Book 9
1.10
At the present time the island is held by the Athenians, although in early times there was strife between them and the Megarians for its possession. Some say that it was Peisistratus, others Solon, who inserted in the Catalogue of Ships immediately after the verse, “and Aias brought twelve ships from Salamis,”Hom. Il. 2.557the verse, “and, bringing them, halted them where the battalions of the Athenians were stationed,”Hom. Il. 2.558 and then used the poet as a witness that the island had belonged to the Athenians from the beginning. But the critics do not accept this interpretation, because many of the verses bear witness to the contrary. For why is Aias found in the last place in the ship-camp, not with the Athenians, but with the Thessalians under Protesilaüs? “Here were the ships of Aias and Protesilaüs.”Hom. Il. 13.681And in the Visitation of the troops, Agamemnon “found Menestheus the charioteer, son of Peteos, standing still; and about him were the Athenians, masters of the battle-cry. And near by stood Odysseus of many wiles, and about him, at his side, the ranks of the Cephallenians.”Hom. Il. 4.327And back again to Aias and the Salaminians, “he came to the Aïantes,”Hom. Il. 4.273and near them, “Idomeneus on the other side,”Hom. Il. 3.230not Menestheus. The Athenians, then, are reputed to have cited alleged testimony of this kind from Homer, and the Megarians to have replied with the following parody: “Aias brought ships from Salamis, from Polichne, from Aegeirussa, from Nisaea, and from Tripodes”; these four are Megarian places, and, of these, Tripodes is called Tripodiscium, near which the present marketplace of the Megarians is situated.
