southern is called Criumetopon,251 the northern Cimarus), whereas the eastern is Samonium, which falls toward the east not much farther than Sunium.
Strabo 10.4.[3]
As
for its size, Sosicrates, whose account of the island, according to
Apollodorus, is exact, defines it as follows: In length, more than two
thousand three hundred stadia, and in breadth, . . . ,252
so that its circuit, according to him, would amount to more than five
thousand stadia; but Artemidorus says it is four thousand one hundred.
Hieronymus253
says that its length is two thousand stadia and its breadth irregular,
and therefore might mean that the circuit is greater than Artemidorus
says. For about a third of its length . . . ;254
and then comes an isthmus of about one hundred stadia, which, on the
northern sea, has a settlement called Amphimalla, and, on the southern,
Phoenix, belonging to the Lampians. The island is broadest near the
middle. And from here the shores again converge to an isthmus narrower
than the former, about sixty stadia in width, which extends from Minoa,
city of the Lyctians, to Hierapytna and the Libyan Sea; the city is
situated on the gulf. Then the island projects into a sharp promontory,
Samonium, which slopes in the direction of Aegypt and the islands of
the Rhodians.
Strabo 10.4.[4]The island is
mountainous and thickly wooded, but it has fruitful glens. Of the
mountains, those towards the west are called Leuca;255
they do not fall short of Taÿgetus in height, extend in length about
three hundred stadia, and form a ridge which terminates approximately
at the narrows. In the middle, in the most spacious part of the island,
is Mount Ida, loftiest of the mountains of Crete and circular in shape,
with a circuit of six hundred stadia; and around it are the best
cities. There are other mountains in Crete that are about as high as
the Leuca, some terminating towards the south and others towards the
east.
Strabo 10.4.[5] The voyage from
Cyrenaea to Criumetopon takes two days and nights, and the distance
from Cimarus to Taenarum is seven hundred stadia,256
Cythera lying between them; and the voyage from Samonium to Aegypt
takes four days and nights, though some say three. Some state that this
is a voyage of five thousand stadia, but others still less.
Eratosthenes says that the distance from Cyrenaea to Criumetopon is two
thousand, and from there to the Peloponnesus less . . .257
Strabo 10.4.[6]“But one tongue with others is mixed,
”the poet says;“there dwell Achaeans, there Eteo-Cretans258 proud of heart, there Cydonians and Dorians, too, of waving plumes, and goodly Pelasgians.
”259260 Of these peoples, according to Staphylus,261
the Dorians occupy the part towards the east, the Cydonians the western
part, the Eteo-Cretans the southern; and to these last belongs the town
Prasus, where is the temple of the Dictaean Zeus; whereas the other
peoples, since they were more powerful, dwelt in the plains. Now it is
reasonable to suppose that the Eteo-Cretans and the Cydonians were
autochthonous, and that the others were foreigners, who, according to
Andron,262
came from Thessaly, from the country which in earlier times was called
Doris, but is now called Hestiaeotis; it was from this country that the
Dorians who lived in the neighborhood of Parnassus set out, as he says,
and founded Erineüs, Boeüm, and Cytinium, and hence by Homer263 are called "trichaïces."264 However, writers do not accept the account of Andron at all, since he represents the Tetrapolis Doris as being a Tripolis,265
and the metropolis of the Dorians as a mere colony of Thessalians; and
they derive the meaning of "trichaïces" either from the "trilophia,"266 or from the fact that the crests were "trichini."267
Strabo 10.4.[7] There
are several cities in Crete, but the greatest and most famous are
three: Cnossus, Gortyna and Cydonia. The praises of Cnossus are hymned
above the rest both by Homer, who calls it "great" and "the kingdom of
Minos,"268
and by the later poets. Furthermore, it continued for a long time to
win the first honors; then it was humbled and deprived of many of its
prerogatives, and its superior rank passed over to Gortyna and Lyctus;
but later it again recovered its olden dignity as the metropolis.
Cnossus is situated in a plain, its original circuit being thirty
stadia, between the Lyctian and Gortynian territories, being two
hundred stadia distant from Gortyna, and a hundred and twenty from
Lyttus, which the poet named Lyctus.269
Cnossus is twenty-five stadia from the northern sea, Gortyna is ninety
from the Libyan Sea, and Lyctus itself is eighty from the Libyan. And
Cnossus has Heracleium as its seaport.
