SUMMARY.

The Tenth Book contains Ætolia and the neighbouring islands; also the whole of Crete, on which the author dwells some time in narrating the institutions of the islanders and of the Curetes. He describes at length the origin of the IdÆan Dactyli in Crete, their customs and religious rites. Strabo mentions the connexion of his own family with Crete. The Book contains an account of the numerous islands about Crete, including the Sporades and some of the Cyclades.

CHAPTER I.

1. Since Euboea537 stretches along the whole of this coast from Sunium to Thessaly, except the extremity on each side,538 it may be convenient to connect the description of this island with that of Thessaly. We shall then pass on to Ætolia and Acarnania, parts of Europe of which it remains to give an account.

2. The island is oblong, and extends nearly 1200 stadia from CenÆum539 to GerÆstus.540 Its greatest breadth is about 150 stadia, but it is irregular.541

CenÆum is opposite to ThermopylÆ, and in a small degree to the parts beyond ThermopylÆ: GerÆstus542 and Petalia543 are opposite to Sunium.

Euboea then fronts544 Attica, Boeotia, Locris, and the Malienses. From its narrowness, and its length, which we have mentioned, it was called by the ancients Macris.545

It approaches nearest to the continent at Chalcis. It projects with a convex bend towards the places in Boeotia near Aulis, and forms the Euripus,546 of which we have before spoken at length. We have also mentioned nearly all the places on either side of the Euripus, opposite to each other across the strait, both on the continent and on the island. If anything is omitted we shall now give a further explanation.

And first, the parts lying between Aulis (Chalcis?) and the places about GerÆstus are called the Hollows of Euboea, for the sea-coast swells into bays, and, as it approaches Chalcis, juts out again towards the continent.

3. The island had the name not of Macris only, but of Abantis also. The poet in speaking of Euboea never calls the inhabitants from the name of the island, Euboeans, but always Abantes;

Aristotle says that Thracians, taking their departure from Aba, the Phocian city, settled with the other inhabitants in the island, and gave the name of Abantes to those who already occupied it; other writers say that they had their name from a hero,548 as that of Euboea was derived from a heroine.549 But perhaps as a certain cave on the sea-coast fronting the [Pg 152]
[CAS. 445] Ægean Sea is called Boos-Aule, (or the Cow’s Stall,) where Io is said to have brought forth Epaphus, so the island may have had the name Euboea550 on this account.

It was also called OchÉ, which is the name of one of the largest mountains551 there.

It had the name of Ellopia, from Ellops, the son of Ion; according to others, he was the brother of Æclus, and Cothus, who is said to have founded Ellopia,552 a small place situated in the district called Oria of the HistiÆotis, near the mountain Telethrius.553 He also possessed HistiÆa, Perias, Cerinthus, Ædepsus,554 and OrobiÆ, where was an oracle very free from deception. There also was an oracle of Apollo Selinuntius.

The Ellopians, after the battle of Leuctra, were compelled by the tyrant Philistides to remove to the city HistiÆa, and augmented the number of its inhabitants. Demosthenes555 says that Philistides was appointed by Philip tyrant of the OreitÆ also, for afterwards the HistiÆans had that name, and the city, instead of HistiÆa, was called Oreus. According to some writers, HistiÆa was colonized by Athenians from the demus of the HistiÆeis, as Eretria was from the demus of the Eretrieis. But Theopompus says, that when Pericles had reduced Euboea, the HistiÆans agreed to remove into Macedonia, and that two thousand Athenians, who formerly composed the demus of the HistiÆans, came, and founded Oreus.556

4. It is situated below Mount Telethrius, at a place called Drymus, near the river Callas, on a lofty rock;557 whence perhaps because the Ellopians, the former inhabitants, were a mountain tribe,558 the city had the name of Oreus. Orion, who was brought up there, seems to have had his name from the place. But according to some writers, the OreitÆ, who had a city of their own, being attacked by the Ellopians, migrated, and settled with the HistiÆans, and although it was a single city it had both appellations, as LacedÆmon and Sparta were the same city. We have said, that the HistiÆotis in Thessaly had its name from the people who were carried away from this country by the PerrhÆbi.

5. As Ellopia induced us to commence our description with HistiÆa and Oreus, we shall proceed with the places continuous with these.

The promontory CenÆum is near Oreus, and on the promontory is situated Dium,559 and AthenÆ Diades, a town founded by Athenians, and overlooks the passage across the strait to Cynus. CanÆ in Æolia received colonists from Dium. These places are situated near HistiÆa, and besides these Cerinthus, a small city, close to the sea. Near it is a river Budorus, of the same name as the mountain in Salamis on the side of Attica.

6. Carystus560 lies at the foot of the mountain Oche, and near it are Styra561 and Marmarium,562 where is a quarry, from which are obtained the Carystian columns. It has a temple of Apollo Marmarinus, where there is a passage across to HalÆ-Araphenides. At Carystus there is found in the earth a stone,563 which is combed like wool, and woven, so that napkins are made of this substance, which, when soiled, are thrown into the fire, and cleaned, as in the washing of linen.564 These places are said to be inhabited by colonists from the Tetrapolis of Marathon, and by Steirieis. Styra was destroyed in the Maliac (Lamiac?) war by PhÆdrus, the general of the Athenians. But the Eretrians are in possession of the territory. There is also a Carystus in Laconia, a place belonging to Ægys, towards Arcadia; from whence comes the Carystian wine, spoken of by Alcman.

7. GerÆstus565 is not mentioned by Homer in the Catalogue of the Ships; it is however mentioned by him elsewhere;

[Pg 154]
[CAS. 447]

which shows, that the place being near Sunium lies conveniently for persons who cross from Asia to Attica. It has a temple of Neptune the most remarkable of any in that quarter, and a considerable number of inhabitants.

8. Next to GerÆstus is Eretria, which, after Chalcis, is the largest city in Euboea. Next follows Chalcis, the capital as it were of the island, situated immediately on the Euripus. Both these cities are said to have been founded by Athenians before the Trojan war; [but it is also said that] after the Trojan war, Æclus and Cothus took their departure from Athens; the former to found Eretria, and Cothus, Chalcis. A body of Æolians who belonged to the expedition of Penthilus remained in the island. Anciently, even Arabians567 settled there, who came over with Cadmus.

These cities, Eretria and Chalcis, when their population was greatly augmented, sent out considerable colonies to Macedonia, for Eretria founded cities about Pallene and Mount Athos; Chalcis founded some near Olynthus, which Philip destroyed. There are also many settlements in Italy and Sicily, founded by Chalcidians. These colonies were sent out, according to Aristotle,568 when the government of the HippobatÆ, (or Knights,) as it is called, was established; it was an aristocratical government, the heads of which held their office by virtue of the amount of their property. At the time that Alexander passed over into Asia, they enlarged the compass of the walls of their city, including within them Canethus,569 and the Euripus, and erected towers upon the bridge, a wall, and gates.

9. Above the city of the Chalcidians is the plain called Lelantum, in which are hot springs, adapted to the cure of diseases, and which were used by Cornelius Sylla, the Roman general. There was also an extraordinary mine which produced both copper and iron; such, writers say, is not to be found elsewhere. At present, however, both are exhausted.

The whole of Euboea is subject to earthquakes, especially the part near the strait. It is also exposed to violent subterraneous blasts, like Boeotia, and other places of which I have before spoken at length.570 The city of the same name as the island is said to have been swallowed up by an earthquake.571 It is mentioned by Æschylus in his tragedy of Glaucus Pontius;

“EuboÏs near the bending shore of Jupiter CenÆus, close to the tomb of the wretched Lichas.”

There is also in Ætolia a town of the name of Chalcis,

and another in the present Eleian territory;

speaking of Telemachus and his companions, when they left Nestor to return to their own country.

10. Some say, that the Eretrians were a colony from Macistus in Triphylia, under the conduct of Eretrieus; others, that they came from Eretria, in Attica, where now a market is held. There is an Eretria also near Pharsalus. In the Eretrian district there was a city, TamynÆ, sacred to Apollo. The temple (which was near the strait) is said to have been built by Admetus, whom the god, according to report, served a year574 for hire.

Eretria,575 formerly, had the names of MelaneÏs and Arotria. The village Amarynthus, at the distance of 7 stadia from the walls, belongs to it.

The Persians razed the ancient city, having enclosed with multitudes the inhabitants, according to the expression of Herodotus,576 in a net, by spreading the Barbarians around the walls. The foundations are still shown, and the place is called ancient Eretria. The present city is built near it.

The power which the Eretrians once possessed, is evinced by a pillar which was placed in the temple of Diana Amarynthia. There is an inscription on it to this effect, that their processions upon their public festivals consisted of three thousand heavy-armed soldiers, six hundred horsemen, and [Pg 156]
[CAS. 448] sixty chariots. They were masters, besides other islands, of Andros, Tenos, and Ceos. They received colonists from Elis, whence their frequent use of the letter R, (?,)577 not only at the end, but in the middle of words, which exposed them to the raillery of comic writers.

Œchalia,578 a village, the remains of a city destroyed by Hercules, belongs to the district of Eretria. It has the same name as that in Trachinia, as that near Tricca,579 as that in Arcadia, (which later writers call Andania,) and as that in Ætolia near the Eurytanes.

11. At present Chalcis580 is allowed, without dispute, to hold the first rank, and is called the capital of the Euboeans. Eretria holds the second place. Even in former times these cities had great influence both in war and peace, so that they afforded to philosophers an agreeable and tranquil retreat. A proof of this is the establishment at Eretria of the school of Eretrian philosophers, disciples of Menedemus; and at an earlier period the residence of Aristotle581 at Chalcis, where he also died.

12. These cities generally lived in harmony with each other, and when a dispute arose between them respecting Lelantum, they did not even then suspend all intercourse so as to act in war entirely without regard to each other, but they agreed upon certain conditions, on which the war was to be conducted. This appears by a column standing in the Amarynthium, which interdicts the use of missiles. [For with respect to warlike usages and armour, there neither is nor was any common usage; for some nations employ soldiers who use missile weapons, such as bows, slings, and javelins; others employ men who engage in close fight, and use a sword, or charge with a spear.582 For there are two methods of using the spear; one is to retain it in the hand; the other, to hurl it like a dart; the pike583 answers both purposes, for it is used in close encounter and is hurled to a distance. The sarissa and the hyssus are similarly made use of.]584

13. The Euboeans excelled in standing585 fight, which was also called close fight,586 and fight hand to hand.587 They used spears extended at length according to the words of the poet;

“warriors eager to break through breastplates with extended ashen spears.”588

The missile weapons were perhaps of different kinds, as, probably, was the ashen spear of Pelion, which, as the poet says,

When the poet says,

“I strike farther with a spear than any other person with an arrow,”590

he means with a missile spear. They, too, who engage in single combat, are first introduced as using missile spears, and then having recourse to swords. But they who engage in single combat do not use the sword only, but a spear also held in the hand, as the poet describes it,

“he wounded him with a polished spear, pointed with brass, and unbraced his limbs.”591

He represents the Euboeans as fighting in this manner; but he describes the Locrian mode as contrary to this;

“It was not their practice to engage in close fight, but they followed him to Ilium with their bows, clothed in the pliant fleece of the sheep.”592

An answer of an oracle is commonly repeated, which was returned to the Ægienses;

“a Thessalian horse, a LacedÆmonian woman, and the men who drink the water of the sacred Arethusa,”

meaning the Chalcideans as superior to all other people, for Arethusa belongs to them.

14. At present the rivers of Euboea are the Cereus and Neleus. The cattle which drink of the water of the former become white, and those that drink of the water of the latter become black. We have said that a similar effect is produced by the water of the Crathis.593

15. As some of the Euboeans, on their return from Troy, were driven out of their course among the Illyrians; pursued their journey homewards through Macedonia, and stopped in the neighbourhood of Edessa; having assisted the people in a war, who had received them hospitably; they founded a city,

[Pg 158]
[CAS. 450]

Euboea. There was a Euboea in Sicily, founded by the Chalcideans, who were settled there. It was destroyed by Gelon, and became a stronghold of the Syracusans. In Corcyra also, and at Lemnus, there was a place called Euboea, and a hill of this name in the Argive territory.

16. We have said, that Ætolians, Acarnanians, and Athamanes are situated to the west of the Thessalians and ŒtÆans, if indeed we must call the Athamanes,594 Greeks. It remains, in order that we may complete the description of Greece, to give some account of these people, of the islands which lie nearest to Greece, and are inhabited by Greeks, which we have not yet mentioned.

