No More Learning

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

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

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

“the coast of Epirus,”

we must understand the coast of Acarnania.

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

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

and the cities which he mentions in the Catalogue,

“and they who inhabited Crocyleia, and the rugged Ægilips. ”[621]

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

9. [CAS. 452] It has upon it the temple of Apollo Leucatas, and the
Leap, which, it was thought, was a termination of love.

“Here Sappho first ’tis said,” (according to Menander,) “in
pursuit of the haughty Phaon, and urged on by maddening
desire, threw herself[622] from the aerial rock, imploring
Thee, Lord, and King. ”

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

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

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

(the remarkable mountain in this island; so also,

“they who came from Dulichium, and the sacred Echinades,”[625]

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

“Buprasium and Elis,”[626]

when Buprasium is situated in Elis; and so,

“they who inhabited Eubœa, Chalcis, and Eretria,”[627]

when the latter places are in Eubœa; so again,

“Trojans, Lycians, and Dardanians,”[628]

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

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

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

“twelve herds, and as many flocks of sheep in Epirus,”[630]

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

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

“in the strait between Ithaca and the hilly Samos,”[631]

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

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

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

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

“and hilly Samos,”

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

“Dulichium, and Samos,”

and not

“Same,”

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

“there are four and twenty from Samé,”[633]

and from what is said about Ctimene,[CAS. 454]

“they afterwards gave her in marriage at Samé. ”[634]

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

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

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

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

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

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

“they who possessed Ithaca, and Neritum. ”

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

In the verses,

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

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

“we came from Ithaca situated under Neium,”[637]

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

12. But this line seems to imply some contradiction;

“it lies in the sea both low, and very high,”[639]

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

“a rocky way through a woody spot,”[640]

and again,

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

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

“the rest far off (ἄνευθε) towards the morning,
and the sun. ”[643]

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

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

and still more evidently in these lines,

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

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

The circuit of Ithaca is about 80[648] stadia. So much then concerning
Ithaca.

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

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

“I boast that I am Mentes, son of the valiant Anchialus,
And king of the Taphians, skilful rowers. ”[649]

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

“companion of Phyleides, chief of the magnanimous Epeii;”[651]

“but Ulysses led the magnanimous Cephallenes. ”[652]

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

“Dulichium and Samé, and the woody Zacynthus. ”[653]

15. Cephallenia is situated opposite to Acarnania, at the distance from
Leucatas of about 50, or according to others, of 40 stadia, and from
Chelonatas[654] of about 80 stadia. It is about 300 stadia (1300? ) in
circumference. It extends in length towards the south-east (Eurus). It
is mountainous; the largest mountain in it is the Ænus,[655] on which is
the temple of Jupiter Ænesius. Here is the narrowest part of the island,
which forms a low isthmus, that is frequently overflowed from sea to
sea. [656] Cranii[657] and Paleis[658] are situated near the straits in
the Gulf.

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

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

But Apollodorus says that it exists even at present, and mentions a
small city in it, Alalcomenæ, situated quite upon the isthmus.

17. The poet also gives the name of Samos to Thracia, which we now call
Samothracé. He was probably acquainted with the Ionian island, for he
seems to have been acquainted with the Ionian migration. He would not,
otherwise, have made a distinction between islands of the same names,
for in speaking of Samothrace, he makes the distinction sometimes by the
epithet,

“on high, upon the loftiest summit of the woody Samos,
the Thracian,”[661]

sometimes by uniting it with the neighbouring islands,

“to Samos, and Imbros, and inaccessible Lemnos;”[662]

and again,

“between Samos and rocky Imbros. ”[663]

He was therefore acquainted with the Ionian island, although he has not
mentioned its name. Nor had it formerly always the same name, but was
called Melamphylus, then Anthemis, then Parthenia, from the river
Parthenius, the name of which was changed to Imbrasus. Since then both
Cephallenia and Samothracé were called Samos[664] at the time of the
Trojan war, (for if it had not been so Hecuba would not have been
introduced saying, that Achilles would sell any of her children that he
could seize at Samos and Imbros,[665]) Ionian Samos was not yet
colonized (by Ionians), which is evident from its having the same name
from one of the islands earlier (called Samos), that had it before;
whence this also is clear, that those persons contradict ancient
history, who assert, that colonists came from Samos after the Ionian
migration, and the arrival of Tembrion, and gave the name of Samos to
Samothracé. The Samians invented this story out of vanity. Those are
more entitled to credit, who say, that heights are called Sami,[666]
and that the island obtained its name from this circumstance, for from
thence

“was seen all Ida, the city of Priam, and the ships
of the Greeks. ”[667]

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

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

18. Of the islands subject to Ulysses there remains to be described
Zacynthus. [668] It verges a little more than Cephallenia to the west of
Peloponnesus, but approaches closer to it. It is 160 stadia in
circumference, and distant from Cephallenia about 60 stadia. It is
woody, but fertile, and has a considerable city of the same name. Thence
to the Hesperides belonging to Africa are 3300[669] stadia.

