Book 14
2.7
In earlier times Rhodes was called Ophiussa and Stadia, and then Telchinis, after the Telchines, who took up their abode in the island. Some say that the Telchines are “maligners” and “sorcerers,” who pour the water of the Styx mixed with sulphur upon animals and plants in order to destroy them. But others, on the contrary, say that since they excelled in workmanship they were “maligned” by rival workmen and thus received their bad reputation; and that they first came from Crete to Cypros, and then to Rhodes; and that they were the first to work iron and brass, and in fact fabricated the scythe for Cronus. Now I have already described them before,10. 3, 7, 19. but the number of the myths about them causes me to resume their description, filling up the gaps, if I have omitted anything.
2.8
After the Telchines, the Heliadae, according to the mythical story, took possession of the island; and to one of these, Cercaphus, and to his wife Cydippe, were born children who founded the cities that are named after them,Lindus, Ialysus, and Cameirus white with chalk.Hom. Il. 2.656But some say that Tlepolemus founded them and gave them the same names as those of certain daughters of Danäus.
2.9
The present city was founded at the time of the Peloponnesian War by the same architect, as they say, who founded the Peiraeus. But the Peiraeus no longer endures, since it was badly damaged, first by the Lacedaemonians, who tore down the two walls, and later by Sulla, the Roman commander.