Strabo 10.4.[8] But Minos is said to have used as seaport Amnisus, where is the temple of Eileithuia.270
In earlier times Cnossus was called Caeratus, bearing the same name as
the river which flows past it. According to history, Minos was an
excellent law-giver, and also the first to gain the mastery of the sea;271 and he divided the island into three parts and founded a city in each part, Cnossus in the . . .272 And it, too,273
lies to the north. As Ephorus states, Minos was an emulator of a
certain Rhadamanthys of early times, a man most just and bearing the
same name as Minos's brother, who is reputed to have been the first to
civilize the island by establishing laws and by uniting cities under
one city as metropolis274
and by setting up constitutions, alleging that he brought from Zeus the
several decrees which he promulgated. So, in imitation of Rhadamanthys,
Minos would go up every nine years,275
as it appears, to the cave of Zeus, tarry there, and come back with
commandments drawn up in writing, which he alleged were ordinances of
Zeus; and it was for this reason that the poet says,“there Minos
reigned as king, who held converse with great Zeus every ninth year.
”276277
Such is the statement of Ephorus; but again the early writers have
given a different account of Minos, which is contrary to that of
Ephorus, saying that he was tyrannical, harsh, and an exactor of
tribute, representing in tragedy the story of the Minotaur and the
Labyrinth, and the adventures of Theseus and Daedalus.
Strabo 10.4.[9] Now, as for these
two accounts, it is hard to say which is true; and there is another
subject that is not agreed upon by all, some saying that Minos was a
foreigner, but others that he was a native of the island. The poet,
however, seems rather to advocate the second view when he says,“Zeus
first begot Minos, guardian o'er Crete.
”278In
regard to Crete, writers agree that in ancient times it had good laws,
and rendered the best of the Greeks its emulators, and in particular
the Lacedaemonians, as is shown, for instance, by Plato279 and also by Ephorus, who in his Europe280
has described its constitution. But later it changed very much for the
worse; for after the Tyrrhenians, who more than any other people
ravaged Our Sea,281
the Cretans succeeded to the business of piracy; their piracy was later
destroyed by the Cilicians; but all piracy was broken up by the Romans,
who reduced Crete by war and also the piratical strongholds of the
Cilicians. And at the present time Cnossus has even a colony of Romans.
Strabo 10.4.[10] So much for
Cnossus, a city to which I myself am not alien, although, on account of
man's fortune and of the changes and issues therein, the bonds which at
first connected me with the city have disappeared: Dorylaüs was a
military expert and one of the friends of Mithridates Euergetes. He,
because of his experience in military affairs, was appointed to enlist
mercenaries, and often visited not only Greece and Thrace, but also the
mercenaries of Crete, that is, before the Romans were yet in possession
of the island and while the number of mercenary soldiers in the island,
from whom the piratical bands were also wont to be recruited, was
large. Now when Dorylaüs was sojourning there war happened to break out
between the Cnossians and the Gortynians, and he was appointed general,
finished the war successfully, and speedily won the greatest honors.
But when, a little later, he learned that Euergetes, as the result of a
plot, had been treacherously slain in Sinope by his closest associates,
and heard that the succession had passed to his wife and young
children, he despaired of the situation there and stayed on at Cnossus.
There, by a Macetan woman, Sterope by name, he begot two sons, Lagetas
and Stratarchas (the latter of whom l myself saw when he was an
extremely old man), and also one daughter. Now Euergetes had two sons,
one of whom, Mithridates, surnamed Eupator, succeeded to the rule when
he was eleven years old. Dorylaüs, the son of Philetaerus, was his
foster brother; and Philotaerus was a brother of Dorylaüs the military
expert. And when the king Mithridates reached manhood, he was so
infatuated with the companionship of his foster brother Dorylaüs that
he not only conferred upon him the greatest honors, but also cared for
his kinsmen and summoned those who lived at Cnossus. These were the
household of Lagetas and his brother, their father having already died,
and they themselves having reached manhood; and they quit Cnossus and
went home. My mother's mother was the sister of Lagetas. Now when
Lagetas prospered, these others shared in his prosperity, but when he
was ruined (for he was caught in the act of trying to cause the kingdom
to revolt to the Romans, on the understanding that he was to be
established at the head of the government), their fortunes were also
ruined at the same time, and they were reduced to humility; and the
bonds which connected them with the Cnossians, who themselves had
undergone countless changes, fell into neglect. But enough for my
account of Cnossus.
