The Geography of Strabo, Volume 2 (of 3)

“The day will come when at length sacred Ilium shall perish,[1426]

After we have destroyed the lofty city of Priam,[1427]

By counsel, by wisdom, and by artifice, The city of Priam was destroyed in the tenth year.”[1428]

Of this they produce evidence of the following kind; the statue of Minerva, which Homer represents as in a sitting posture, is seen at present to be a standing figure, for he orders them

“to place the robe on the knees of Athene,”[1429]

in the same sense as this verse,

“no son of mine should sit upon her knees,”[1430]

and it is better to understand it thus, than as some explain it, “by placing the robe at the knees,” and adduce this line,

“she sat upon the hearth in the light of the fire,”[1431]

[CAS. 601] for “near the hearth.” For what would the laying the robe at the knees mean? And they who alter the accent, and for γούνασιν read γουνασιν, like θυιάσιν, or in whatever way they understand it,[1432] come to no conclusion. Many of the ancient statues of Minerva are found in a sitting posture, as those at Phocæa, Massalia, Rome, Chios, and many other cities. But modern writers, among whom is Lycurgus the rhetorician, agree that the city was destroyed, for in mentioning the city of the Ilienses he says, “who has not heard, when it was once razed by the Greeks, that it was uninhabited?”[1433]

42. It is conjectured that those who afterwards proposed to rebuild it avoided the spot as inauspicious, either on account of its calamities, of which it had been the scene, or whether Agamemnon, according to an ancient custom, had devoted it to destruction with a curse, as Crœsus, when he destroyed Sidene, in which the tyrant Glaucias had taken refuge, uttered a curse against those who should rebuild its walls. They therefore abandoned that spot and built a city elsewhere.

The Astypalæans, who were in possession of Rhœteium, were the first persons that founded Polium near the Simoïs, now called Polisma, but not in a secure spot, and hence it was soon in ruins.

The present settlement, and the temple, were built in the time of the Lydian kings; but it was not then a city; a long time afterwards, however, and by degrees, it became, as we have said, a considerable place.

Hellanicus, in order to gratify the Ilienses, as is his custom, maintains that the present and the ancient city are the same. But the district on the extinction of the city was divided by the possessors of Rhœteium and Sigeium, and the other neighbouring people among themselves. Upon the rebuilding of the city, however, they restored it.

43. Ida is thought to be appropriately described by Homer, as abounding with springs on account of the multitude of rivers which issue from it, particularly where Dardania as far as Scepsis lies at its foot, and the places about Ilium.

Demetrius, who was acquainted with these places, (for he was a native,) thus speaks of them: “There is a height of Ida called Cotylus; it is situated about 120 stadia above Scepsis, and from it flow the Scamander, the Granicus, and the Æsepus;[1434] the two last, being the contributions of many smaller sources, fall into the Propontis, but the Scamander, which has but a single source, flows towards the west. All these sources are in the neighbourhood of each other, and are comprised within a circuit of 20 stadia. The termination of the Æsepus is farthest distant from its commencement, namely, about 500 stadia.”

We may, however, ask why the poet says,

“They came to the fair fountains, whence burst forth two streams of the eddying Scamander, one flowing with water warm,”[1435]

that is, hot; he proceeds, however,

“around issues vapour as though caused by fire--the other gushes out in the summer, cold like hail, or frozen as snow,”