Book 10
3.19
Further, one might also find, in addition to these facts concerning these genii and their various names, that they were called, not only ministers of gods, but also gods themselves. For instance, Hesiod says that five daughters were born to Hecaterus and the daughter of Phoroneus,from whom sprang the mountain-ranging nymphs, goddesses, and the breed of Satyrs, creatures worthless and unfit for work, and also the Curetes, sportive gods, dancers.Hes. Fr. 198 (Rzach)And the author of PhoronisHellanicus of Lesbos (fl. about 430 B.C.). speaks of the Curetes as “flute-players” and “Phrygians”; and others as “earth-born” and “wearing brazen shields.” Some call the Corybantes, and not the Curetes, “Phrygians,” but the Curetes “Cretes,”“Cretans.” and say that the Cretes were the first people to don brazen armour in Euboea, and that on this account they were also called “Chalcidians”;“Chalc” means “brazen.” still others say that the Corybantes, who came from Bactriana (some say from among the Colchians), were given as armed ministers to Rhea by the Titans. But in the Cretan accounts the Curetes are called “rearers of Zeus,” and “protectors of Zeus,” having been summoned from Phrygia to Crete by Rhea. Some say that, of the nine TelchinesSee 14. 2. 7. who lived in Rhodes, those who accompanied Rhea to Crete and “reared” Zeus “in his youth”See 10. 3. 11. were named “Curetes”; and that Cyrbas, a comrade of these, who was the founder of Hierapytna, afforded a pretext to the PrasiansSee 10. 4. 12. for saying among the Rhodians that the Corybantes were certain genii, sons of Athena and Helius. Further, some call the Corybantes sons of Cronus, but others say that the Corybantes were sons of Zeus and Calliope and were identical with the Cabeiri, and that these went off to Samothrace, which in earlier times was called Melite, and that their rites were mystical.