Strabo 10.4.[11] After Cnossus,
the city of the Gortynians seems to have ranked second in power; for
when these two cooperated they held in subjection all the rest of the
inhabitants, and when they had a quarrel there was dissension
throughout the island. But Cydonia was the greatest addition to
whichever side it attached itself. The city of the Gortynians also lies
in a plain; and in ancient times, perhaps, it was walled, as Homer
states,“and well-walled Gortyn,
”282but
later it lost its walls from their very foundations, and has remained
unwalled ever since; for although Ptolemy Philopator began to build a
wall, he proceeded with it only about eighty283
stadia; at any rate, it is worth mentioning that the settlement once
filled out a circuit of about fifty stadia. It is ninety stadia distant
from the Libyan Sea at Leben, which is its trading center; it also has
another seaport, Matalum, from which it is a hundred and thirty stadia
distant. The Lethaeus River flows through the whole of its territory.
Strabo 10.4.[12] From Leben came Leucocomas and his lover Euxynthetus, the story of whom is told by Theophrastus in his treatise On Love.
Of the tasks which Leucocomas assigned to Euxynthetus, one, he says,
was this—to bring back his dog from Prasus. The country of the Prasians
borders on that of the Lebenians, being seventy stadia distant from the
sea and a hundred and eighty from Gortyn. As I have said,284
Prasus belonged to the Eteo-Cretans; and the temple of the Dictaean
Zeus was there; for Dicte is near it, not "close to the Idaean
Mountain," as Aratus says,285
for Dicte is a thousand stadia distant from Ida, being situated at that
distance from it towards the rising sun, and a hundred from Samonium.
Prasus was situated between Samonium and the Cherronesus, sixty stadia
above the sea; it was razed to the ground by the Hierapytnians. And
neither is Callimachus right, they say, when he says that Britomartis,
in her flight from the violence of Minos, leaped from Dicte into
fishermen's "nets,"286
and that because of this she herself was called Dictynna by the
Cydoniatae, and the mountain Dicte; for Cydonia is not in the
neighborhood of these places at all, but lies near the western limits
of the island. However, there is a mountain called Tityrus in Cydonia,
on which is a temple, not the "Dictaean" temple, but the "Dictynnaean."
Strabo 10.4.[13] Cydonia is
situated on the sea, facing Laconia, and is equidistant, about eight
hundred stadia, from the two cities Cnossus and Gortyn, and is eighty
stadia distant from Aptera, and forty from the sea in that region.287
The seaport of Aptera is Cisamus. The territory.of the Polyrrhenians
borders on that of the Cydoniatae towards the west, and the temple of
Dictynna is in their territory. They are about thirty stadia distant
from the sea, and sixty from Phalasarna. They lived in villages in
earlier times; and then Achaeans and Laconians made a common
settlement, building a wall round a place that was naturally strong and
faced towards the south.
Strabo 10.4.[14] Of the three
cities that were united under one metropolis by Minos, the third, which
was Phaestus, was razed to the ground by the Gortynians; it is sixty
stadia distant from Gortyn, twenty from the sea, and forty from the
seaport Matalum; and the country is held by those who razed it.
Rhytium, also, together with Phaestus, belongs to the Gortynians:“and
Phaestus and Rhytium.
”288 Epimenides,289
who performed the purifications by means of his verses, is said to have
been from Phaestus. And Lissen also is in the Phaestian territory. Of
Lyctus, which I have mentioned before,290
the seaport is Cherronesus, as it is called, where is the temple of
Britomartis. But the Cities Miletus and Lycastus, which are catalogued
along with Lyctus,291
no longer exist; and as for their territory, the Lyctians took one
portion of it and the Cnossians the other, after they had razed the
city to the ground.
Strabo 10.4.[15] Since the poet speaks of Strabo 10.4. at one time as "possessing a hundred cities,"292 and also at another as "possessing ninety cities,"293
Ephorus says that the ten were founded later than the others, after the
Trojan War, by the Dorians who accompanied Althaemenes the Argive; he
adds that it was Odysseus, however, who called it "Crete of the ninety
cities." Now this statement is plausible, but others say that the ten
cities were razed to the ground by the enemies of Idomeneus.294
However, in the first place, the poet does not say that Crete had one
hundred cities at the time of the Trojan War, but rather in his own
time (for he is speaking in his own person, although, if the statement
was made by some person who was living at the time of the Trojan War,
as is the case in the Odyssey, when Odysseus says "of the ninety
cities," then it would be well to interpret it accordingly). In the
second place, if we should concede this,295 the next statement296
could not he maintained; for it is not likely that these cities were
wiped out by the enemies of Idomeneus either during the expedition or
after his return from Troy; for when the poet said,“and all his
companions Idomeneus brought to Crete, all who escaped from the war,
and the sea robbed him of none,
”297
he would also have mentioned this disaster; for of course Odysseus
could not have known of the obliteration of the cities, since he came
in contact with no Greeks either during his wanderings or later. And he298
who accompanied Idomeneus on the expedition to Troy and returned safely
home at the same time could not have known what occurred in the
homeland of Idomeneus either during the expedition or the return from
Troy, nor yet even after the return; for if ldomeneus escaped with all
his companions, he returned home strong, and therefore his enemies were
not likely to be strong enough to take ten cities away from him. Such,
then, is my description of the country of the Cretans.
