Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/479

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
B. VII. C. III. § 9.
GETÆ.
465

men in their justice, these are mentioned by the poets: as Homer, where he says that Jupiter beheld the land

“Of the Galactophagi and Abii, justest of mankind;”[1]

and Hesiod, in his poem entitled “Travels round the World,” who says that Phineus was taken by the Harpies

“To the land of the Galactophagi, who have their dwellings in waggons.”

Ephorus then proceeds to state the causes of their justice, because they are frugal in their mode of life, not hoarders of wealth, and just towards each other; they possess everything in common, both their women, their children, and the whole of their kin; thus when they come into collision with other nations, they are irresistible and unconquered, having no cause for which they need endure slavery. He then cites Chœrilus, who in his “Passage of the Bridge of Boats,” which Darius[2] had made, says,

“And the sheep-feeding Sacæ, a people of Scythian race, but they inhabited
Wheat-producing Asia: truly they were a colony of the nomades,
A righteous race.”

And again Ephorus declares of Anacharsis, whom he designates as “The Wise,” that he was sprung from that race; and that he was reckoned as one of the Seven Sages, on account of his pre-eminent moderation and knowledge. He asserts too that he was the inventor of the bellows, the double-fluked anchor, and the potter’s wheel.[3] I merely state this, although I know very well that Ephorus is not at all times to be relied on, especially when speaking of Anacharsis; (for how can the wheel be his invention, with which Homer, who is anterior to him, was acquainted; [who says],

“as when, before his wheel
Seated, the potter twirls it with both hands,” &c.;[4])

  1. ↑ Iliad xiii. 5. See note 4 to page 460.
  2. ↑ Kramer quotes Nækius in proof that we should here read Xerxes instead of Darius; and Groskurd refers to another passage in Strabo, book xiii. chap. i. § 22.
  3. ↑ Casaubon observes that Diodorus Siculus attributes the invention of the potter’s wheel to Talus, a nephew of Dædalus, and that Theophrastus awards it to one Hyberbius of Corinth.
  4. ↑ Iliad xviii. 600. Posidonius chose to regard this passage as an interpolation, and would not give the praise of the invention to any other than Anacharsis.
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.