Book 8
7.2
For the sea was raised to a great height by an earthquake, and overwhelmed both Helice and the temple of the Heliconian Neptune, whom the Ionians still hold in great veneration, and offer sacrifices to his honour. They celebrate at that spot the Panionian festival.This festival, Panionium, or assembly of all the Ionians, was celebrated at Mycale, or at Priene at the base of Mount Mycale, opposite the island of Samos, in a place sacred to Neptune. The Ionians had a temple also at Miletus and another at Teos, both consecrated to the Heliconian Neptune. Herod. i. 148; Pausanias, b. vii. c. 24. According to the conjecture of some persons, Homer refers to these sacrifices in these lines, But he breathed out his soul, and bellowed, as a bull Bellows when he is dragged round the altar of the Heliconian king.Il. xx. 403.Il. xx. 403. It is conjectured that the ageThe birth of Homer was later than the establishment of the Ionians in Asia Minor, according to the best authors. Aristotle makes him contemporary with the Ionian migration, 140 years after the Trojan war. of the poet is later than the migration of the Ionian colony, because he mentions the Panionian sacrifices, which the Ionians perform in honour of the Heliconian Neptune in the territory of Priene; for the Prienians themselves are said to have come from Helice; a young man also of Priene is appointed to preside as king at these sacrifices, and to superintend the celebration of the sacred rites. A still stronger proof is adduced from what is said by the poet respecting the bull, for the Ionians suppose, that sacrifice is performed with favourable omens, when the bull bellows at the instant that he is wounded at the altar.
