Kitap 13
1.7
Now as for Homer’s statements, those who have studied the subject more carefullyStrabo refers to Demetrius of Scepsis and his followers. conjecture from them that the whole of this coast became subject to the Trojans, and, though divided into nine dynasties, was under the sway of Priam at the time of the Trojan War and was called Troy. And this is clear from his detailed statements. For instance, Achilles and his army, seeing at the outset that the inhabitants of Ilium were enclosed by walls, tried to carry on the war outside and, by making raids all round, to take away from them all the surrounding places: Twelve cities of men I have laid waste with my ships, and eleven, I declare, by land throughout the fertile land of Troy.Hom. Il. 9.328For by “Troy” he means the part of the mainland that was sacked by him; and, along with other places, Achilles also sacked the country opposite Lesbos in the neighborhood of Thebe and Lyrnessus and Pedasus,Hom. Il. 20.92 which last belonged to the Leleges, and also the country of Eurypylus the son of Telephus.But what a man was that son of Telephus who was slain by him with the bronze,Hom. Od. 11.518that is, the hero Eurypylus, slain by Neoptolemus. Now the poet says that these places were sacked, including Lesbos itself: when he himself took well-built Lesbos;Hom. Il. 9.129andhe sacked Lyrnessus and Pedasus;Hom. Il. 20.92andwhen he laid waste Lyrnessus and the walls of Thebe.Hom. Il. 2.691It was at Lyrnessus that Briseïs was taken captive,whom he carried away from Lyrnessus;Hom. Il. 2.690and it was at her capture, according to the poet, that Mynes and Epistrophus fell, as is shown by the lament of Briseïs over Patroclus: thou wouldst not even, not even, let me weep when swift Achilles slew my husband and sacked the city of divine Mynes;Hom. Il. 19.295for in calling Lyrnessus “the city of divine Mynes” the poet indicates that Mynes was dynast over it and that he fell in battle there. But it was at Thebe that Chryseïs was taken captive: We went into Thebe, the sacred city of Eëtion;Hom. Il. 1.366and the poet says that Chryseïs was part of the spoil brought from that place.Hom. Il. 1.369 Thence, too, came Andromache: Andromache, daughter of great hearted Eëtion; Eëtion who dwelt ’neath wooded Placus in Thebe Hypoplacia,The epithet means “’neath Placus.” and was lord over the men of Cilicia.Hom. Il. 6.395This is the second Trojan dynasty after that of Mynes. And consistently with these facts writers think that the following statement of Andromache,Hector, woe is me! surely to one doom we were born, both of us—thou in Troy in the house of Priam, but I at Thebae,Hom. Il. 22.477should not be interpreted strictly, I mean the words “thou in Troy, but I at Thebae” (or Thebe), but as a case of hyperbaton, meaning “both of us in Troy—thou in the house of Priam, but I at Thebae.” The third dynasty was that of the Leleges, which was also Trojan: Of Altes, who is lord over the war-loving Leleges,Hom. Il. 21.86by whose daughter Priam begot Lycaon and Polydorus. And indeed those who are placed under Hector in the Catalogue are called Trojans: The Trojans were led by great Hector of the flashing helmet.Hom. Il. 2.816And then come those under Aeneias: The Dardanians in turn were commanded by the valiant son of AnchisesHom. Il. 2.819and these, too, were Trojans; at any rate, the poet says,Aeneias, counsellor of the Trojans.Hom. Il. 20.83And then come the Lycians under Pandarus, and these also he calls Trojans: And those who dwelt in Zeleia beneath the nethermost foot of Ida, Aphneiï,Aphneiï is now taken merely as an adjective, meaning “wealthy” men, but Strabo seems to concur in the belief that the people in question were named “Aphneiï” after Lake “Aphnitis” (see 13. 1. 9). who drink the dark water of the Aesepus, Trojans; these in turn were commanded by Pandarus, the glorious son of Lycaon.Hom. Il. 2.824And this was the sixth dynasty. And indeed those who lived between the Aesepus River and Abydus were Trojans; for not only were the parts round Abydus subject to Asius,and they who dwelt about Percote and PractiusWhether city or river (see 13. 1. 21). and held Sestus and Abydus and goodly ArisbeOn Arisbe, see Leaf, Troy, 193 ff.—these in turn were commanded by Asius the son of Hyrtacus,Hom. Il. 2.835but a son of Priam lived at Abydus, pasturing mares, clearly his father’s: But he smote Democoön, the bastard son of Priam, who had come at Priam’s bidding from his swift mares;Hom. Il. 4.499while in Percote a son of Hicetaon was pasturing kine, he likewise pasturing kine that belonged to no other:i.e., the kine belonged to Priam. This son of Hicetaon, a kinsman of Hector (Hom. Il. 15.545), “dwelt in the house of Priam, who honored him equally with his own children” (Hom. Il. 15.551).And first he rebuked mighty Melanippus the son of Hicetaon, who until this time had been wont to feed the kine of shambling gait in Percote;Hom. Il. 15.546so that this country would be a part of the Troad, as also the next country after it as far as Adrasteia, for the leaders of the latter werethe two sons of Merops of Percote.Hom. Il. 2.831Accordingly, the people from Abydus to Adrasteia were all Trojans, although they were divided into two groups, one under Asius and the other under the sons of Merops, just as CiliciaThe Trojan Cilicia (see 13. 1. 70). also was divided into two parts, the Theban Cilicia and the Lyrnessian;See 13. 1. 60-61. but one might include in the Lyrnessian Cilicia the territory subject to Eurypylus, which lay next to the Lyrnessian Cilicia.The eight dynasties were (1) that of Mynes, (2) that of Eëtion, (3) that of Altes, (4) that of Hector, (5) that of Aeneias, (6) that of Pandarus, (7) that of Asius, and (8) that of the two sons of Merops. If, however, there were nine dynasties (see 13. 1. 2), we may assume that the ninth was that of Eurypylus (see 13. 1. 70), unless, as Choiseul-Gouffier (Voyage Pittoresque de Ia Grèce, vol. ii, cited by Gossellin think, it was that of the island of Lesbos. But that Priam was ruler of these countries, one and all, is clearly indicated by Achilles’ words to Priam: And of thee, old sire, we hear that formerly thou wast blest; how of all that is enclosed by Lesbos, out at sea, city of Macar, and by Phrygia in the upland, and by the boundless Hellespont.Hom. Il. 24.534 The quotation is incomplete without the following words of Homer: “o’er all these, old sire, thou wast preeminent, they say, because of thy wealth and thy sons.
