For, by applying the name Epeii to both people, the Buprasians and the Eleii, and by never applying the name Eleii to the Buprasians, he may seem to divide, not Eleia, but the country of the Epeii, into four parts, which he had before divided into two; nor would Buprasium then be a part of Elis, but rather of the country of the Epeii. For that he terms the Buprasians Epeii, is evident from these words: “As when the Epeii were burying King Amarynces at Buprasium.”[50] Again, by enumerating together “Buprasium and sacred Elis,” and then by making a fourfold division, he seems to arrange these very four divisions in common under both Buprasium and Elis. Buprasium, it is probable, was a considerable settlement in Eleia, which does not exist at present. But the territory only has this name, which lies on the road to Dyme from Elis the present city. It might be supposed that Buprasium had at that time some superiority over Elis, as the Epeii had over the Eleii, but afterwards they had the name of Eleii instead of Epeii. Buprasium then was a part of Elis, and they say, that Homer, by a poetical figure, speaks of the whole and of the part together, as in these lines: “through Greece and the middle of Argos;”[51] “through Greece and Phthia;”[52] “the Curetes and the Ætoli were fighting;”[53] “those from Dulichium and the sacred Echinades;”[54] for Dulichium is one of the Echinades. Modern writers also use this figure, as Hipponax, “they eat the bread of the Cyprians and the wheat of the Amathusii;” for the Amathusii are Cyprians: and Alcman; “leaving the beloved Cyprus, and Paphos, washed on all sides by the sea:” and Æschylus; “possessing as your share by lot the whole of Cyprus and Paphos.” If Homer has not called the Buprasii by the name of Eleii, we shall reply, nor has he mentioned many other places and things which exist. For this is not a proof that they did not exist, but only that he has not mentioned them. 9. But Hecatæus of Miletus says, that the Epeii are a different people from the Eleii; that the Epeii accompanied Hercules in his expedition against Augeas, and joined him in destroying Elis, and defeating Augeas. He also says, that Dyme was both an Epeian and an Achæan city. The ancient historians, accustomed from childhood to falsehood through the tales of mythologists, speak of many things that never existed. Hence they do not even agree with one another, in their accounts of the same things. Not that it is improbable that the Epeii, although a different people and at variance with the Eleii, when they had gained the ascendency, united together, forming a common state, and their power extended even as far as Dyme. The poet does not mention Dyme, but it is not improbable that at that time it was subject to the Epeii, and afterwards to the Iones, or perhaps not even to this people, but to the Achæi, who were in possession of the country of the Iones.