CHAPTER II.

1. Ætolians and Acarnanians border on one another, having between them the river Achelous,595 which flows from the north, and from Pindus towards the south, through the country of the AgrÆi, an Ætolian tribe, and of the Amphilochians.

Acarnanians occupy the western side of the river as far as the Ambracian Gulf,596 opposite to the Amphilochians, and the temple of Apollo Actius. Ætolians occupy the part towards the east as far as the Locri OzolÆ, Parnassus, and the ŒtÆans.

Amphilochians are situated above the Acarnanians in the interior towards the north; above the Amphilochians are situated Dolopes, and Mount Pindus; above the Ætolians are PerrhÆbi, Athamanes, and a body of the Ænianes who occupy Œta.

The southern side, as well the Acarnanian as the Ætolian, is washed by the sea, forming the Corinthian Gulf, into which the Achelous empties itself. This river (at its mouth) is the boundary of the Ætolian and the Acarnanian coast. The Achelous was formerly called Thoas. There is a river of this name near Dyme,597 as we have said, and another near Lamia.598 We have also said,599 that the mouth of this river is considered by some writers as the commencement of the Corinthian Gulf.

2. The cities of the Acarnanians are, Anactorium, situated upon a peninsula600 near Actium, and a mart of Nicopolis, which has been built in our time; Stratus,601 to which vessels sail up the Achelous, a distance of more than 200 stadia; and ŒniadÆ602 is also on the banks of the river. The ancient city is not inhabited, and lies at an equal distance from the sea and from Stratus. The present city is at the distance of 70 stadia above the mouth of the river.

There are also other cities, PalÆrus,603 Alyzia,604 Leucas,605 the Amphilochian Argos,606 and Ambracia:607 most of these, if not all, are dependent upon Nicopolis.

Stratus lies half-way between Alyzia and Anactorium.608

3. To the Ætolians belong both Calydon609 and Pleuron, which at present are in a reduced condition, but, anciently, these settlements were an ornament to Greece.

Ætolia was divided into two portions, one called the Old, the other the Epictetus (the Acquired). The Old comprised the sea-coast from the Achelous as far as Calydon, extending far into the inland parts, which are fertile, and consist of plains. Here are situated Stratus and Trichonium, which has an excellent soil. The Epictetus, that reaches close to the Locri in the direction of Naupactus610 and Eupalium,611 [Pg 160]
[CAS. 451] is a rugged and sterile tract, extending as far as ŒtÆa, to the territory of the Athamanes, and the mountains and nations following next in order, and which lie around towards the north.

4. There is in Ætolia a very large mountain, the Corax,612 which is contiguous to Œta. Among the other mountains, more in the middle of the country, is the Aracynthus,613 near which the founders built the modern Pleuron, having abandoned the ancient city situated near Calydon, which was in a fertile plain country, when Demetrius, surnamed Ætolicus, laid waste the district.

Above Molycreia614 are Taphiassus615 and Chalcis,616 mountains of considerable height, on which are situated the small cities, Macynia and Chalcis, (having the same name as the mountain,) or, as it is also called, Hypochalcis. Mount Curium is near the ancient Pleuron, from which some supposed the Pleuronii had the appellation of Curetes.

5. The river Evenus rises in the country of the Bomianses, a nation situated among the Ophienses, and an Ætolian tribe like the Eurytanes, AgrÆi, Curetes, and others. It does not flow, at its commencement, through the territory of the Curetes, which is the same as Pleuronia, but through the country more towards the east along Chalcis and Calydon; it then makes a bend backwards to the plains of the ancient Pleuron, and having changed its course to the west, turns again to the south, where it empties itself. It was formerly called Lycormas. There Nessus, who had the post of ferryman, is said to have been killed by Hercules for having attempted to force DeÏaneira while he was conveying her across the river.

6. The poet calls Olenus and Pylene Ætolian cities, the former of which, of the same name as the AchÆan city, was razed by the Æolians. It is near the new city Pleuron. The Acarnanians disputed the possession of the territory. They transferred Pylene to a higher situation, and changed its name to Proschium. Hellanicus was not at all acquainted with the history of these cities, but speaks of them as still existing in their ancient condition, but Macynia and Molycria, which were built subsequent to the return of the HeracleidÆ, he enumerates among ancient cities, and shows the greatest carelessness in almost every part of his work.

7. This, then, is the general account of the country of the Acarnanians and Ætolians. We must annex to this some description of the sea-coast and of the islands lying in front of it.

If we begin from the entrance of the Ambracian Gulf, the first place we meet with in Acarnania is Actium. The temple of Apollo Actius has the same name as the promontory, which forms the entrance of the Gulf, and has a harbour on the outside.

At the distance of 40 stadia from the temple is Anactorium, situated on the Gulf; and at the distance of 240 stadia is Leucas.617

8. This was, anciently, a peninsula belonging to the territory of the Acarnanians. The poet calls it the coast of Epirus, meaning by Epirus the country on the other side of Ithaca,618 and Cephallenia,619 which country is Acarnania; so that by the words of the poet,

we must understand the coast of Acarnania.

To Leucas also belonged Neritus, which Laertes said he took—

“as when I was chief of the Cephallenians, and took Nericus, a well-built city, on the coast of Epirus,”620

and the cities which he mentions in the Catalogue,

But the Corinthians who were despatched by Cypselus and Gorgus, obtained possession of this coast, and advanced as far as the Ambracian Gulf. Ambracia and Anactorium were both founded. They cut through the isthmus of the peninsula, converted Leucas into an island, transferred Neritus to the spot, which was once an isthmus, but is now a channel connected with the land by a bridge, and changed the name to Leucas from Leucatas, as I suppose, which is a white rock, projecting from Leucas into the sea towards Cephallenia, so that it might take its name from this circumstance.

[Pg 162]
[CAS. 452]

9. It has upon it the temple of Apollo Leucatas, and the Leap, which, it was thought, was a termination of love.

“Here Sappho first ’tis said,” (according to Menander,) “in pursuit of the haughty Phaon, and urged on by maddening desire, threw herself622 from the aerial rock, imploring Thee, Lord, and King.”

Menander then says that Sappho was the first who took the leap, but persons better acquainted with ancient accounts assert that it was Cephalus, who was in love with Pterelas, the son of DeÏoneus.623 It was also a custom of the country among the Leucadians at the annual sacrifice performed in honour of Apollo, to precipitate from the rock one of the condemned criminals, with a view to avert evil. Various kinds of wings were attached to him, and even birds were suspended from his body, to lighten by their fluttering the fall of the leap. Below many persons were stationed around in small fishing boats to receive, and to preserve his life, if possible, and to carry him beyond the boundaries of the country. The author of the AlcmÆonis says that Icarius, the father of Penelope, had two sons, Alyzeus, and Leucadius, who reigned after their father in Acarnania, whence Ephorus thinks that the cities were called after their names.

10. At present those are called Cephallenians who inhabit Cephallenia. But Homer calls all those under the command of Ulysses by this name, among whom are the Acarnanians; for when he says,

“Ulysses led the Cephallenians, those who possessed Ithaca, and Neritum, waving with woods,”624

(the remarkable mountain in this island; so also,

for Dulichium itself was one of the Echinades; and again,

when Buprasium is situated in Elis; and so,

when the latter places are in Euboea; so again,

and these also were Trojans): but after mentioning Neritum, he says,

“and they who inhabited Crocyleia and rocky Ægilips, Zacynthus, Samos, Epirus, and the country opposite to these islands;”629

he means by Epirus the country opposite to the islands, intending to include together with Leucas the rest of Acarnania, of which he says,

because the district of Epirus (the Epirotis) extended anciently perhaps as far as this place, and was designated by the common name Epirus.

The present Cephallenia he calls Samos, as when he says,

he makes a distinction between places of the same name by an epithet, assigning the name not to the city, but to the island. For the island contains four cities, one of which, called Samos, or Same, for it had either appellation, bore the same name as the island. But when the poet says,

“all the chiefs of the islands, Dulichium, Same, and the woody Zacynthus,”632

he is evidently enumerating the islands, and calls that Same which he had before called Samos.

But Apollodorus at one time says that the ambiguity is removed by the epithet, which the poet uses, when he says,

meaning the island; and at another time he pretends that we ought to write

and not

and evidently supposes that the city is called by either name, Samos or SamÉ, but the island by that of Samos only. That the city is called SamÉ is evident from the enumeration of the suitors from each city, where the poet says,

and from what is said about Ctimene,

[Pg 164]
[CAS. 454]

There is reason in this. For the poet does not express himself distinctly either about Cephallenia, or Ithaca, or the other neighbouring places, so that both historians and commentators differ from one another.

11. For instance, with respect to Ithaca, when the poet says,

“and they who possessed Ithaca, and Neritum with its waving woods,”635

he denotes by the epithet, that he means Neritum the mountain. In other passages he expressly mentions the mountain;

“I dwell at Ithaca, turned to the western sun; where is a mountain, Neritum, seen from afar with its waving woods;”636

but whether he means the city, or the island, is not clear, at least from this verse;

Any one would understand these words in their proper sense to mean the city, as we speak of Athens, Lycabettus, Rhodes, Atabyris, LacedÆmon, and Taygetus, but in a poetical sense the contrary is implied.

In the verses,

“I dwell at Ithaca, turned to the western sun, in which is a mountain Neritum,”

the meaning is plain, because the mountain is on the island and not in the city; and when he says,

it is uncertain whether he means that Neium was the same as Neritum, or whether it is another, either mountain or place. [He, who writes Nericum for Neritum, or the reverse, is quite mistaken. For the poet describes the former as “waving with woods;” the other as a “well-built city;” one in Ithaca, the other on the sea-beach of Epirus.]638

12. But this line seems to imply some contradiction;

for ??aa?? is low, and depressed, but pa??pe?t?t? expresses great height, as he describes it in other passages, calling it Cranae, (or rugged,) and the road leading from the harbour, as,

and again,

“for there is not any island in the sea exposed to the western sun,641 and with good pastures, least of all Ithaca.”642

The expression does imply contradictions, which admit however of some explanation. They do not understand ??aa?? to signify in that place “low,” but its contiguity to the continent, to which it approaches very close; nor by pa??pe?t?t? great elevation, but the farthest advance towards darkness, (p??? ??f??,) that is, placed towards the north more than all the other islands, for this is what the poet means by “towards darkness,” the contrary to which is towards the south, (p??? ??t??,)

For the word ??e??e denotes “at a distance,” and “apart,” as if the other islands lay to the south, and more distant from the continent, but Ithaca near the continent and towards the north. That the poet designates the southern part (of the heavens) in this manner appears from these words,

“whether they go to the right hand, towards the morning and the sun, or to the left, towards cloudy darkness;”644

and still more evidently in these lines,

“my friends, we know not where darkness nor where morning lie, nor where sets nor where rises the sun which brings light to man.”645

We may here understand the four climates,646 and suppose the morning to denote the southern part (of the heavens), and this has some probability; but it is better to consider what is near to the path of the sun to be opposite to the northern part (of the heavens). For the speech in Homer is intended to indicate some great change in the celestial appearances, not a mere obscuration of the climates. For this must happen [Pg 166]
[CAS. 455] during every cloudy season either by day or by night. Now the celestial appearances alter very much as we advance more or less towards the south, or the contrary; but this alteration does not prevent our observing the setting and rising of the sun, for in fine weather these phenomena are always visible whether in the south or the north. For the pole is the most northerly point: when this moves, and is sometimes over our heads and sometimes below the earth, the arctic circles change their position with it. Sometimes they disappear during these movements, so that you cannot discern the position of the northern climate, nor where it commences;647 and if this is so, neither can you distinguish the contrary climate.

The circuit of Ithaca is about 80648 stadia. So much then concerning Ithaca.

13. The poet does not mention Cephallenia, which contains four cities, by its present name, nor any of the cities except one, either SamÉ or Samos, which no longer exists, but traces of it are shown in the middle of the Strait near Ithaca. The inhabitants have the name of SamÆ. The rest still exist at present, they are small cities, Paleis, Pronesus, and Cranii. In our time Caius Antonius, the uncle of Marcus Antonius, founded an additional city, when (being an exile after his consulship in which he was the colleague of Cicero the orator) he lived at Cephallenia, and was master of the whole island, as if it had been his own property. He returned from exile before he completed the foundation of the settlement, and died when engaged in more important affairs.