19. To the east of this island, and of Cephallenia, are situated the
Echinades[670] islands; among which is Dulichium, at present called
Dolicha, and the islands called Oxeiæ, to which the poet gives the name
of Thoæ. [671]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So much then concerning the islands off Acarnania.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pylene has experienced nearly the same fate as Olenus.

When the poet describes Calydon[683] as lofty, and rocky, we must
understand these epithets as relating to the character of the country.
For we have said before, that when they divided the country into two
parts, they assigned the mountainous portion and the Epictetus[684] to
Calydon, and the tract of plains to Pleuron.

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

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

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

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

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

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

And with respect to the brothers;

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

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

We [CAS. 461] have shown by the Catalogue of the Ships in Homer, that
the Acarnanians were enumerated among the people who took part in the
war of Troy; and among these are reckoned the inhabitants of the Acté,
and besides these,

“they who occupied Epirus, and cultivated the land opposite. ”

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

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

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




CHAPTER III.


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

“Agrius, Melas, and the hero Œneus,
These dwelt at Pleuron, and the lofty Calydon,”[687]

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

“Curetes and Ætolians, firm in battle, were righting for the city
Calydon,”[688]

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

“Bœotians and Thebans were contending against each other,”

nor

“Argives and Peloponnesians. ”

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

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

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

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

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

3. He rightly alleges, as a proof of the affinity subsisting
reciprocally between the Eleii and the Ætolians, these inscriptions,
both of which recognise not the affinity alone, but also that their
founders had established settlers in each other’s country. Whence he
clearly convicts those of falsehood who assert, that the Eleii were a
colony of Ætolians, and that the Ætolians were not a colony of Eleii.
But he seems to exhibit the same inconsistency in his positions here,
that we proved[689] with regard to the oracle at Delphi. For after
asserting that Ætolia had never been ravaged by war from all time of
which there was any memorial, and saying, that from the first the
Curetes were in possession of this country, he ought to have inferred
from such premises, that the Curetes continued to occupy the country of
Ætolia to his days. For in this manner it might be understood never to
have been devastated, nor in subjection to any other nation. But
forgetting his position, he does not infer this, but the contrary, that
Ætolus came from Elis, and having defeated the Curetes in various
battles, these people retreated into Acarnania. What else then is there
peculiar to the devastation of a country than the defeat of the
inhabitants in war and their abandonment of their land, which is evinced
by the inscription among the Eleii; for speaking of Ætolus the words
are,

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

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

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

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

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

But Archemachus[691] of Eubœa says that the Curetes had their
settlement at Chalcis, but being continually at war about the plain
Lelantum, and finding that the enemy used to seize and drag them by
the hair of the forehead, they wore their hair long behind, and cut
the hair short in front, whence they had the name of Curetes, (or the
shorn,) from cura, (κουρά,) or the tonsure which they had undergone;
that they removed to Ætolia, and occupied the places about Pleuron;
that others, who lived on the other side of the Achelous, because they
kept their heads unshorn, were called Acarnanians. [692]

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

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

“they dwelt at Pleuron, and the lofty Calydon. ”[696]

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

“Curetes and Ætolians, firm in battle, fought against
one another. ”[698]

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

7. There[699] are others more remote from the subject of this [CAS.
466] work, which have been erroneously placed by historians under one
head on account of the sameness of name: for instance, accounts relating
to “Curetic affairs” and “concerning the Curetes” have been considered
as identical with accounts “concerning the people (of the same name) who
inhabited Ætolia and Acarnania. ” But the former differ from the latter,
and resemble rather the accounts which we have of Satyri and Silenes,
Bacchæ and Tityri; for the Curetes are represented as certain dæmons, or
ministers of the gods, by those who have handed down the traditions
respecting Cretan and Phrygian affairs, and which involve certain
religious rites, some mystical, others the contrary, relative to the
nurture of Jupiter in Crete; the celebration of orgies in honour of the
mother of the gods, in Phrygia, and in the neighbourhood of the Trojan
Ida. There is however a very great 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.