Strabo 10.4.[16] As for their
constitution, which is described by Ephorus, it might suffice to tell
in a cursory way its most important provisions. The lawgiver, he says,
seems to take it for granted that liberty is a state's greatest good,
for this alone makes property belong specifically to those who have
acquired it, whereas in a condition of slavery everything belongs to
the rulers and not to the ruled; but those who have liberty must guard
it; now harmony ensues when dissension, which is the result of greed
and luxury, is removed; for when all citizens live a self-restrained
and simple life there arises neither envy nor arrogance nor hatred
towards those who are like them; and this is why the lawgiver commanded
the boys to attend the "Troops,"299
as they are called, and the full grown men to eat together at the
public messes which they call the "Andreia," so that the poorer, being
fed at public expense, might be on an equality with the well-to-do; and
in order that courage, and not cowardice, might prevail, he commanded
that from boyhood they should grow up accustomed to arms and toils, so
as to scorn heat, cold, marches over rugged and steep roads, and blows
received in gymnasiums or regular battles; and that they should
practise, not only archery, but also the war-dance, which was invented
and made known by the Curetes at first, and later, also, by the man300
who arranged the dance that was named after him, I mean the Pyrrhic
dance, so that not even their sports were without a share in activities
that were useful for warfare; and likewise that they should use in
their songs the Cretic rhythms, which were very high pitched, and were
invented by Thales, to whom they ascribe, not only their Paeans and
other local songs, but also many of their institutions; and that they
should use military dress and shoes; and that arms should be to them
the most valuable of gifts.
Strabo 10.4.[17] It is said by
some writers, Ephorus continues, that most of the Cretan institutions
are Laconian, but the truth is that they were invented by the Cretans
and only perfected by the Spartans; and the Cretans, when their cities,
and particularly that of the Cnossians, were devastated, neglected
military affairs; but some of the institutions continued in use among
the Lyctians, Gortynians, and certain other small cities to a greater
extent than among the Cnossians; in fact, the institutions of the
Lyctians are cited as evidence by those who represent the Laconian as
older; for, they argue, being colonists, they preserve the customs of
the mother city, since even on general grounds it is absurd to
represent those who are better organized and governed as emulators of
their inferiors; but this is not correct, Ephorus says, for, in the
first place, one should not draw evidence as to antiquity from the
present state of things, for both peoples have undergone a complete
reversal; for instance, the Cretans in earlier times were masters of
the sea, and hence the proverb, "The Cretan does not know the sea," is
applied to those who pretend not to know what they do know, although
now the Cretans have lost their fleet; and, in the second place, it
does not follow that, because some of the cities in Crete were Spartan
colonies, they were under compulsion to keep to the Spartan
institutions; at any rate, many colonial cities do not observe their
ancestral customs, and many, also, of those in Crete that are not
colonial have the same customs as the colonists.
Strabo 10.4.[18] Lycurgus the
Spartan law-giver, Ephorus continues, was five generations later than
the Althaemenes who conducted the colony to Crete;301
for historians say that Althaemenes was son of the Cissus who founded
Argos about the same time when Procles was establishing Sparta as
metropolis;302
and Lycurgus, as is agreed by all, was sixth in descent from Procles;
and copies are not earlier than their models, nor more recent things
earlier than older things; not only the dancing which is customary
among the Lacedaemonians, but also the rhythms and paeans that are sung
according to law, and many other Spartan institutions, are called
"Cretan" among the Lacedaemonians, as though they originated in Crete;
and some of the public offices are not only administered in the same
way as in Crete, but also have the same names, as, for instance, the
office of the "Gerontes,"303 and that of the "Hippeis"304
(except that the "Hippeis" in Crete actually possessed horses, and from
this fact it is inferred that the office of the "Hippeis" in Crete is
older, for they preserve the true meaning of the appellation, whereas
the Lacedaemonian "Hippeis" do not keep horses); but though the Ephors
have the same functions as the Cretan Cosmi, they have been named
differently; and the public messes are, even today, still called
"Andreia" among the Cretans, but among the Spartans they ceased to be
called by the same name as in earlier times;305
at any rate, the following is found in Alcman:“In feasts and festive
gatherings, amongst the guests who partake of the Andreia, 'tis meet to
begin the paean
”306
Strabo 10.4.[19] It
is said by the Cretans, Ephorus continues, that Lycurgus came to them
for the following reason: Polydectes was the elder brother of Lycurgus;
when he died he left his wife pregnant; now for a time Lycurgus reigned
in his brother's place, but when a child was born he became the child's
guardian, since the office of king descended to the child, but some
man, railing at Lycurgus, said that he knew for sure that Lycurgus
would be king; and Lycurgus, suspecting that in consequence of such
talk he himself might be falsely accused of plotting against the child,
and fearing that, if by any chance the child should die, he himself
might be blamed for it by his enemies, sailed away to Crete; this,
then, is said to be the cause of his sojourn in Crete; and when he
arrived he associated with Thales, a melic poet and an expert in
lawgiving; and after learning from him the manner in which both
Rhadamanthys in earlier times and Minos in later times published their
laws to men as from Zeus, and after sojourning in Egypt also and
learning among other things their institutions, and, according to some
writers, after meeting Homer, who was living in Chios, he sailed back
to his homeland, and found his brother's son, Charilaüs the son of
Polydectes, reigning as king; and then he set out to frame the laws,
making visits to the god at Delphi, and bringing thence the god's
decrees, just as Minos and his house had brought their ordinances from
the cave of Zeus, most of his being similar to theirs.