14. Some writers do not hesitate to affirm, that Cephallenia and Dulichium are the same; others identify it with Taphos, and the Cephallenians with Taphians, and these again with TeleboÆ. They assert that Amphitryon, with the aid of Cephalus, the son of DeÏoneus, an exile from Athens, undertook an expedition against the island, and having got possession of it, delivered it up to Cephalus; hence this city bore his name, and the rest those of his children. But this is not in accordance with Homer, for the Cephallenians were subject to Ulysses and Laertes, and Taphos to Mentes;

Taphos is now called Taphius.650 Nor does Hellanicus follow Homer when he calls Cephallenia, Dulichium, for Dulichium, and the other Echinades, are said to be under the command of Meges, and the inhabitants, Epeii, who came from Elis; wherefore he calls Otus the Cyllenian,

Neither, as Andro asserts, is Cephallenia, according to Homer, Dulichium, nor does Dulichium belong to Cephallenia, for Epeii possessed Dulichium, and Cephallenians the whole of Cephallenia, the former of whom were under the command of Ulysses, the latter of Meges. Paleis is not called Dulichium by Homer, as Pherecydes says. But he who asserts that Cephallenia and Dulichium are the same contradicts most strongly the account of Homer; for as fifty-two of the suitors came from Dulichium, and twenty-four from SamÉ, would he not say, that from the whole island came such a number of suitors, and from a single city of the four came half the number within two? If any one should admit this, we shall inquire what the SamÉ could be, which is mentioned in this line,

15. Cephallenia is situated opposite to Acarnania, at the distance from Leucatas of about 50, or according to others, of 40 stadia, and from Chelonatas654 of about 80 stadia. It is about 300 stadia (1300?) in circumference. It extends in length towards the south-east (Eurus). It is mountainous; the largest mountain in it is the Ænus,655 on which is the temple of Jupiter Ænesius. Here is the narrowest part of the island, which forms a low isthmus, that is frequently overflowed from sea to sea.656 Cranii657 and Paleis658 are situated near the straits in the Gulf.

16. Between Ithaca and Cephallenia is the small island [Pg 168]
[CAS. 457] Asteria,659 or Asteris, as it is called by the poet, which, according to Demetrius, the Scepsian, does not remain in the state described by the poet,

“there are harbours in it, open on both sides, for the reception of vessels.”660

But Apollodorus says that it exists even at present, and mentions a small city in it, AlalcomenÆ, situated quite upon the isthmus.17. The poet also gives the name of Samos to Thracia, which we now call SamothracÉ. He was probably acquainted with the Ionian island, for he seems to have been acquainted with the Ionian migration. He would not, otherwise, have made a distinction between islands of the same names, for in speaking of Samothrace, he makes the distinction sometimes by the epithet,

sometimes by uniting it with the neighbouring islands,

and again,

He was therefore acquainted with the Ionian island, although he has not mentioned its name. Nor had it formerly always the same name, but was called Melamphylus, then Anthemis, then Parthenia, from the river Parthenius, the name of which was changed to Imbrasus. Since then both Cephallenia and SamothracÉ were called Samos664 at the time of the Trojan war, (for if it had not been so Hecuba would not have been introduced saying, that Achilles would sell any of her children that he could seize at Samos and Imbros,665) Ionian Samos was not yet colonized (by Ionians), which is evident from its having the same name from one of the islands earlier (called Samos), that had it before; whence this also is clear, that those persons contradict ancient history, who assert, that colonists came from Samos after the Ionian migration, and the arrival of Tembrion, and gave the name of Samos to SamothracÉ. The Samians invented this story out of vanity. Those are more entitled to credit, who say, that heights are called Sami,666 and that the island obtained its name from this circumstance, for from thence

But according to some writers, Samos had its name from the Saii, a Thracian tribe, who formerly inhabited it, and who occupied also the adjoining continent, whether they were the same people as the SapÆ, or the Sinti, whom the poet calls Sinties, or a different nation. Archilochus mentions the Saii;

“one of the Saii is exulting in the possession of an honourable shield, which I left against my will near a thicket.”

18. Of the islands subject to Ulysses there remains to be described Zacynthus.668 It verges a little more than Cephallenia to the west of Peloponnesus, but approaches closer to it. It is 160 stadia in circumference, and distant from Cephallenia about 60 stadia. It is woody, but fertile, and has a considerable city of the same name. Thence to the Hesperides belonging to Africa are 3300669 stadia.

19. To the east of this island, and of Cephallenia, are situated the Echinades670 islands; among which is Dulichium, at present called Dolicha, and the islands called OxeiÆ, to which the poet gives the name of ThoÆ.671

Dolicha is situated opposite to the ŒniadÆ, and the mouth of the Achelous: it is distant from Araxus,672 the promontory of Elis, 100 stadia. The rest of the Echinades are numerous, they are all barren and rocky, and lie in front of the mouth of the Achelous, the most remote of them at the distance of 15, the nearest at the distance of 5 stadia; they formerly were farther out at sea, but the accumulation of earth, which is brought down in great quantity by the Achelous, has already joined some, and will join others, to the continent. This accumulation of soil anciently formed the tract Paracheloitis, which the river overflows, a subject of contention, as it was continually confounding boundaries, which had been determined by the Acarnanians and the Ætolians. For want of arbitrators they decided their dispute by arms. The most [Pg 170]
[CAS. 458] powerful gained the victory. This gave occasion to a fable, how Hercules overcame the Achelous in fight, and received in marriage as the prize of his victory, DeÏaneira, daughter of Œneus. Sophocles introduces her, saying,

“My suitor was a river, I mean the Achelous, who demanded me of my father under three forms; one while coming as a bull of perfect form, another time as a spotted writhing serpent, at another with the body of a man and the forehead of a bull.”673

Some writers add, that this was the horn of Amaltheia, which Hercules broke off from the Achelous, and presented to Œneus as a bridal gift. Others, conjecturing the truth included in this story, say, that Achelous is reported to have resembled a bull, like other rivers, in the roar of their waters, and the bendings of their streams, which they term horns; and a serpent from its length and oblique course; and bull-fronted because it was compared to a bull’s head; and that Hercules, who, on other occasions, was disposed to perform acts of kindness for the public benefit, so particularly, when he was desirous of contracting an alliance with Œneus, performed for him these services; he prevented the river from overflowing its banks, by constructing mounds and by diverting its streams by canals, and by draining a large tract of the ParacheloÏtis, which had been injured by the river; and this is the horn of Amaltheia.

Homer says, that in the time of the Trojan war the Echinades, and the OxeiÆ were subject to Meges,

“son of the hero Phyleus, beloved of Jupiter, who formerly repaired to Dulichium on account of a quarrel with his father.”674

The father of Phyleus was Augeas, king of Elis, and of the Epeii. The Epeii then, who possessed these islands, were those who had migrated to Dulichium with Phyleus.

20. The islands of the Taphii, and formerly of the TeleboÆ, among which was Taphus, now called Taphius, were distinct from the Echinades, not separated by distance, (for they lie near one another,) but because they were ranged under different chiefs, Taphii and TeleboÆ. In earlier times Amphitryon, in conjunction with Cephalus, the son of DeÏoneus, an exile from Athens, attacked, and then delivered them up to the government of Cephalus. But the poet says that Mentes was their chief, and calls them robbers, which was the character of all the TeleboÆ.

So much then concerning the islands off Acarnania.

21. Between Leucas and the Ambracian gulf is a sea-lake, called Myrtuntium.675 Next to Leucas followed PalÆrus, and Alyzia, cities of Acarnania, of which Alyzia is distant from the sea 15 stadia. Opposite to it is a harbour sacred to Hercules, and a grove from whence a Roman governor transported to Rome “the labours of Hercules,” the workmanship of Lysippus, which was lying in an unsuitable place, being a deserted spot.676

Next are Crithote,677 a promontory, and the Echinades, and Astacus, used in the singular number, a city of the same name as that near Nicomedia, and the Gulf of Astacus, Crithote, a city of the same name as that in the Thracian Chersonesus. All the coast between these places has good harbours. Then follows ŒniadÆ, and the Achelous; then a lake belonging to the ŒniadÆ, called Melite, 30 stadia in length, and in breadth 20; then another Cynia, of double the breadth and length of Melite; a third Uria,678 much less than either of the former. Cynia even empties itself into the sea; the others are situated above it at the distance of about half a stadium.

Next is the river Evenus, which is distant from Actium 670 stadia.

Then follows the mountain Chalcis, which Artemidorus calls Chalcia; [next Pleuron, then Licyrna, a village, above which in the interior is situated Calydon at the distance of 30 stadia. Near Calydon is the temple of Apollo Laphrius;]679 then the mountain Taphiassus; then Macynia, a city; then Molycria, and near it Antirrhium, the boundary of Ætolia and of Locris. To Antirrhium from the Evenus are about 120 stadia.

Artemidorus does not place the mountain, whether Chalcis or Chalcia, between the Achelous and Pleuron, but Apollodorus, [Pg 172]
[CAS. 460] as I have said before, places Chalcis and Taphiassus above Molycria; and Calydon between Pleuron and Chalcis. Are we then to place one mountain of the name of Chalcia near Pleuron, and another of the name of Chalcis near Molycria?

Near Calydon is a large lake, abounding with fish. It belongs to the Romans of PatrÆ.

22. Apollodorus says, that there is in the inland parts of Acarnania, a tribe of ErysichÆi, mentioned by Aleman,

“not an ErysichÆan, nor a shepherd; but I came from the extremities of Sardis.”

Olenus belonged to Ætolia; Homer mentions it in the Ætolian Catalogue,680 but traces alone remain of it near Pleuron below Aracynthus.681

Lysimachia also was near Olenus. This place has disappeared. It was situated upon the lake, the present Lysimachia, formerly Hydra, between Pleuron and the city ArsinoË,682 formerly a village of the name of Conopa. It was founded by ArsinoË, wife and also sister of the second Ptolemy. It is conveniently situated above the passage across the Achelous.

Pylene has experienced nearly the same fate as Olenus.

When the poet describes Calydon683 as lofty, and rocky, we must understand these epithets as relating to the character of the country. For we have said before, that when they divided the country into two parts, they assigned the mountainous portion and the Epictetus684 to Calydon, and the tract of plains to Pleuron.

23. The Acarnanians, and the Ætolians, like many other nations, are at present worn out, and exhausted by continual wars. The Ætolians however, in conjunction with the Acarnanians, during a long period withstood the Macedonians and the other Greeks, and lastly the Romans, in their contest for independence.

But since Homer, and others, both poets and historians, frequently mention them, sometimes in clear and undisputed terms, and sometimes less explicitly, as appears from what we have already said of these people, we must avail ourselves of some of the more ancient accounts, which will supply us with a beginning, or with an occasion of inquiring into what is controverted.

24. First then with respect to Acarnania. We have already said, that it was occupied by Laertes and the Cephallenians; but as many writers have advanced statements respecting the first occupants in terms sufficiently clear, indeed, but contradictory, the inquiry and discussion are left open to us.

They say, that the Taphii and TeleboÆ, as they are called, were the first inhabitants of Acarnania, and that their chief, Cephalus, who was appointed by Amphitryon sovereign of the islands about Taphus, was master also of this country. Hence is related of him the fable, that he was the first person who took the reputed leap from Leucatas. But the poet does not say, that the Taphii inhabited Acarnania before the arrival of the Cephallenians and Laertes, but that they were friends of the Ithacenses; consequently, in his time, either they had not the entire command of these places, or had voluntarily retired, or had even become joint settlers.

A colony of certain from LacedÆmon seems to have settled in Acarnania, who were followers of Icarius, father of Penelope, for the poet in the Odyssey represents him and the brothers of Penelope as then living;

“who did not dare to go to the palace of Icarius with a view of his disposing of his daughter in marriage.”685

And with respect to the brothers;

“for now a long time both her father and her brothers were urging her to marry Eurymachus.”686

Nor is it probable that they were living at LacedÆmon, for Telemachus would not, in that case, have been the guest of Menelaus upon his arrival, nor is there a tradition, that they had any other habitation. But they say that Tyndareus and his brother Icarius, after being banished from their own country by Hippocoon, repaired to Thestius, the king of the Pleuronii, and assisted in obtaining possession of a large tract of country on the other side of the Achelous on condition of receiving a portion of it; that Tyndareus, having espoused Leda the daughter of Thestius, returned home; that Icarius continued there in possession of a portion of Acarnania, and had Penelope and her brothers by his wife Polycasta, daughter of LygÆus.

