Book 13
1.41
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,Il. vi. 92 and 273.Il. vi. 92 and 273. in the same sense as this verse, no son of mine should sit upon her knees,Il. ix. 455.Il. ix. 455. 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,Il. vi. 305.Il. vi. 305. for near the hearth. For what would the laying the robe at the knees mean? And they who alter the accent, and for γούνασιν like θυιάσιν, or in whatever way they understand it,The corrupt passage replaced by asterisks is εὶ͂θ’ ἱκετεὐοντες τεθοͅένας, which is unintelligible. come to no conclusion. Many of the ancient statues of Minerva are found in a sitting posture, as those at Phocaea, 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?The following is a translation of the passage, as found in the speech of Lycurgus, still preserved to us: Who has not heard of Troy, the greatest City of those times, and sovereign of all Asia, that when once destroyed by The Greeks it remained for ever uninhabited
1.42
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 Crcesus, 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.
