Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/473

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B. VII. C. III. § 6
GETÆ.
459

the Riphæan Mountains[1] and Mount Ogyium,[2] and the dwelling of the Gorgons[3] and the Hesperides,[4] the land of Meropis[5] mentioned by Theopompus, Cimmeris,[6] a city mentioned in Hecatæus, the land of Panchasa[7] mentioned by Euhemerus, and the river-stones formed of sand mentioned by Aristotle,[8] which were dissolved by rain-showers. Further, that there exists in Africa a city of Bacchus which no one can find twice. He likewise reproves those who assert that the wanderings of Ulysses mentioned in Homer were in the neighbourhood of Sicily, for again, if we should say that the wanderings did take place in those parts, we should have to confess that the poet transferred them to the ocean for the sake of making his account the more romantic. Some allowance might be made for others, but no manner of excuse can be put forward for Callimachus, who pretends to the character of a critic, and yet supposes that Gaudus was the island of Calypso, and identifies Scheria with Corcyra.[9] Other writers he blames for misstatements as to Gerena,[10] Acacesium,[11] and

  1. ↑ The Riphæan Mountains were probably the chain of the Ural Mountains, which separate Russia from Siberia.
  2. ↑ This mountain is unknown.
  3. ↑ The Gorgons were Stheino, Euryalé, and Medusa, the daughters of Phorcys and Ceto. See also book i. chap. ii. § 8, page 29.
  4. ↑ The Hesperides were the daughters of Night. They dwelt on an island on the western edge of the world. See also Apollodorus, book ii. chap. v. § 11.
  5. ↑ Ælian, Var. Histor. book iii. chap. 18, says that Theopompus related an interview between Midas, king of Phrygia, and Silenus, in which Silenus reported the existence of an immense continent, larger than Asia, Europe, and Africa taken together, and that amongst others a race of men called Meropes occupied several extensive cities there.
  6. ↑ Ephorus speaks of the Cimmerii who dwelt round the Lake Avernus. See Strabo, book v. chap. iv. § 5, page 263.
  7. ↑ See Strabo, book ii. chap. iv. § 2, page 158.
  8. ↑ A note in the French translation says that this place has not been identified in the works of Aristotle now remaining, and suggests that there may be some error in the text.
  9. ↑ See what Strabo has said on this subject in book i. chap. ii. § 37, pp. 70, 71.
  10. ↑ Strabo will speak further on the subject of Gerena in book viii. chap, iii. § 7, and § 29.
  11. ↑ Reference is here made to the epithet ἀκάκητα, which Homer applies to Mercury, Iliad xvi. 185. The grammarians explain it correctly as “free from evil,” or “who neither does nor suffers wrong.” However, there were some who interpreted it differently. They maintain that Mercury was so called from a cavern in Arcadia, called Acacesium, (see
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