[Pg 174]
[CAS. 461]

We have shown by the Catalogue of the Ships in Homer, that the Acarnanians were enumerated among the people who took part in the war of Troy; and among these are reckoned the inhabitants of the ActÉ, and besides these,

But Epirus was never called Acarnania, nor ActÉ, Leucas.

25. Ephorus does not say that they took part in the expedition against Troy; but he says that AlcmÆon, the son of Amphiaraus, who was the companion of Diomede, and the other Epigoni in their expedition, having brought the war against the Thebans to a successful issue, went with Diomede to assist in punishing the enemies of Œneus, and having delivered up Ætolia to Diomede, he himself passed over into Acarnania, which country also he subdued. In the mean time Agamemnon attacked the Argives, and easily overcame them, the greatest part having attached themselves to the followers of Diomede. But a short time afterwards, when the expedition took place against Troy, he was afraid, lest, in his absence with the army, Diomede and his troops should return home, (for there was a rumour that he had collected a large force,) and should regain possession of a territory to which they had the best right, one being the heir of Adrastus, the other of his father. Reflecting then on these circumstances, he invited them to unite in the recovery of Argos, and to take part in the war. Diomede consented to take part in the expedition, but AlcmÆon was indignant and refused; whence the Acarnanians were the only people who did not participate in the expedition with the Greeks. The Acarnanians, probably by following this account, are said to have imposed upon the Romans, and to have obtained from them the privilege of an independent state, because they alone had not taken part in the expedition against the ancestors of the Romans, for their names are neither in the Ætolian Catalogue, nor are they mentioned by themselves, nor is their name mentioned anywhere in the poem.

26. Ephorus then having represented Acarnania as subject to AlcmÆon before the Trojan war, ascribes to him the foundation of Amphilochian Argos, and says that Acarnania had its name from his son Acarnan, and the Amphilochians from his brother Amphilochus; thus he turns aside to reports contrary to the history in Homer. But Thucydides and other writers say, that Amphilochus, on his return from the Trojan expedition, being displeased with the state of affairs at Argos, dwelt in this country; according to some writers, he obtained it by succeeding to the dominions of his brother; others represent it differently. So much then respecting the Acarnanians considered by themselves. We shall now speak of their affairs where they are intermixed in common with those of the Ætolians, and we shall then relate as much of the history of the Ætolians as we proposed to add to our former account of this people.

CHAPTER III.

1. Some writers reckon the Curetes among the Acarnanians, others among the Ætolians; some allege that they came from Crete, others that they came from Euboea. Since, however, they are mentioned by Homer, we must first examine his account of them. It is thought that he does not mean the Acarnanians, but the Ætolians, in the following verses, for the sons of Porthaon were,

both of which are Ætolian cities, and are mentioned in the Ætolian Catalogue; wherefore since those who inhabited Pleuron appear to be, according to Homer, Curetes, they might be Ætolians. The opponents of this conclusion are misled by the mode of expression in these verses,

for neither would he have used appropriate terms if he had said,

nor

But we have shown in a former part of this work, that this mode of expression is usual with Homer, and even trite among other poets. This objection then is easily answered. But let the objectors explain, how, if these people were not Ætolians, [Pg 176]
[CAS. 463] the poet came to reckon the Pleuronii among the Ætolians.

2. Ephorus, after having asserted that the nation of the Ætolians were never in subjection to any other people, but, from all times of which any memorial remains, their country continued exempt from the ravages of war, both on account of its local obstacles and their own experience in warfare, says, that from the beginning Curetes were in possession of the whole country, but on the arrival of Ætolus, the son of Endymion, from Elis, who defeated them in various battles, the Curetes retreated to the present Acarnania, and the Ætolians returned with a body of Epeii, and founded ten of the most ancient cities in Ætolia; and in the tenth generation afterwards Elis was founded, in conjunction with that people, by Oxylus, the son of HÆmon, who had passed over from Ætolia. They produce, as proofs of these facts, inscriptions, one sculptured on the base of the statue of Ætolus at Therma in Ætolia, where, according to the custom of the country, they assemble to elect their magistrates;

“this statue of Ætolus, son of Endymion, brought up near the streams of the Alpheius, and in the neighbourhood of the stadia of Olympia, Ætolians dedicated as a public monument of his merits.”

And the other inscription on the statue of Oxylus is in the market-place of Elis;

“Ætolus, having formerly abandoned the original inhabitants of this country, won by the toils of war the land of the Curetes. But Oxylus, the son of HÆmon, the tenth scion of that race, founded this ancient city.”

3. He rightly alleges, as a proof of the affinity subsisting reciprocally between the Eleii and the Ætolians, these inscriptions, both of which recognise not the affinity alone, but also that their founders had established settlers in each other’s country. Whence he clearly convicts those of falsehood who assert, that the Eleii were a colony of Ætolians, and that the Ætolians were not a colony of Eleii. But he seems to exhibit the same inconsistency in his positions here, that we proved689 with regard to the oracle at Delphi. For after asserting that Ætolia had never been ravaged by war from all time of which there was any memorial, and saying, that from the first the Curetes were in possession of this country, he ought to have inferred from such premises, that the Curetes continued to occupy the country of Ætolia to his days. For in this manner it might be understood never to have been devastated, nor in subjection to any other nation. But forgetting his position, he does not infer this, but the contrary, that Ætolus came from Elis, and having defeated the Curetes in various battles, these people retreated into Acarnania. What else then is there peculiar to the devastation of a country than the defeat of the inhabitants in war and their abandonment of their land, which is evinced by the inscription among the Eleii; for speaking of Ætolus the words are,

“he obtained possession of the country of the Curetes by the continued toils of war.”

4. But perhaps some person may say, that he means Ætolia was not laid waste, reckoning from the time that it had this name after the arrival of Ætolus; but he takes away the ground of this supposition, by saying afterwards, that the greatest part of the people, that remained among the Ætolians, were those called Epeii, with whom Ætolians were afterwards intermingled, who had been expelled from Thessaly together with Boeotians, and possessed the country in common with these people. But is it probable that, without any hostilities, they invaded the country of another nation and divided it among themselves and the original possessors, who did not require such a partition of their land? If this is not probable, is it to be believed that the victors agreed to an equal division of the territory? What else then is devastation of a country, but the conquest of it by arms? Besides, Apollodorus says that, according to history, the Hyantes abandoned Boeotia and came and settled among the Ætolians, and concludes as confident that his opinion is right by saying it is our custom to relate these and similar facts exactly, whenever any of them is altogether dubious, or concerning which erroneous opinions are entertained.

5. Notwithstanding these faults in Ephorus, still he is superior to other writers. Polybius himself, who has studiously given him so much praise, has said that Eudoxus has written well on Grecian affairs, but that Ephorus has given the best account of the foundation of cities, of the relationship subsisting between nations, of changes of settlements, and of leaders of colonies, in these words, “but I shall explain the [Pg 178]
[CAS. 465] present state of places, both as to position and distances; for this is the peculiar province of chorography.”690

But you, Polybius, who introduce popular hearsay, and rumours on the subject of distances, not only of places beyond Greece, but in Greece itself, have you not been called to answer the charges sometimes of Posidonius, sometimes of Artemidorus, and of many other writers? ought you not therefore to excuse us, and not to be offended, if in transferring into our own work a large part of the historical poets from such writers we commit some errors, and to commend us when we are generally more exact in what we say than others, or supply what they omitted through want of information.

6. With respect to the Curetes, some facts are related which belong more immediately, some more remotely, to the history of the Ætolians and Acarnanians. The facts more immediately relating to them, are those which have been mentioned before, as that the Curetes were living in the country which is now called Ætolia, and that a body of Ætolians under the command of Ætolus came there, and drove them into Acarnania; and these facts besides, that Æolians invaded Pleuronia, which was inhabited by Curetes, and called Curetis, took away their territory, and expelled the possessors.

But Archemachus691 of Euboea says that the Curetes had their settlement at Chalcis, but being continually at war about the plain Lelantum, and finding that the enemy used to seize and drag them by the hair of the forehead, they wore their hair long behind, and cut the hair short in front, whence they had the name of Curetes, (or the shorn,) from cura, (?????,) or the tonsure which they had undergone; that they removed to Ætolia, and occupied the places about Pleuron; that others, who lived on the other side of the Achelous, because they kept their heads unshorn, were called Acarnanians.692

But according to some writers each tribe derived its name from some hero;693 according to others, that they had the name of Curetes from the mountain Curium,694 which is situated above Pleuron, and that this is an Ætolian tribe, like the Ophieis, AgrÆi, Eurytanes, and many others.

But, as we have before said, when Ætolia was divided into two parts, the country about Calydon was said to be in the possession of Œneus; and a portion of Pleuronia in that of the PorthaonidÆ of the branch of Agrius,695 for

Thestius however, father-in-law of Œneus, and father of AlthÆa, chief of the Curetes, was master of Pleuronia. But when war broke out between the ThestiadÆ, Œneus, and Meleager about a boar’s head and skin, according to the poet,697 following the fable concerning the boar of Calydon, but, as is probable, the dispute related to a portion of the territory; the words are these,

These then are the facts more immediately connected (with geography).

7. There699 are others more remote from the subject of this [Pg 180]
[CAS. 466] work, which have been erroneously placed by historians under one head on account of the sameness of name: for instance, accounts relating to “Curetic affairs” and “concerning the Curetes” have been considered as identical with accounts “concerning the people (of the same name) who inhabited Ætolia and Acarnania.” But the former differ from the latter, and resemble rather the accounts which we have of Satyri and Silenes, BacchÆ and Tityri; for the Curetes are represented as certain dÆmons, or ministers of the gods, by those who have handed down the traditions respecting Cretan and Phrygian affairs, and which involve certain religious rites, some mystical, others the contrary, relative to the nurture of Jupiter in Crete; the celebration of orgies in honour of the mother of the gods, in Phrygia, and in the neighbourhood of the Trojan Ida. There is however a very great variety700 in these accounts. According to some, the Corybantes, Cabeiri, IdÆan Dactyli, and Telchines are represented as the same persons as the Curetes; according to others, they are related to, yet distinguished from, each other by some slight differences; but to describe them in general terms and more at length, they are inspired with an enthusiastic and Bacchic frenzy, which is exhibited by them as ministers at the celebration of the sacred rites, by inspiring terror with armed dances, accompanied with the tumult and noise of cymbals, drums, and armour, and with the sound of pipes and shouting; so that these sacred ceremonies are nearly the same as those that are performed among the Samothracians in Lemnus, and in many other places; since the ministers of the god are said to be the same.701 The whole of this kind of discussion is of a theological nature, and is not alien to the contemplation of the philosopher.

8. But since even the historians, through the similarity of the name Curetes, have collected into one body a mass of dissimilar facts, I myself do not hesitate to speak of them at length by way of digression, adding the physical considerations which belong to the history.702 Some writers however endeavour to reconcile one account with the other, and perhaps they have some degree of probability in their favour. They say, for instance, that the people about Ætolia have the name of Curetes from wearing long dresses like girls, (???a?,) and that there was, among the Greeks, a fondness for some such fashion. The Ionians also were called “tunic-trailers,”703 and the soldiers of Leonidas,704 who went out to battle with their hair dressed, were despised by the Persians, but subjects of their admiration in the contest. In short, the application of art to the hair consists in attending to its growth, and the manner of cutting it,705 and both these are the peculiar care of girls and youths;706 whence in several ways it is easy to find a derivation of the name Curetes. It is also probable, that the practice of armed dances, first introduced by persons who paid so much attention to their hair and their dress, and who were called Curetes, afforded a pretence for men more warlike than others, and who passed their lives in arms, to be themselves called by the same name of Curetes, I mean those in Euboea, Ætolia, and Acarnania. Homer also gives this name to the young soldiers;

“selecting Curetes, the bravest of the AchÆans, to carry from the swift ship, presents, which, yesterday, we promised to Achilles.”707

[Pg 182]
[CAS. 467]

And again;

So much then on the subject of the etymology of the name Curetes. [The dance in armour is a military dance; this is shown by the Pyrrhic dance and by Pyrrichus, who, it is said, invented this kind of exercise for youths, to prepare them for military service.]709

9. We are now to consider how the names of these people agree together, and the theology, which is contained in their history.

