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.
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.
Strabo
There is however a very great variety[700] 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, (κόραι,) 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 Eubœa, 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]
[CAS. 467] And again;
“Curetes Achæi carried the presents. ”[708]
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. [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 (κόροι), or because they educated Jupiter
in his youth (κουροτροφεῖν), 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]
And [CAS. 470] 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,
“But do thou remain there on the Idæan land,
Collect the flocks on Olympus, and offer sacrifice. ”[723]
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,
“O divine Cotys, goddess of the Edoni,
With the instruments of the mountain worship;”
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 Bœotia, 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. [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,
“From whom sprung the goddesses, the mountain nymphs,
And the worthless and idle race of satyrs,
And the gods Curetes, lovers of sport and dance. ”
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 Eubœa, 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 nursing[732] Jupiter had the
name of Curetes;[733] that Corybus, one of their party, was the founder
of Hierapytna, and furnished the Prasians[734] 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 away[735] 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
Hippocoronium[739] 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 [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.
Herodotus[742] 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 Corybantes[745] from their dancing gait, and butting with their
head (κορύπτοντας); by the poet they were called βητάρμονες,
“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 Sophocles[748] 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 [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 [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 Phœnix,[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 Cyrenæan[771] territory to Criu-metopon[772] 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 Samonium[775] 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 Eteocretans[779] 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, Bœum, 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 Trichaïces[780] 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[783] above the rest, [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
poet[787] 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 river[790] which runs beside it.
Minos[791] 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 [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,
“and Gortyna, a walled city;”[796]
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 Lethæus[798]
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 Dicte[801] is
near; not, as Aratus[802] 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 Callimachus[803] 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 (δίκτυα), and
that hence she had the name of Dictynna from the Cydoniatæ, and the
mountain that of [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 Tityrus[804] 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. Cisamus[805] 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,
“both Phæstus and Rhytium. ”[808]
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 luxury[811] are [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 Argos[812]
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 Gerontes[815] 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 [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
(ἀγέλη) 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 (Ἀγέλαι) 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, [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 Æglete Anaphe, close to the Lacedæmonian Thera;”
and in another, he mentions Thera only,
“Mother of my country, celebrated for its fine breed of horses. ”
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 Ios[823] 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 Sicenus[825] 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 Siphnus[829] 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. [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 Cœus 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 Thoricus[839] 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 Delos[854] 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.
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, (κόραι,) 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 Eubœa, 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]
[CAS. 467] And again;
“Curetes Achæi carried the presents. ”[708]
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. [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 (κόροι), or because they educated Jupiter
in his youth (κουροτροφεῖν), 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]
And [CAS. 470] 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,
“But do thou remain there on the Idæan land,
Collect the flocks on Olympus, and offer sacrifice. ”[723]
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,
“O divine Cotys, goddess of the Edoni,
With the instruments of the mountain worship;”
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 Bœotia, 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. [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,
“From whom sprung the goddesses, the mountain nymphs,
And the worthless and idle race of satyrs,
And the gods Curetes, lovers of sport and dance. ”
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 Eubœa, 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 nursing[732] Jupiter had the
name of Curetes;[733] that Corybus, one of their party, was the founder
of Hierapytna, and furnished the Prasians[734] 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 away[735] 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
Hippocoronium[739] 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 [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.
Herodotus[742] 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 Corybantes[745] from their dancing gait, and butting with their
head (κορύπτοντας); by the poet they were called βητάρμονες,
“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 Sophocles[748] 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 [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 [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 Phœnix,[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 Cyrenæan[771] territory to Criu-metopon[772] 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 Samonium[775] 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 Eteocretans[779] 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, Bœum, 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 Trichaïces[780] 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[783] above the rest, [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
poet[787] 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 river[790] which runs beside it.
Minos[791] 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 [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,
“and Gortyna, a walled city;”[796]
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 Lethæus[798]
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 Dicte[801] is
near; not, as Aratus[802] 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 Callimachus[803] 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 (δίκτυα), and
that hence she had the name of Dictynna from the Cydoniatæ, and the
mountain that of [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 Tityrus[804] 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. Cisamus[805] 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,
“both Phæstus and Rhytium. ”[808]
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 luxury[811] are [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 Argos[812]
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 Gerontes[815] 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 [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
(ἀγέλη) 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 (Ἀγέλαι) 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, [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 Æglete Anaphe, close to the Lacedæmonian Thera;”
and in another, he mentions Thera only,
“Mother of my country, celebrated for its fine breed of horses. ”
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 Ios[823] 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 Sicenus[825] 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 Siphnus[829] 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. [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 Cœus 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 Thoricus[839] 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 Delos[854] 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.