Strabo 10.4.[20] The following
are the most important provisions in the Cretan institutions as stated
by Ephorus. In Crete all those who are selected out of the "Troop" of
boys at the same time are forced to marry at the same time, although
they do not take the girls whom they have married to their own homes
immediately, but as soon as the girls are qualified to manage the
affairs of the house. A girl's dower, if she has brothers, is half of
the brother's portion.
The children must learn, not only their letters,
but also the songs prescribed in the laws and certain forms of music.
Now those who are still younger are taken to the public messes, the
"Andreia"; and they sit together on the ground as they eat their food,
clad in shabby garments, the same both winter and summer, and they also
wait on the men as well as on themselves. And those who eat together at
the same mess join battle both with one another and with those from
different messes. A boy director presides over each mess. But the older
boys are taken to the "Troops"; and the most conspicuous and
influential of the boys assemble the "Troops," each collecting as many
boys as he possibly can; the leader of each "Troop" is generally the
father of the assembler, and he has authority to lead them forth to
hunt and to run races, and to punish anyone who is disobedient; and
they are fed at public expense; and on certain appointed days "Troop"
contends with "Troop," marching rhythmically into battle, to the tune
of flute and lyre, as is their custom in actual war; and they actually
bear marks of307 the blows received, some inflicted by the hand, others by iron308 weapons.
Strabo 10.4.[21] They
have a peculiar custom in regard to love affairs, for they win the
objects of their love, not by persuasion, but by abduction; the lover
tells the friends of the boy three or four days beforehand that he is
going to make the abduction; but for the friends to conceal the boy, or
not to let him go forth by the appointed road, is indeed a most
disgraceful thing, a confession, as it were, that the boy is unworthy
to obtain such a lover; and when they meet, if the abductor is the
boy's equal or superior in rank or other respects, the friends pursue
him and lay hold of him, though only in a very gentle way, thus
satisfying the custom; and after that they cheerfully turn the boy over
to him to lead away; if, however, the abductor is unworthy, they take
the boy away from him. And the pursuit does not end until the boy is
taken to the "Andreium" of his abductor. They regard as a worthy object
of love, not the boy who is exceptionally handsome, but the boy who is
exceptionally manly and decorous. After giving the boy presents, the
abductor takes him away to any place in the country he wishes; and
those who were present at the abduction follow after them, and after
feasting and hunting with them for two months (for it is not permitted
to detain the boy for a longer time), they return to the city. The boy
is released after receiving as presents a military habit, an ox, and a
drinking-cup (these are the gifts required by law), and other things so
numerous and costly that the friends, on account of the number of the
expenses, make contributions thereto. Now the boy sacrifices the ox to
Zeus and feasts those who returned with him; and then he makes known
the facts about his intimacy with his lover, whether, perchance, it has
pleased him or not, the law allowing him this privilege in order that,
if any force was applied to him at the time of the abduction, he might
be able at this feast to avenge himself and be rid of the lover. It is
disgraceful for those who are handsome in appearance or descendants of
illustrious ancestors to fail to obtain lovers, the presumption being
that their character is responsible for such a fate. But the
parastathentes309
(for thus they call those who have been abducted) receive honors; for
in both the dances and the races they have the positions of highest
honor, and are allowed to dress in better clothes than the rest, that
is, in the habit given them by their lovers; and not then only, but
even after they have grown to manhood, they wear a distinctive dress,
which is intended to make known the fact that each wearer has become
"kleinos,"310 for they call the loved one "kleinos" and the lover "philetor."311 So much for their customs in regard to love affairs.