Now this is common both to the Greeks and the Barbarians, to perform their religious ceremonies with the observance of a festival, and a relaxation from labour; some are performed with enthusiasm, others without any emotion; some accompanied with music, others without music; some in mysterious privacy, others publicly; and these are the dictates of nature.710 For relaxation from labour withdraws the thoughts from human occupations, and directs the reflecting mind to the divinity: enthusiasm seems to be attended with a certain divine inspiration, and to approach the prophetic character; the mystical concealment of the sacred rites excites veneration for the divinity, and imitates his nature, which shuns human senses and perception; music also, accompanied with the dance, rhythm, and song, for the same reason brings us near the deity by the pleasure which it excites, and by the charms of art. For it has been justly said, that men resemble the gods chiefly in doing good, but it may be said more properly, when they are happy; and this happiness consists in rejoicing, in festivals, in philosophy, and in music.711 For let not the art be blamed, if it should sometimes be abused by the musician employing it to excite voluptuousness in convivial meetings at banquets, on the stage, or under other circumstances, but let the nature of the institutions which are founded on it be examined.712

10. Hence Plato, and, before his time, the Pythagoreans, called music philosophy. They maintained that the world subsisted by harmony, and considered every kind of music to be the work of the gods. It is thus that the muses are regarded as deities, and Apollo has the name of President of the Muses, and all poetry divine, as being conversant about the praises of the gods. Thus also they ascribe to music the formation of manners, as everything which refines the mind approximates to the power of the gods.

The greater part of the Greeks attribute to Bacchus, Apollo, Hecate, the Muses, and Ceres, everything connected with orgies and Bacchanalian rites, dances, and the mysteries attended upon initiation. They call also Bacchus, Dionysus, and the chief DÆmon of the mysteries of Ceres.713 The carrying about of branches of trees, dances, and initiations are common to the worship of these gods. But with respect to Apollo and the Muses, the latter preside over choirs of singers and dancers; the former presides both over these and divination. All persons instructed in science, and particularly those who have cultivated music, are ministers of the Muses; these and also all who are engaged in divination are ministers of Apollo. Those of Ceres, are the MystÆ, torch-bearers and Hierophants; of Dionysus, Seileni, Satyri, Tityri, BacchÆ, LenÆ, ThyiÆ, Mimallones, NaÏdes, and NymphÆ, as they are called.

11. But in Crete both these, and the sacred rites of Jupiter in particular, were celebrated with the performance of orgies, and by ministers, like the Satyri, who are employed in the worship of Dionysus. These were called Curetes, certain youths who executed military movements in armour, accompanied with dancing, exhibiting the fable of the birth of Jupiter, in which Saturn was introduced, whose custom it was to devour his children immediately after their birth; Rhea attempts to conceal the pains of childbirth, and to remove the new-born infant out of sight, using her utmost endeavours to preserve it. [Pg 184]
[CAS. 468] In this she has the assistance of the Curetes who surround the goddess, and by the noise of drums and other similar sounds, by dancing in armour and by tumult, endeavour to strike terror into Saturn, and escape notice whilst removing his child. The child is then delivered into their hands to be brought up with the same care by which he was rescued. The Curetes therefore obtained this appellation, either because they were boys (?????), or because they educated Jupiter in his youth (?????t??fe??), for there are two explanations, inasmuch as they acted the same part with respect to Jupiter as the Satyri (with respect to Dionysus). Such then is the worship of the Greeks, as far as relates to the celebration of orgies.

12. But the Berecyntes, a tribe of Phrygians, the Phrygians in general, and the Trojans, who live about Mount Ida, themselves also worship Rhea, and perform orgies in her honour; they call her mother of gods, Agdistis, and Phrygia,714 the Great Goddess; from the places also where she is worshipped, IdÆa, and Dindymene,715 Sipylene,716 Pessinuntis,717 and Cybele.718 The Greeks call her ministers by the same name Curetes, not that they follow the same mythology, but they mean a different kind of persons, a sort of agents analogous to the Satyri. These same ministers are also called by them Corybantes.

13. We have the testimony of the poets in favour of these opinions. Pindar, in the Dithyrambus, which begins in this manner;

“formerly the dithyrambus used to creep upon the ground, long and trailing.”

After mentioning the hymns, both ancient and modern, in honour of Bacchus, he makes a digression, and says,

“for thee, O Mother, resound the large circles of the cymbals, and the ringing crotala; for thee, blaze the torches of the yellow pine;”

where he combines with one another the rites celebrated among the Greeks in honour of Dionysus with those performed among the Phrygians in honour of the mother of the gods. Euripides, in the BacchÆ, does the same thing, conjoining, from the proximity of the countries,719 Lydian and Phrygian customs.

“Then forsaking Tmolus, the rampart of Lydia, my maidens, my pride, [whom I took from among barbarians and made the partners and companions of my way, raise on high the tambourine of Phrygia, the tambourine of the great mother Rhea,] my invention.

“Blest and happy he who, initiated into the sacred rites of the gods, leads a pure life; who celebrating the orgies of the Great Mother Cybele, who brandishing on high the thyrsus and with ivy crowned, becomes Dionysus’ worshipper. Haste, Bacchanalians, haste, and bring Bromius Dionysus down from the Phrygian mountains to the wide plains of Greece.”

And again, in what follows, he combines with these the Cretan rites.

“Hail, sacred haunt of the Curetes, and divine inhabitants of Crete, progenitors of Jove, where for me the triple-crested Corybantes in their caves invented this skin-stretched circle [of the tambourine], who mingled with Bacchic strains the sweet breath of harmony from Phrygian pipes, and placed in Rhea’s hands this instrument which re-echoes to the joyous shouts of Bacchanalians; from the Mother Rhea the frantic Satyri succeeded in obtaining it, and introduced it into the dances of the Trieterides, among whom Dionysus delights to dwell.”720

[Pg 186]
[CAS. 479]

And the chorus in Palamedes says,

“Not revelling with Dionysus, who together with his mother was cheered with the resounding drums along the tops of Ida.”

14. Conjoining then Seilenus, Marsyas, and Olympus, and ascribing to them the invention of the flute, they thus again combine Dionysiac and Phrygian rites, frequently confounding Ida and Olympus,721 and making them re-echo with their noise, as if they were the same mountain. There are four peaks of Ida called Olympi, opposite Antandros.722 There is also a Mysian Olympus, bordering upon Ida, but not the same mountain. Sophocles represents Menelaus in the Polyxena as setting sail in haste from Troy, and Agamemnon as wishing to remain behind a short time, with a view to propitiate Minerva. He introduces Menelaus as saying,

15. They invented terms appropriate to the sounds of the pipe, of the crotala, cymbals, and drums; to the noise also of shouts; to the cries of Evoe; and to the beating of the ground with the feet. They invented certain well-known names also to designate the ministers, dancers, and servants employed about the sacred rites, as Cabeiri, Corybantes, Pans, Satyri, Tityri, the god Bacchus; Rhea, Cybele, Cybebe, and Dindymene, from the places where she was worshipped. [The god] Sabazius belongs to the Phrygian rites, and may be considered the child as it were of the [Great] Mother. The traditional ceremonies observed in his worship are those of Bacchus.724

16. The rites called Cotytia, and Bendideia,725 celebrated among the Thracians, resemble these. The Orphic ceremonies had their origin among these people. Æschylus mentions the goddess Cotys, and the instruments used in her worship among the Edoni.726 For after saying,

immediately introduces the followers of Dionysus,

“one holding the bombyces, the admirable work of the turner, with the fingers makes the loud notes resound, exciting frenzy; another makes the brass-bound cotylÆ to re-echo.”

And in another passage;

“The song of victory is poured forth; invisible mimes low and bellow from time to time like bulls, inspiring fear, and the echo of the drum rolls along like the noise of subterranean thunder;”727

for these are like the Phrygian ceremonies, nor is it at all improbable that, as the Phrygians themselves are a colony of Thracians, so they brought from Thrace their sacred ceremonies, and by joining together Dionysus and the Edonian Lycurgus they intimate a similarity in the mode of the worship of both.

17. From the song, the rhythm, and the instruments, all Thracian music is supposed to be Asiatic. This is evident also from the places where the Muses are held in honour. For Pieria, Olympus, Pimpla, and Leibethrum were anciently places, and mountains, belonging to the Thracians, but at present they are in the possession of the Macedonians. The Thracians, who were settled in Boeotia, dedicated Helicon to the Muses, and consecrated the cave of the Nymphs, Leibethriades. The cultivators of ancient music are said to have been Thracians, as Orpheus, MusÆus, Thamyris; hence also Eumolpus had his name. Those who regard the whole of Asia as far as India as consecrated to Bacchus, refer to that country as the origin of a great portion of the present music. One author speaks of “striking forcibly the Asiatic cithara:” another calls the pipes Berecynthian and Phrygian. [Pg 188]
[CAS. 471] Some of the instruments also have barbarous names, as Nablas, Sambyce,728 Barbitus,729 Magadis,730 and many others.

18. As in other things the Athenians always showed their admiration of foreign customs, so they displayed it in what respected the gods. They adopted many foreign sacred ceremonies, particularly those of Thrace and Phrygia; for which they were ridiculed in comedies. Plato mentions the Bendidean, and Demosthenes the Phrygian rites, where he is exposing Æschines and his mother to the scorn of the people; the former for having been present when his mother was sacrificing, and for frequently joining the band of Bacchanalians in celebrating their festivals, and shouting, EvoÏ, SaboÏ, Hyes Attes, and Attes Hyes, for these cries belong to the rites of Sabazius and the Great Mother.

19. But there may be discovered respecting these dÆmons, and the variety of their names, that they were not called ministers only of the gods, but themselves were called gods. For Hesiod says that Hecaterus and the daughter of Phoroneus had five daughters,

The author of the Phoronis calls the Curetes, players upon the pipe, and Phrygians; others call them “earth-born, and wearing brazen shields.” Another author terms the Corybantes, and not the Curetes, Phrygians, and the Curetes, Cretans. Brazen shields were first worn in Euboea, whence the people had the name of Chalcidenses.731 Others say, that the Corybantes who came from Bactriana, or, according to some writers, from the Colchi, were given to Rhea, as a band of armed ministers, by Titan. But in the Cretan history the Curetes are called nurses and guardians of Jove, and are described as having been sent for from Phrygia to Crete by Rhea. According to other writers, there were nine Telchines in Rhodes, who accompanied Rhea to Crete, and from nursing732 Jupiter had the name of Curetes;733 that Corybus, one of their party, was the founder of Hierapytna, and furnished the

Prasians734 in Rhodes with the pretext for saying that Corybantes were certain dÆmons, children of Minerva and the sun. By others, the Corybantes are represented to be the children of Saturn; by others, of Jupiter and Calliope, or to be the same persons as the Cabeiri; that they went away735 to Samothrace,736 which was formerly called Melite; but their lives and actions are mysterious.

20. The Scepsian (Demetrius) who has collected fabulous stories of this kind, does not receive this account because no mysterious tradition about the Cabeiri is preserved in Samothrace, yet he gives the opinion of Stesimbrotus of Thasus, to the effect that the sacred rites in Samothrace were celebrated in honour of the Cabeiri.737 Demetrius, however, says that they had their name from Cabeirus, the mountain in Berecynthia. According to others, the Curetes were the same as the Corybantes, and were ministers of Hecate.

The Scepsian says in another place, in contradiction to Euripides, that it is not the custom in Crete to pay divine honours to Rhea, and that these rites were not established there, but in Phrygia only, and in the Troad, and that they who affirm the contrary are mythologists rather than historians; and were probably misled by an identity of name, for Ida is a mountain both in the Troad and in Crete; and Dicte is a spot in the Scepsian territory, and a mountain in Crete.738 Pytna is a peak of Ida, (and a mountain in Crete,) whence the city Hierapytna has its name. There is Hippocorona in the territory of Adramyttium, and Hippocoronium739 in Crete. Samonium also is the eastern promontory of the island, and a plain in the Neandris,740 and in the territory of the Alexandrians (Alexandria Troas).

21. But Acusilaus, the Argive, mentions a Camillus, the [Pg 190]
[CAS. 473] son of Cabeira and Vulcan; who had three sons, Cabeiri, (and three daughters,) the Nymphs Cabeirides.741

According to Pherecydes, there sprung from Apollo and Rhetia nine Corybantes, who lived in Samothrace; that from Cabeira, the daughter of Proteus and Vulcan, there were three Cabeiri, and three Nymphs, Cabeirides, and that each had their own sacred rites. But it was at Lemnos and Imbros that the Cabeiri were more especially the objects of divine worship, and in some of the cities of the Troad; their names are mystical.

