HKB
marble, a work of the Persians. There is a view from it of the plains around, particularly of that of the Caÿster. There dwell about it Lydians, Mysians, and Macedonians.[1534]
The Pactolus flows from the Tmolus.[1535] It anciently brought down a large quantity of gold-dust, whence, it is said, the proverbial wealth of Crœsus and his ancestors obtained renown. No gold-dust is found at present. The Pactolus descends into the Hermus, into which also the Hyllus, now called Phrygius, discharges itself. These three and other less considerable rivers unite in one stream, and, according to Herodotus, empty themselves into the sea at Phocæa.
The Hermus takes its rise in Mysia, descending from the sacred mountain of Dindymene, after traversing the Catacecaumene, it enters the Sardian territory, and passes through the contiguous plains to the sea, as we have mentioned above. Below the city lie the plains of Sardes, of the Cyrus, of the Hermus, and of the Caÿster, which are contiguous to one another and the most fertile anywhere to be found.
At the distance of 40 stadia from the city is the lake Gygæa, as it is called by the poet.[1536] Its name was afterwards altered to Coloë. Here was a temple of Artemis Coloëne, held in the highest veneration. It is said that at the feasts celebrated here the baskets dance.[1537] I know not why the circulation of such strange and absurd stories should be preferred to truth.
“Mesthles and Antiphus, sons of Talæmenes, born of the lake Gygæa, were the leaders of the Meones, who live below Tmolus.”[1538]
Some persons add a fourth verse to these,
“below snowy Tmolus, in the rich district of Hyda.”
But no Hyda[1539] is to be found among the Lydians. Others make this the birth-place of Tychius, mentioned by the poet,
“he was the best leather-cutter in Hyda.”[1540]
They add that the place is woody, and frequently struck with lightning, and that here also were the dwellings of the Arimi; for to this verse,
“Among the Arimi, where they say is the bed of Typhoëus,”[1541]
they add the following,[CAS. 626]
“in a woody country, in the rich district of Hyda.”
Some lay the scene of the last fable in Cilicia, others in Syria, others among the Pithecussæ (islands),[1542] who say that the Pitheci (or monkeys) are called by the Tyrrhenians Arimi. Some call Sardes Hyda; others give this name to its Acropolis.
The Scepsian (Demetrius) says that the opinion of those authors is most to be depended upon who place the Arimi in the Catacecaumene in Mysia. But Pindar associates the Pithecussæ which lie in front of the Cymæan territory and Sicily with Cilicia, for the poet says that Typhon lay beneath Ætna;
“Once he dwelt in far-famed Cilician caverns, but now Sicily, and the sea-girt isle, o’ershadowing Cyme, press upon his shaggy breast.”[1543]
And again,
“O’er him lies Ætna, and in her vast prison holds him.”
And again,
“’Twas the great Jove alone of gods that o’erpowered, with resistless force, the fifty-headed monster Typhon, of yore among the Arimi.”
Others understand Syrians by the Arimi, who are now called Aramæi, and maintain that the Cilicians in the Troad migrated and settled in Syria, and deprived the Syrians of the country which is now called Cilicia.
Callisthenes says, that the Arimi from whom the mountains in the neighbourhood have the name of Arima, are situated near the Calycadnus,[1544] and the promontory Sarpedon close to the Corycian cave.
Some historians say, that Coloë is an artificial lake, designed to receive the superabundant waters of the rivers when they are full and overflow.