Strabo 10.4.[22] The
Cretans choose ten Archons. Concerning the matters of greatest
importance they use as counsellors the "Gerontes," as they are called.
Those who have been thought worthy to hold the office of the "Cosmi"
and are otherwise adjudged men of approved worth are appointed members
of this Council. I have assumed that the constitution of the Cretans is
worthy of description both on account of its peculiar character and on
account of its fame. Not many, however, of these institutions endure,
but the administration of affairs is carried on mostly by means of the
decrees of the Romans, as is also the case in the other provinces.
5.
Strab. 10.5.1 The islands near Crete are Thera, the metropolis of the
Cyrenaeans, a colony of the Lacedaemonians, and, near Thera, Anaphe,
where is the temple of the Aegletan Apollo. Callimachus speaks in one
place as follows,“Aegletan Anaphe, neighbor to Laconian Thera,
”312and in another, mentioning only Thera,“mother of my fatherland, famed for its horses.
”313Thera is a long island, being two hundred stadia in perimeter; it lies opposite Dia,314 an island near the Cnossian Heracleium,315
but it is seven hundred stadia distant from Crete. Near it are both
Anaphe and Therasia. One hundred stadia distant from the latter is the
little island Ios, where, according to some writers, the poet Homer was
buried. From Ios towards the west one comes to Sicinos and Lagusa and
Pholegandros, which last Aratus calls "Iron" Island, because of its
ruggedness. Near these is Cimolos, whence comes the Cimolian earth.316
From Cimolos Siphnos is visible, in reference to which island, because
of its worthlessness, people say "Siphnian knuckle-bone."317
And still nearer both to Cimolos and to Crete is Melos, which is more
notable than these and is seven hundred stadia from the Hermionic
promontory, the Scyllaeum, and almost the same distance from the
Dictynnaeum. The Athenians once sent an expedition to Melos and
slaughtered most of the inhabitants from youth upwards.318
Now these islands are indeed in the Cretan Sea, but Delos itself and
the Cyclades in its neighborhood and the Sporades which lie close to
these, to which belong the aforesaid islands in the neighborhood of
Crete, are rather in the Aegaean Sea.
Strabo 10.5.[2] Now the city which belongs to Delos, as also the temple of Apollo, and the Letöum,319
are situated in a plain; and above the city lies Cynthus, a bare and
rugged mountain; and a river named Inopus flows through the island—not
a large river, for the island itself is small. From olden times,
beginning with the times of the heroes, Delos has been revered because
of its gods, for the myth is told that there Leto was delivered of her
travail by the birth of Apollo and Artemis:“for aforetime,
”says Pindar,“it320 was tossed by the billows, by the blasts of all manner of winds,321 but when the daughter of Coeüs322
in the frenzied pangs of childbirth set foot upon it, then did four
pillars, resting on adamant, rise perpendicular from the roots of the
earth, and on their capitals sustain the rock. And there she gave birth
to, and beheld, her blessed offspring.
”323The
neighboring islands, called the Cyclades, made it famous, since in its
honor they would send at public expense sacred envoys, sacrifices, and
choruses composed of virgins, and would celebrate great general
festivals there.324
Strabo 10.5.[3] Now
at first the Cyclades are said to have been only twelve in number, but
later several others were added. At any rate, Artemidorus enumerates
fifteen, after saying of Helena that it stretches parallel to the coast
from Thoricus to Sunium and is a long island, about sixty stadia in
length; for it is from Helena, he says, that the Cyclades, as they are
called, begin; and he names Ceos, the island nearest to Helena, and,
after this island, Cythnos and Seriphos and Melos and Siphnos and
Cimolos and Prepesinthos and Oliaros, and, in addition to these, Paros,
Naxos, Syros, Myconos, Tenos, Andros, and Gyaros. Now I consider all of
these among the twelve except Prepesinthos, Oliaros, and Gyaros. When
our ship anchored at one of these, Gyaros, I saw a small village that
was settled by fishermen; and when we sailed away we took on board one
of the fishermen, who had been chosen to go from there to Caesar as
ambassador (Caesar was at Corinth, on his way325 to celebrate the Triumph alter the victory at Actium 326).