Herodotus742 mentions, that there were at Memphis temples of the Cabeiri as well as of Vulcan, which were destroyed by Cambyses. The places where these dÆmons received divine honours are uninhabited, as Corybantium in the territory Hamaxitia belonging to the country of the Alexandrians, near Sminthium;743 and Corybissa in the Scepsian territory about the river EureÏs, and a village of the same name, and the winter torrent ÆthaloeÏs.744

The Scepsian says, that it is probable that the Curetes and Corybantes are the same persons, who as youths and boys were employed to perform the armed dance in the worship of the mother of the gods. They were called Corybantes745 from their dancing gait, and butting with their head (????pt??ta?); by the poet they were called ?t????e?,

“Come hither, you who are the best skilled Betarmones among the PhÆacians.”746

Because the Corybantes are dancers, and are frantic, we call those persons by this name whose movements are furious.

22. Some writers say that the first inhabitants of the country at the foot of Mount Ida were called IdÆan Dactyli, for the country below mountains is called the foot, and the summits of mountains their heads; so the separate extremities of Ida (and all are sacred to the mother of the gods) are called IdÆan Dactyli.747

But Sophocles748 supposes, that the first five were males, who discovered and forged iron,749 and many other things which were useful for the purposes of life; that these persons had five sisters, and from their number had the name of Dactyli.750 Different persons however relate these fables differently, connecting one uncertainty with another. They differ both with respect to the numbers and the names of these persons; some of whom they call Celmis, and Damnameneus, and Hercules, and Acmon, who, according to some writers, were natives of Ida, according to others, were settlers, but all agree that they were the first workers in iron, and upon Mount Ida. All writers suppose them to have been magicians, attendants upon the mother of the gods, and to have lived in Phrygia about Mount Ida. They call the Troad Phrygia, because, after the devastation of Troy, the neighbouring Phrygians became masters of the country. It is also supposed that the Curetes and the Corybantes were descendants of the IdÆan Dactyli, and that they gave the name of IdÆan Dactyli to the first hundred persons who were born in Crete; that from these descended nine Curetes, each of whom had ten children, who were called IdÆan Dactyli.751

23. Although we are not fond of fabulous stories, yet we have expatiated upon these, because they belong to subjects of a theological nature.

All discussion respecting the gods requires an examination of ancient opinions, and of fables, since the ancients expressed enigmatically their physical notions concerning the nature of things, and always intermixed fable with their discoveries. It is not easy therefore to solve these enigmas exactly, but if we lay before the reader a multitude of fabulous tales, some consistent with each other, others which are contradictory, we [Pg 192]
[CAS. 474] may thus with less difficulty form conjectures about the truth. For example, mythologists probably represented the ministers of the gods, and the gods themselves, as coursing over the mountains, and their enthusiastic behaviour, for the same reason that they considered the gods to be celestial beings, and to exercise a providential care over all things, and especially over signs and presages. Mining, hunting, and a search after things useful for the purposes of life, appeared to have a relation to this coursing over the mountains, but juggling and magic to be connected with enthusiastic behaviour, religious rites, and divination. Of such a nature, and connected in particular with the improvement of the arts of life, were the Dionysiac and Orphic arts. But enough of this subject.

CHAPTER IV.

1. Having described the islands about the Peloponnesus, and other islands also, some of which are upon, and others in front of, the Corinthian Gulf, we are next to speak of Crete,752 (for it belongs to the Peloponnesus,) and the islands near Crete, among which are the Cyclades and the Sporades. Some of these are worthy of notice, others are inconsiderable.

2. At present we are to speak first of Crete.

According to Eudoxus, it is situated in the ÆgÆan sea, but he ought not to have described its situation in that manner, but have said, that it lies between Cyrenaica and the part of Greece comprehended between Sunium and Laconia,753 extending in length in the direction from west to east, and parallel to these countries;754 that it is washed on the north by the ÆgÆan and Cretan seas, and on the south by the African, which joins the Ægyptian sea.

The western extremity of the island is near Phalasarna;755 its breadth is about 200 stadia, and divided into two promontories; of which the southern is called Criu-Metopon, (or Ram’s head,) and that on the north, Cimarus.756 The eastern promontory is Samonium,757 which does not stretch much further towards the east than Sunium.758

3. Sosicrates, who, according to Apollodorus, had an exact knowledge of this island, determines its length (not?)759 to exceed 2300 stadia, and its breadth (about 300),760 so that according to Sosicrates the circuit of the island is not more than 5000 stadia, but Artemidorus makes it 4100. Hieronymus [Pg 194]
[CAS. 475] says, that its length is 2000 stadia, and its breadth irregular, and that the circuit would exceed the number of stadia assigned by Artemidorus. Throughout one-third of its length, (beginning from the western parts, the island is of a tolerable width).761 Then there is an isthmus of about 100 stadia, on the northern shore of which is a settlement, called Amphimalla;762 on the southern shore is Phoenix,763 belonging to the Lampeis.

The greatest breadth is in the middle of the island.

Here again the shores approach, and form an isthmus narrower than the former, of about 60 stadia in extent, reckoning from Minoa,764 in the district of the Lyctii,765 to Therapytna,766 and the African sea. The city is on the bay. The shores then terminate in a pointed promontory, the Samonium, looking towards Ægypt and the islands of the Rhodians.767

4. The island is mountainous and woody, but has fertile valleys.

The mountains towards the west are called Leuca, or the White Mountains,768 not inferior in height to the Taÿgetum,769 and extending in length about 300 stadia. They form a ridge, which terminates at the narrow parts (the isthmus). In the middle of the island, in the widest part, is (Ida),770 the highest of the mountains there. Its compass is about 600 stadia. It is surrounded by the principal cities. There are other mountains equal in height to the White Mountains, some of which terminate on the south, others towards the east.

5. From the CyrenÆan771 territory to Criu-metopon772 is a voyage of two days and nights. From Cimarus [to Malea] are 700 stadia.773 In the midway is Cythera.774 From the promontory Samonium775 to Ægypt a ship sails in four days and nights, but, according to other writers, in three. Some say that it is a voyage of 5000 stadia; others, of still less than this. According to Eratosthenes, the distance from CyrenaÏca to Criu-Metopon is 2000 stadia, and thence to Peloponnesus less than [1000].776

6. One language is intermixed with another, says the poet; there are in Crete,

“AchÆi, the brave Eteocretans, Cydones, Dorians divided into three bands,777 and the divine Pelasgi.”778

Of these people, says Staphylus, the Dorians occupy the eastern parts of the island, Cydonians the western, Eteocretans the southern, to whom Prasus, a small town, belonged, where is the temple of the DictÆan Jupiter; the other nations, being more powerful, inhabited the plains. It is probable that the Eteocretans779 and Cydonians were aboriginal inhabitants, and that the others were foreigners, who Andron says came from Thessaly, formerly called Doris, but now HestiÆotis, from which country he says the Dorians, who were settled about Parnassus, migrated, and founded Erineum, Boeum, and Cytinium, whence they are called by the poet TrichaÏces, or tripartite. But the account of Andron is not generally admitted, who represents the Tetrapolis Doris as composed of three cities, and the metropolis of the Dorians as a colony of Thessalians. The epithet TrichaÏces780 is understood to be derived either from their wearing a triple crest,781 or from having crests of hair.782

7. There are many cities in Crete, but the largest and most distinguished are Cnossus,783 Gortyna,784 Cydonia.785 Both Homer and later writers celebrate Cnossus(11) above the rest, [Pg 196]
[CAS. 476] calling it vast, and the palace of Minos. It maintained its pre-eminence for a long period. It afterwards lost its ascendency, and was deprived of many of its customs and privileges. The superiority was transferred to Gortyna and Lyctus.786 But it afterwards recovered its ancient rank of the capital city. Cnossus lies in a plain, with its ancient circumference of 30 stadia, between the Lyctian and Gortynian territory; [distant] 200 stadia from Gortyna, and from Lyttus 120, which the poet787 calls Lyctus. Cnossus is at the distance of 25 stadia from the northern sea; Gortyna 90, and Lyctus 80, stadia from the African sea. Cnossus has a marine arsenal, Heracleium.788

8. Minos, it is said, used as an arsenal Amnisus,789 where is a temple of Eileithyia. Cnossus formerly had the name of CÆratus, which is the name of the river790 which runs beside it.

Minos791 is regarded as an excellent legislator, and the first who possessed the sovereignty of the sea. He divided the island into three portions, in each of which he built a city; Cnossus * * * * * * *,792 opposite to Peloponnesus, which lies toward the north.

According to Ephorus, Minos was an imitator of Rhadamanthus, an ancient personage, and a most just man. He had the same name as his brother, who appears to have been the first to civilize the island by laws and institutions, by founding cities, and by establishing forms of government. He pretended to receive from Jupiter the decrees which he promulgated. It was probably in imitation of Rhadamanthus that Minos went up to the cave of Jupiter, at intervals of nine years, and brought from thence a set of ordinances, which he said were the commands of Jove; for which reason the poet thus expresses himself;

“There reigned Minos, who every ninth year conversed with the great Jupiter.”793

Such is the statement of Ephorus; the ancients on the other hand give a different account, and say that he was tyrannical and violent, and an exactor of tribute, and speak in the strain of tragedy about the Minotaur, the Labyrinth, and the adventures of Theseus and DÆdalus.

9. It is difficult to determine which is right. There is another story also not generally received; some persons affirming that Minos was a foreigner, others that he was a native of the island. Homer seems to support the latter opinion, when he says, that

“Minos, the guardian of Crete, was the first offspring of Jupiter.”794

It is generally admitted with regard to Crete that in ancient times it was governed by good laws, and induced the wisest of the Greeks to imitate its form of government, and particularly the LacedÆmonians, as Plato shows in his “Laws,” and Ephorus has described in his work “Europe.” Afterwards there was a change in the government, and for the most part for the worse. For the Tyrrheni, who chiefly infested our sea, were followed by the Cretans, who succeeded to the haunts and piratical practices of the former people, and these again afterwards were subject to the devastations of the Cilicians. But the Romans destroyed them all after the conquest of Crete,795 and demolished the piratical strongholds of the Cilicians. At present Cnossus has even a colony of Romans.

10. So much then respecting Cnossus, a city to which I am no stranger; but owing to the condition of human affairs, their vicissitudes and accidents, the connexion and intercourse that subsisted between ourselves and the city is at an end. Which may be thus explained. DorylaÜs, a military tactician, a friend of Mithridates Euergetes, was appointed, on account of his experience in military affairs, to levy a body of foreigners, and was frequently in Greece and Thrace, and often in the company of persons who came from Crete, before the Romans were in possession of the island. A great multitude of mercenary soldiers was collected there, from whom [Pg 198]
[CAS. 478] even the bands of pirates were recruited. During the stay of DorylaÜs in the island, a war happened to break out between the Cnossians and the Gortynians. He was appointed general by the Cnossians, and having finished the war speedily and successfully, he obtained the highest honours. A short time afterwards, being informed that Euergetes had been treacherously put to death by his courtiers at Sinope, and that he was succeeded in the government by his wife and children, he abandoned everything there, remained at Cnossus, and married a Macedonian woman of the name of Sterope, by whom he had two sons, Lagetas and Stratarchas, (the latter I myself saw when in extreme old age,) and one daughter. Of the two sons of Euergetes, he who was surnamed Eupator succeeded to the throne when he was eleven years of age; DorylaÜs, the son of PhiletÆrus, was his foster-brother. PhiletÆrus was the brother of DorylaÜs the Tactician. The king had been so much pleased with his intimacy with DorylaÜs when they lived together as children, that on attaining manhood he not only promoted DorylaÜs to the highest honours, but extended his regard to his relations and sent for them from Cnossus. At this time Lagetas and his brother had lost their father, and were themselves grown up to manhood. They quitted Cnossus, and came to Mithridates. My mother’s mother was the daughter of Lagetas. While he enjoyed prosperity, they also prospered; but upon his downfall (for he was detected in attempting to transfer the kingdom to the Romans with a view to his own appointment to the sovereignty) the affairs of Cnossus were involved in his ruin and disgrace; and all intercourse with the Cnossians, who themselves had experienced innumerable vicissitudes of fortune, was suspended.

So much then respecting Cnossus.

11. After Cnossus, the city Gortyna seems to have held the second place in rank and power. For when these cities acted in concert they held in subjection all the rest of the inhabitants, and when they were at variance there was discord throughout the island; and whichever party Cydonia espoused, to them she was a most important accession.

