Book 1
3.18
The Piraeus having been formerly an island, and lying πέοͅαν, or off the shore, is said to have thus received its name. Leucas,Sta. Maura. on the contrary, has been made an island by the Corinthians, who cut through the isthmus which connected it with the shore [of the mainland]. It is concerning this place that Laertes is made to say, Oh that I possessed Such vigour now as when in arms I took Nericus, continental city fair.Odyss. xxiv. 376.Odyss. xxiv. 376. Here man devoted his labour to make a separation, in other instances to the construction of moles and bridges. Such is that which connects the island opposite to SyracuseThe island of Ortygia, now St. Marcian. with the mainland. This junction is now effected by means of a bridge, but formerly, according to Ibycus, by a pier of picked stones, which he calls elect. Of BuraDiakopton. and Helice,Probably Bulika, according to others Trypia or Niora. one has been swallowed by an earthquake, the other covered by the waves. Near to Methone,Methone is the same town which Pausanias (l. ii. c.32)names Methona, it was situated in the Argolis between Troezene and Epidaurus. The above writer tells us that in the reign of Antigonus, son of Demetrius king of Macedonia, there was a breaking out of subterranean fires close to Methona. This event, which it is probable Strabo alludes to, occurred some where between the year 277 and 244, before the Christian era. The town still exists under its ancient name of Methona. which is on the Hermionic Gulf,An error in all the MSS. The Saronic Gulf is intended. a mountain seven stadia in height was cast up during a fiery eruption; during the day it could not be approached on account of the heat and sulphureous smell; at night it emitted an agreeable odour, appeared brilliant at a distance, and was so hot that the sea boiled all around it to a distance of five stadia, and appeared in a state of agitation for twenty stadia, the heap being formed of fragments of rock as large as towers. Both Arne and MideiaVide Strabo, b. ix. c. ii. § 34, 35. have been buried in the waters of Lake Copaïs.In Boeotia. These towns the poet in his CatalogueThe Second Iliad, or Catalogue of Ships. thus speaks of; Arne claims A record next for her illustrious sons, Vine-bearing Arne. Thou wast also there Mideia.And those who inhabited grape-clustered Arne, and those [who inhabited] Mideia. Iliad ii. 507.Iliad ii. 507. It seems that several Thracian cities have been submerged by the Lake Bistonis,This Thracian lake or lagoon is now called Burum. It is formed by the mouths of several rivers, and lies to the north of the isle of Thaso. and that now called Aphnitis.Diaskillo, al. Biga. Some also affirm that certain cities of Trerus were also overwhelmed, in the neighbourhood of Thrace. Artemita, formerly one of the Echinades,These are certain little islands at the mouth of the river Achelous, the modern Aspropotamo, which formed the boundary between Acarnania and Aetolia. Now Curzolari. is now part of the mainland; the same has happened to some other of the islets near the Achelous, occasioned, it is said, in the same way, by the alluvium carried into the sea by that river, and HesiodIt is supposed we should here read Herodotus. Conf. Herod. ii. 10. assures us that a like fate awaits them all. Some of the Aetolian promontories were formerly islands. Asteria,Daskalio. called by Homer Asteris, is no longer what it was. There is a rocky isle In the mid-sea, Samos the rude between And Ithaca, not large, named Asteris. It hath commodious havens, into which A passage clear opens on either side.Now there is a certain rocky island in the middle of the sea, between Ithaca and the rugged Samos, Asteris, not large; and in it there are havens fit for ships, with two entrances. Odyssey iv. 844.Odyssey iv. 844. There is no good anchorage there now. Neither is there in Ithaca the cavern, nor yet the temple of the nymphs described to us by Homer. It seems more correct to attribute this to change having come over the places, than either to the ignorance or the romancing of the poet. This however, being uncertain, must be left to every man’s opinion.