While on the voyage he told enquirers that he had been sent as
ambassador to request a reduction in their tribute; for, he said, they
were paying one hundred and fifty drachmas when they could only with
difficulty pay one hundred. Aratus also points out the poverty of the
island in his Catalepton“O Leto, shortly thou wilt pass by me, who am like either iron Pholegandros or worthless Gyaros.
”327
Strabo 10.5.[4] Now although Delos had become so famous, yet the razing of Corinth to the ground by the Romans328
increased its fame still more; for the importers changed their business
to Delos because they were attracted both by the immunity which the
temple enjoyed and by the convenient situation of the harbor; for it is
happily situated for those who are sailing from Italy and Greece to
Asia. The general festival is a kind of commercial affair, and it was
frequented by Romans more than by any other people, even when Corinth
was still in existence.329
And when the Athenians took the island they at the same time took good
care of the importers as well as of the religious rites. But when the
generals of Mithridates, and the tyrant330
who caused it to revolt, visited Delos, they completely ruined it, and
when the Romans again got the island, alter the king withdrew to his
homeland, it was desolate; and it has remained in an impoverished
condition until the present time. It is now held by the Athenians.
Strabo 10.5.[5] Rheneia is a desert isle within four stadia from Delos, and there the Delians bury their dead;331
for it is unlawful to bury, or even burn, a corpse in Delos itself, and
it is unlawful even to keep a dog there. In earlier times it was called
Ortygia.
Strabo 10.5.[6] Ceos was at first
a Tetrapolis, but only two cities are left, Iulis and Carthaea, into
which the remaining two were incorporated, Poeëessa into Carthaea and
Coressia into Iulis. Both Simonides the melic poet and his nephew
Bacchylides were natives of Iulis, and also after their time
Erasistratus the physician, and Ariston the peripatetic philosopher and
emulator of Bion the Borysthenite. It is reputed that there was once a
law among these people (it is mentioned by Menander,“Phanias, the law
of the Ceians is good, that he who is unable to live well should not
live wretchedly
”), which appears to have ordered those who were
over sixty years of age to drink hemlock, in order that the food might
be sufficient for the rest. And it is said that once, when they were
being besieged by the Athenians, they voted, setting a definite age,
that the oldest among them should be put to death, but the Athenians
raised the siege. The city lies on a mountain, about twenty-five stadia
distant from the sea; and its seaport is the place on which Coressia
was situated, which has not as great a population as even a village.
Near Coressia, and also near Poeëessa, is a temple of Sminthian Apollo;
and between the temple and the ruins of Poeëessa is the temple of
Nedusian Athena, founded by Nestor when he was on his return from Troy.
There is also a River Elixus in the neighborhood of Coressia.
Strabo 10.5.[7] After Ceos one
comes to Naxos and Andros, notable islands, and to Paros. Archilochus
the poet was a native of Paros. Thasos was founded by the Parians, as
also Parium, a city on the Propontis. Now the altar in this city is
said to be a spectacle worth seeing, its sides being a stadium in
length; and so is the Parian stone, as it is called, in Paros, the best
for sculpture in marble.
Strabo 10.5.[8] And there is Syros (the first syllable is pronounced long), where Pherecydes332 the son of Babys was born. The Athenian Pherecydes is later than he.333 The poet seems to mention this island, though he calls it Syria:“There is an island called Syria, above Ortygia.
”334
Strabo 10.5.[9] And
there is Myconos, beneath which, according to the myth, lie the last of
the giants that were destroyed by Heracles. Whence the proverb, "all
beneath Myconos alone," applied to those who bring under one title even
those things which are by nature separate. And further, some call bald
men Myconians, from the fact that baldness is prevalent in the island.
Strabo 10.5.[10] And there is
Seriphos, the scene of the mythical story of Dictys, who with his net
drew to land the chest in which were enclosed Perseus and his mother
Danae, who had been sunk in the sea by Acrisius the father of Danae;
for Perseus was reared there, it is said, and when he brought the
Gorgon's head there, he showed it to the Seriphians and turned them all
into stone. This he did to avenge his mother, because Polydectes the
king, with their cooperation, intended to marry his mother against her
will. The island is so rocky that the comedians say that it was made
thus by the Gorgon.
Strabo 10.5.[11] Tenos has no
large city, but it has the temple of Poseidon, a great temple in a
sacred precinct outside the city, a spectacle worth seeing. In it have
been built great banquet halls—an indication of the multitude of
neighbors who congregate there and take part with the inhabitants of
Tenos in celebrating the Poseidonian festival.
Strabo 10.5.[12] And there is
Amorgos, one of the Sporades, the home of Simonides the iambic poet;
and also Lebinthos, and Leros:“And so says Phocylides: 'the Lerians are
bad, not one, but every one, all except Procles; and Procles is a
Lerian.'