The city of the Gortynians lies in a plain, and was perhaps anciently protected by a wall, as Homer also intimates,

it lost afterwards its walls, which were destroyed from their foundation, and it has remained ever since without walls; for Ptolemy Philopator, who began to build a wall, proceeded with it to the distance only of about 8 stadia. Formerly the building occupied a considerable compass, extending nearly 50 stadia. It is distant from the African sea, and from Leben its mart, 90 stadia. It has also another arsenal, Matalum.797 It is distant from that 130 stadia. The river LethÆus798 flows through the whole of the city.

12. Leucocomas and Euxynthetus his erastes (or lover), whom Theophrastus mentions in his discourse on Love, were natives of Leben.799 One of the tasks enjoined Euxynthetus by Leucocomas was this, according to Theophrastus, to bring him his dog from Prasus.800 The Prasii border upon the Lebenii at the distance of 60 stadia from the sea, and from Gortyn 180. We have said that Prasus was subject to the Eteocretans, and that the temple of the DictÆan Jupiter was there. For Dicte801 is near; not, as Aratus802 alleges, near Ida; since Dicte is distant 1000 stadia from Mount Ida, and situated at that distance from it towards the rising sun; and 100 stadia from the promontory Samonium. Prasus was situated between the promontory Samonium, and the Cherrhonesus, at the distance of 60 stadia from the sea. It was razed by the Hierapytnii. He says, too, that Callimachus803 is not right in asserting that Britomartis, in her escape from the violence offered by Minos, leaped from Dicte among the nets of the fishermen (d??t?a), and that hence she had the name of Dictynna from the CydoniatÆ, and the mountain that of [Pg 200]
[CAS. 479] Dicte. For Cydonia is not at all situated in the neighbourhood of these places, but lies at the western extremity of the island. The mountain Tityrus804 belongs to the Cydonian territory; upon it is situated a temple, not called DictÆan, but DictynnÆan.

13. Cydonia is situated on the sea, fronting Laconia, at an equal distance from both Cnossus and Gortyn, about 800 stadia, and from Aptera 80, and from the sea in this quarter 40 stadia. Cisamus805 is the naval arsenal of Aptera.806 The Polyrrhenii border upon the CydoniatÆ towards the west; in their territory is the temple of Dictynna. They are at the distance of about 30 stadia from the sea, and 60 from Phalasarna. Formerly they lived in villages; then AchÆans and Laconians settled there together, and fortified with a wall a strong site fronting the south.

14. Of the three cities founded by Minos, the last, which was PhÆstus,807 was razed by the Gortynians; it was at the distance of 60 stadia from Gortyn, 20 from the sea, and from Matalum, the arsenal, 40 stadia. They who razed the city possess the territory. Rhytium also together with PhÆstus belongs to the Gortynians,

Epimenides, who performed lustrations by the means of his poetry, is said to have been a native of PhÆstus. Olyssa (Lisses?) also belonged to the territory of PhÆstus.

Cherrhonesus,809 as it is called, is the arsenal of Lyttus or (Lyctus), which we have before mentioned; on the former is the temple of Britomartis.

Miletus and Lycastus, the cities which were enumerated together with Lyctus, no longer exist; but the territory, after they had razed the city (Lyctus), was partitioned among Lyctians and Cnossians.

15. As the poet in one place speaks of Crete as having a hundred, and in another ninety, cities, Ephorus says, that ten were founded in later times after the Trojan war by the Dorians, who accompanied AlthÆmenes the Argive, and that hence Ulysses speaks of its ninety cities. This account is probable. But others say, that the ten were razed by the enemies of Idomeneus; but the poet does not say that Crete had a hundred cities at the time of the Trojan war, but in his own age, for he speaks in his own person; but if the words had been those of some person then living, as those in the Odyssey, where Ulysses says, Crete had ninety cities, they might have been properly understood in this manner. But even if we admit this, the subsequent verses will not be exempt from objection. For neither at the time of the expedition, nor after the return of Idomeneus, is it probable that these cities were destroyed by his enemies, for the poet says,

“but Idomeneus brought back all his companions who had survived the war to Crete; the sea had not deprived him of any of them;”810

for he would have mentioned such a misfortune. Ulysses indeed might not have been acquainted with the destruction of these cities, for he had not had any intercourse with any of the Greeks either during or after his wanderings; but (Nestor), who had been the companion of Idomeneus in the expedition and in his escape from shipwreck, could not be ignorant of what had happened at home during the expedition and before his return. But he must certainly have been aware of what occurred after his return. For if he and all his companions escaped, he returned so powerful that their enemies were not in a position to deprive them of ten cities.

Such then is the general description of the country of Crete.

16. With respect to the form of government, which Ephorus has described at large, it will be sufficient to give a cursory account of the principal parts. The law-giver, says Ephorus, seems to lay, as the foundation of his constitution, the greatest good that states can enjoy, namely, liberty; for it is this alone which makes the property of every kind which a man possesses his own; in a state of slavery it belongs to the governor, and not to the governed. The liberty also which men enjoy must be guarded. Unanimity ensues, when the dissensions that arise from covetousness and luxury811 are [Pg 202]
[CAS. 481] removed. Now where all live temperately and frugally, neither envy, nor injuries, nor hatred have place among equals. Whence the young were enjoined to repair to the AgelÆ, and those of mature age to assemble at the Syssitia, or common meals, called Andreia, in order that the poorer sort, who were fed at the public charge, might partake of the same fare as the rich.

With a view that courage, and not fear, should predominate, they were accustomed from childhood to the use of arms, and to endure fatigue. Hence they disregarded heat and cold, rugged and steep roads, blows received in gymnastic exercises and in set battles.

They practised archery, and the dance in armour, which the Curetes first invented, and was afterwards perfected by Pyrrhichus, and called after him Pyrrhiche. Hence even their sports were not without their use in their training for war. With the same intention they used the Cretan measures in their songs; the tones of these measures are extremely loud; they were invented by Thales, to whom are ascribed the pÆans and other native songs and many of their usages. They adopted a military dress also, and shoes, and considered armour as the most valuable of all presents.

17. Some, he says, alleged that many of the institutions supposed to be Cretan were of LacedÆmonian origin; but the truth is, they were invented by the former, but perfected by the Spartans. The Cretans, when their cities, and particularly Cnossus, were ravaged, neglected military affairs, but some usages were more observed by the Lyttii and Gortynii, and some other small cities, than by the Cnossians. Those persons, who maintain the priority of the Laconian institutions, adduce as evidence of this those of the Lyttii, because as colonists they would retain the customs of the parent state. Otherwise, it would be absurd for those, who lived under a better form of constitution and government, to be imitators of a worse. But this is not correct. For we ought not to form conjectures respecting the ancient from the present state of things, for each has undergone contrary changes. The Cretans were formerly powerful at sea, so that it was a proverbial saying addressed to those who pretended to be ignorant of what they knew, “a Cretan, and not know the sea;” but at present they have abandoned nautical affairs.

Nor did it follow necessarily that, because there were some cities in Crete colonized by Spartans, they should continue to observe Spartan usages, since many of the cities of colonists do not preserve the customs of the mother country; and there are many cities in Crete, the inhabitants of which are not colonists, and yet have the same usages as those that have received colonies.

18. Lycurgus, the Spartan legislator, he says, was five generations later than AlthÆmenes, who conducted the colony into Crete. He is said by historians to have been the son of Cissus, who founded Argos812 about the same time that Procles was engaged in establishing a colony at Sparta. It is also generally admitted that Lycurgus was the sixth in descent from Procles.813 Copies do not precede the models, nor modern precede ancient things. The usual kind of dancing practised among the LacedÆmonians, the measures, and the pÆans sung according to a certain mood, and many other usages, are called among them Cretan, as if they came from Crete. But among the ancient customs, those relative to the administration of the state have the same designations as in Crete,814 as the council of Gerontes815 and that of the Knights,816 except that in Crete the knights had horses; whence it is conjectured, that the council of Knights in Crete is more ancient, since the origin of the appellation is preserved. But the Spartan knight did not keep a horse. They who perform the same functions as the Cosmi in Crete, have the different title of Ephori [in Sparta]. The Syssitia, or common meal, is even at present called Andreia among the Cretans; but among the Spartans they did not continue to call it by its former name, as it is found in the poet Alcman;

“In festivals and in joyous assemblies of the Andreia, it is fit to begin the pÆan in honour of the guests.”

19. The occasion of the journey of Lycurgus to Crete is said by the inhabitants to be as follows. The elder brother of Lycurgus was Polydectes, who, at his death, left his wife pregnant. Lycurgus reigned in place of his brother till the [Pg 204]
[CAS. 483] birth of a son. He then became the guardian of the child, who was heir to the kingdom. Some one said to him insultingly, he was sure Lycurgus would be king. Suspecting that by this speech he might be accused of contriving a plot against the child, and fearing that, if the child should die by any accident, his enemies might impute its death to him, he departed to Crete. This is said to have been the cause of his journey. Upon his arrival in Crete he became acquainted with Thales, the lyric poet and legislator. He learnt from this person the plan adopted by Rhadamanthus in former times, and afterwards by Minos in promulgating their laws, so as to procure a belief that they proceeded from Jupiter. He was also in Ægypt, and obtained information respecting the laws and customs of that country.817 According to some writers, he met at Chios with Homer, who was living there, and then returned to his own country, where he found Charilaus, the son of his brother Polydectes, upon the throne. He then began to frame laws, repairing to the god at Delphi, and bringing thence ordinances, as Minos brought his from the cave of Jupiter.818 The greater part of these ordinances were similar to those of Minos.

20. The following are the principal of the laws of Crete, which Ephorus has given in detail.

All the Cretans, who are selected at the same time from the troop (?????) of youths, are compelled to marry at once. They do not however take the young women whom they have married immediately to their homes, until they are qualified to administer household affairs.

The woman’s dower, if she has brothers, is half of the brother’s portion.

The children are taught to read, to chaunt songs taken from the laws, and some kinds of music.

While they are still very young they are taken to the Syssitia, called Andreia. They sit on the ground, eating their food together, dressed in mean garments, which are not changed in winter or summer. They wait upon themselves and on the men. Both those of the same and those of different messes have battles with one another. A trainer of boys presides over each Andreion. As they grow older they are formed into (????a?) or troops of youths. The most illustrious and powerful of the youths form AgelÆ, each individual assembling together as many as he can collect. The governor of the troop is generally the father of the youth who has assembled them together, and has the power of taking them to hunt and to exercise themselves in running, and of punishing the disobedient. They are maintained at the public charge.

On certain set days troop encounters troop, marching in time to the sound of the pipe and lyre, as is their custom in actual war. They inflict blows, some with the hand, and some even with iron weapons.

21. They have a peculiar custom with respect to their attachments. They do not influence the objects of their love by persuasion, but have recourse to violent abduction. The lover apprizes the friends of the youth, three or more days beforehand, of his intention to carry off the object of his affection. It is reckoned a most base act to conceal the youth, or not to permit him to walk about as usual, since it would be an acknowledgment that the youth was unworthy of such a lover. But if they are informed that the ravisher is equal or superior in rank, or other circumstances, to the youth, they pursue and oppose the former slightly, merely in conformity with the custom. They then willingly allow him to carry off the youth. If however he is an unworthy person, they take the youth from him. This show of resistance does not end, till the youth is received into the Andreium to which the ravisher belongs. They do not regard as an object of affection a youth exceedingly handsome, but him who is distinguished for courage and modesty. The lover makes the youth presents, and takes him away to whatever place he likes. The persons present at the abduction accompany them, and having passed two months in feasting, and in the chase, (for it is not permitted to detain the youth longer,) they return to the city. The youth is dismissed with presents, which consist of a military dress, an ox, and a drinking cup; the last are prescribed by law, and besides these many other very costly gifts, so that the friends contribute each their share in order to diminish the expense.

The youth sacrifices the ox to Jupiter, and entertains at a feast those who came down with him from the mountains. He then declares concerning the intercourse with the lover, [Pg 206]
[CAS. 484] whether it took place with his consent or not, since the law allows him, if any violence is used in the abduction, to insist upon redress, and set him free from his engagement with the lover. But for the beautiful and high-born not to have lovers is disgraceful, since this neglect would be attributed to a bad disposition.

The parastathentes, for this is the name which they give to those youths who have been carried away, enjoy certain honours. At races and at festivals they have the principal places. They are permitted to wear the stole, which distinguishes them from other persons, and which has been presented to them by their lovers; and not only at that time, but in mature age, they appear in a distinctive dress, by which each individual is recognised as Kleinos, for this name is given to the object of their attachment, and that of Philetor to the lover.

These then are the usages respecting attachments.

22. They elect ten Archons. On matters of highest moment they have recourse to the counsel of the Gerontes, as they are called. They admit into this council those who have been thought worthy of the office of Cosmi, and who were otherwise persons of tried worth.

I considered the form of government among the Cretans as worthy of description, on account both of its peculiarity and its fame. Few of these institutions are now in existence, and the administration of affairs is chiefly conducted according to the orders of the Romans, as is the case also in their other provinces.

CHAPTER V.

1. The islands about Crete are Thera,819 the capital of the CyrenÆans, and a colony of the LacedÆmonians; and near Thera is Anaphe,820 in which is the temple of Apollo Ægletes. Callimachus speaks of it in one place, thus,

and in another, he mentions Thera only,

Thera is a long island, about 200 stadia in circumference. It lies opposite to the island Dia,821 towards the Cnossian Heracleium. It is distant about 700 stadia from Crete. Near it are Anaphe and Therasia.822 The little island Ios823 is distant from the latter about 100 stadia. Here according to some authors the poet Homer was buried.824 In going from Ios towards the west are Sicenus825 and Lagusa,826 and Pholegandrus,827 which Aratus calls the iron island, on account of its rocks. Near these islands is Cimolus,828 whence is obtained the Cimolian earth. From Cimolus Siphnus829 is visible. To this island is applied the proverb, “a Siphnian bone (astragalus),” on account of its insignificance. Still nearer, both to Cimolus and Crete, is Melos,830 more considerable than these. It is distant from the Hermionic promontory, the ScyllÆum,831 700 stadia, and nearly as many from the DictynnÆan promontory. The Athenians formerly despatched an army to Melos,832 and put to death the inhabitants from youth upwards.

These islands are situated in the Cretan sea. Delos,833 the Cyclades about it, and the Sporades adjacent to these, belong rather to the ÆgÆan sea. To the Sporades also are to be referred the islands about Crete, which I have already mentioned.

2. The city of Delos is in a plain. Delos contains the temple of Apollo, and the Latoum, or temple of Latona. The Cynthus,834 a naked and rugged mountain, overhangs the city. [Pg 208]
[CAS. 485] The Inopus,835 not a large river, for the island is small, flows through it. Anciently, even from the heroic times, this island has been held in veneration on account of the divinities worshipped here. Here, according to the fable, Latona was relieved from the pains of labour, and gave birth to Apollo and Diana.

“Before this time,” (says Pindar,836) “Delos was carried about by the waves, and by winds blowing from every quarter, but when the daughter of Coeus set her foot upon it, who was then suffering the sharp pangs of approaching childbirth, at that instant four upright columns, resting on adamant, sprang from the depths of the earth and retained it fast on the rugged rock; there she brought forth, and beheld her happy offspring.”

The islands lying about it, called Cyclades, gave it celebrity, since they were in the habit of sending at the public charge, as a testimony of respect, sacred delegates, (Theori,) sacrifices, and bands of virgins; they also repaired thither in great multitudes to celebrate festivals.837

3. Originally, there were said to be twelve Cyclades, but many others were added to them. Artemidorus enumerates (fifteen?) where he is speaking of the island Helena,838 and of which he says that it extends from Thoricus839 to Sunium,840 and is about 60 stadia in length; it is from this island, he says, the Cyclades, as they are called, begin. He names Ceos,841 as the nearest island to Helena, and next to this Cythnus, Seriphus,842 Melos, Siphnus, Cimolus, Prepesinthus,843 Oliarus,844 and besides these Paros,845 Naxos,846 Syros,847 Myconus,848 Tenos,849 Andros,850 Gyarus.851 The rest I consider as belonging to the Twelve, but not Prepesinthus, Oliarus, and Gyarus. When I put in at the latter island I found a small village inhabited by fishermen. When we left it we took in a fisherman, deputed from the inhabitants to go to CÆsar, who was at Corinth on his way to celebrate his triumph after the victory at Actium.852 He told his fellow-passengers, that he was deputed to apply for an abatement of the tribute, for they were required to pay 150 drachmÆ, when it was with difficulty they could pay 100.

Aratus,853 in his Details, intimates how poor they were;

“O Latona, thou art shortly going to pass by me [an insignificant island] like to the iron-bound Pholegandrus, or to unhappy Gyarus.

4. Although Delos854 was so famous, yet it became still more so, and flourished after the destruction of Corinth by the Romans.855 For the merchants resorted thither, induced by the immunities of the temple, and the convenience of its harbour. It lies favourably856 for those who are sailing from Italy and Greece to Asia. The general festival held there serves the purposes of commerce, and the Romans particularly frequented it even before the destruction of Corinth.857 The Athenians, after having taken the island, paid equal attention to the affairs both of religion and of commerce. But the generals858 of Mithridates, and the tyrant,859 who had occasioned the defection of (Athens from the Romans), ravaged it entirely. The Romans received the island in a desolate state on the departure of the king to his own country; and it has continued in an impoverished condition to the present time.860 The Athenians are now in possession of it.

5. Rheneia861 is a small desert island 4 stadia from Delos, where are the sepulchral monuments of the Delians. For it is not permitted to bury the dead in Delos, nor to burn a [Pg 210]
[CAS. 486] dead body there. It is not permitted even to keep a dog in Delos.

Formerly it had the name of Ortygia.862

6. Ceos863 once contained four cities. Two remain, Iulis and CarthÆ, to which the inhabitants of the others were transferred; those of PoeËessa to CarthÆ, and those of Coressia to Iulis. Simonides the lyric poet, and Bacchylides his nephew, and after their times Erasistratus the physician, and Ariston the Peripatetic philosopher, the imitator of Bion,864 the Borysthenite, were natives of this city.

There was an ancient law among these people, mentioned by Menander.

“Phanias, that is a good law of the Ceans; who cannot live comfortably (or well), let him not live miserably (or ill).”865

For the law, it seems, ordained that those above sixty years old should be compelled to drink hemlock, in order that there might be sufficient food for the rest. It is said that once when they were besieged by the Athenians, a decree was passed to the effect that the oldest persons, fixing the age, should be put to death, and that the besiegers retired in consequence.

The city lies on a mountain, at a distance from the sea of about 25 stadia. Its arsenal is the place on which Coressia was built, which does not contain the population even of a village. Near the Coressian territory and PoeËessa is a temple of Apollo Sminthius. But between the temple and the ruins of PoeËessa is the temple of Minerva Nedusia, built by Nestor, on his return from Troy. The river Elixus runs around the territory of Coressia.

7. After Ceos are Naxos866 and Andros,867 considerable islands, and Paros, the birth-place of the poet Archilochus. Thasos868 was founded by Parians, and Parium,869 a city in the Propontis. In this last place there is said to be an altar worthy of notice, each of whose sides is a stadium in length.

In Paros is obtained the Parian marble, the best adapted for statuary work.870

8. Here also is Syros, (the first syllable is long,) where Pherecydes the son of Babys was born. The Athenian Pherecydes is younger than the latter person. The poet seems to have mentioned this island under the name of Syria;

9. Myconus872 is an island beneath which, according to the mythologists, lie the last of the giants, destroyed by Hercules; whence the proverb, “all under one Myconus,” applied to persons who collect under one title things that are disjoined by nature. Some also call bald persons Miconians, because baldness is frequent among the inhabitants of the island.873

10. Seriphos874 is the island where is laid the scene of the fable of Dictys, who drew to land in his net the chest in which were enclosed Perseus and his mother DanaË, who were thrown into the sea by order of Acrisius, the father of DanaË. There it is said Perseus was brought up, and to this island he brought the head of the Gorgon; he exhibited it to the Seriphians, and turned them all into stone. This he did to avenge the wrongs of his mother, because their king Polydectes, with the assistance of his subjects, desired to make her his wife by force. Seriphus abounds so much with rocks, that they say in jest that it was the work of the Gorgon.

11. Tenos875 has a small city, but there is, in a grove beyond it, a large temple of Neptune worthy of notice. It contains large banqueting rooms, a proof of the great multitudes that repair thither from the neighbouring places to celebrate a feast, and to perform a common sacrifice in honour of Neptune.

12. To the Sporades belongs Amorgos,876 the birth-place of [Pg 212]
[CAS. 488] Simonides, the Iambic poet; Lebinthus877 also, and Leria (Leros).878 Phocylides refers to Leria in these lines;

“the Lerians are bad, not some, but all, except Procles; but Procles is a Lerian;”

for the Lerians are reputed to have bad dispositions.

13. Near these islands are Patmos,879 and the CorassiÆ880 islands, situated to the west of Icaria,881 as the latter is with respect to Samos.

Icaria has no inhabitants, but it has pastures, of which the Samians avail themselves. Notwithstanding its condition it is famous, and gives the name of Icarian to the sea in front of it, in which are situated Samos, Cos, and the islands just mentioned,882 the CorassiÆ, Patmos, and Leros883 [in Samos is the mountain the Cerceteus, more celebrated than the Ampelus, which overhangs the city of the Samians].884 Continuous to the Icarian sea, towards the south, is the Carpathian sea, and the Ægyptian sea to this; to the west are the Cretan and African seas.14. In the Carpathian sea, between Cos, Rhodes, and Crete, are situated many of the Sporades, as AstypalÆa,885 Telos,886 Chalcia,887 and those mentioned by Homer in the Catalogue.

Except Cos, and Rhodes, of which we shall speak hereafter, we place the rest among the Sporades, and we mention them here although they do not lie near Europe, but Asia, because the course of my work induces me to include the Sporades in the description of Crete and of the Cyclades.

We shall traverse in the description of Asia the considerable islands adjacent to that country, as Cyprus, Rhodes, Cos, and those situated on the succeeding line of coast, Samos, Chios, Lesbos, and Tenedos. At present we are to describe the remaining islands of the Sporades, which deserve mention.

15. AstypalÆa lies far out at sea, and contains a city.

Telos, which is long, high, and narrow, in circumference about 140 stadia, with a shelter for vessels, extends along the Cnidian territory.

Chalcia is distant from Telos 80, from Carpathus 400 stadia, and about double this number from AstypalÆa. It has a settlement of the same name, a temple of Apollo, and a harbour.

16. Nisyrus lies to the north of Telos, at the distance of about 60 stadia, which is its distance also from Cos. It is round, lofty, and rocky, and has abundance of mill-stone, whence the neighbouring people are well supplied with stones for grinding. It contains a city of the same name, a harbour, hot springs, and a temple of Neptune. Its circumference is 80 stadia. Near it are small islands, called the islands of the Nisyrians. Nisyrus is said to be a fragment broken off from Cos; a story is also told of Neptune, that when pursuing Polybotes, one of the giants, he broke off with his trident a piece of the island Cos, and hurled it at him, and that the missile became the island Nisyrus, with the giant lying beneath it. But some say that the giant lies beneath Cos.

17. Carpathus, which the poet calls Crapathus, is lofty, having a circumference of 200 stadia. It contained four cities, and its name was famous, which it imparted to the surrounding sea. One of the cities was called Nisyrus, after the name of the island Nisyrus. It lies opposite Leuce Acte in Africa, which is distant about 1000 stadia from Alexandria, and about 4000 from Carpathus.

18. Casus is distant from Carpathus 70, and from the promontory Salmonium in Crete 250 stadia. It is 80 stadia in circumference. It contains a city of the same name; and many islands, called the islands of the Casii, lie about it.

19. They say that the poet calls the Sporades, CalydnÆ, [Pg 214]
[CAS. 489] one of which is Calymna.889 But it is probable that as the islands, which are near and dependent, have their names from the Nisyrii and Casii, so those that lie around Calymna had their name from that island, which was then perhaps called Calydna. Some say that the CalydnÆ islands are two, Leros and Calymna, and that the poet means these. But the Scepsian says, that the name of the island was used in the plural number, CalymnÆ, like AthenÆ, ThebÆ, and that the words of the poet must be understood according to the figure hyperbaton, or inversion, for he does not say, the islands CalydnÆ, but,

“they who occupied the islands Nisyrus, Crapathus, Casus, and Cos, the city of Eurypylus, and CalydnÆ.”

All the honey of the islands is, for the most part, excellent, and rivals that of Attica; but the honey of these islands surpasses it, particularly that of Calymna.890