”335For the natives of the island were reproached with being unprincipled.
Strabo 10.5.[13] Nearby
are both Patmos and the Corassiae; these are situated to the west of
Icaria, and Icaria to the west of Samos. Now Icaria is deserted, though
it has pastures, which are used by the Samians. But although it is such
an isle as it is, still it is famous, and after it is named the sea
that lies in front of it, in which are itself and Samos and Cos and the
islands just mentioned—the Corassiae and Patmos and Leros. Famous,
also, is the mountain in it, Cerceteus, more famous than the Ampelus,336 which is situated above the city of Samians.337
The Icarian Sea connects with the Carpathian Sea on the south, and the
Carpathian with the Aegyptian, and on the west with the Cretan and the
Libyan.
Strabo 10.5.[14] In the
Carpathian Sea, also, are many of the Sporades, and in particular
between Cos and Rhodes and Crete. Among these are Astypalaea, Telos,
Chalcia, and those which Homer names in the Catalogue:“And those who held the islands Nisyros and Crapathos and Casos and Cos, the city of Eurypylus, and the Calydnian Islands;
”338339 for, excepting Cos and Rhodes, which I shall discuss later,340
I place them all among the Sporades, and in fact, even though they are
near Asia and not Europe, I make mention of them here because my
argument has somehow impelled me to include the Sporades with Crete and
the Cyclades. But in my geographical description of Asia I shall add a
description of such islands that lie close to it as are worthy of note,
Cyprus, Rhodes, Cos, and those that lie on the seaboard next
thereafter, Samos, Chios, Lesbos, and Tenedos. But now I shall traverse
the remainder of the Sporades that are worth mentioning.
Strabo 10.5.[15] Now Astypalaea
lies far out in the high sea and has a city. Telos extends alongside
Cnidia, is long, high, narrow, has a perimeter of about one hundred and
forty stadia, and has an anchoring-place. Chalcia is eighty stadia
distant from Telos, four hundred from Carpathos, about twice as far
from Astypalaea, and has also a settlement of the same name and a
temple of Apollo and a harbor.
Strabo 10.5.[16] Nisyros lies to
the north of Telos, and is about sixty stadia distant both from it and
from Cos. It is round and high and rocky, the rock being that of which
millstones are made; at any rate, the neighboring peoples are well
supplied with millstones from there. It has also a city of the same
name and a harbor and hot springs and a temple of Poseidon. Its
perimeter is eighty stadia. Close to it are also isles called Isles of
the Nisyrians. They say that Nisyros is a fragment of Cos, and they add
the myth that Poseidon, when he was pursuing one of the giants,
Polybotes, broke off a fragment of Cos with his trident and hurled it
upon him, and the missile became an island, Nisyros, with the giant
lying beneath it. But some say that he lies beneath Cos.
Strabo 10.5.[17] Carpathos, which
the poet calls Crapathos, is high, and has a circuit of two hundred
stadia. At first it was a Tetrapolis, and it had a renown which is
worth noting; and it was from this fact that the sea got the name
Carpathian. One of the cities was called Nisyros, the same name as that
of the island of the Nisyrians. It lies opposite Leuce Acte in Libya,
which is about one thousand stadia distant from Alexandreia and about
four thousand from Carpathos.
Strabo 10.5.[18] Casos is seventy
stadia from Carpathos, and two hundred and fifty from Cape Samonium in
Crete. It has a circuit of eighty stadia. In it there is also a city of
the same name, and round it are several islands called Islands of the
Casians.
Strabo 10.5.[19]They say that
the poet calls the Sporades "Calydnian Islands," one of which, they
say, is Calymna. But it is reasonable to suppose that, as the islands
which are near, and subject to, Nisyros and Casos are called "Islands
of the Nisyrians" and "Islands of the Casians," so also those which lie
round Calymna were called "Islands of the Calymnians"—Calymna at that
time, perhaps, being called Calydna. But some say that there are only
two Calydnian islands, Leros and Calymna, the two mentioned by the
poet. The Scepsian341
says that the name of the island was used in the plural, "Calymnae,"
like "Athenae" and "Thebae"; but, he adds, the words of the poet should
be interpreted as a case of hyperbaton, for he does not say, "Calydnian
Islands," but “those who held the islands Nisyros and Crapathos and
Casos and Cos, the city of Eurypylus, and Calydnae.”342
Now all the honey produced in the islands is, for the most part, good,
and rivals that of Attica, but the honey produced in the islands in
question is exceptionally good, and in particular the Calymnian.