The Geography of Strabo, Volume 2 (of 3): Literally Translated, with NotesStrabo
History
The Geography of Strabo, Volume 2 (of 3): Literally Translated, with Notes
Strabo
Geography -- Early works to 1800
The author of the Phoronis calls the Curetes, players upon the pipe, and
Phrygians; others call them “earth-born, and wearing brazen shields.”
Another author terms the Corybantes, and not the Curetes, Phrygians, and
the Curetes, Cretans. Brazen shields were first worn in Eubœa, whence
the people had the name of Chalcidenses.[731] Others say, that the
Corybantes who came from Bactriana, or, according to some writers, from
the Colchi, were given to Rhea, as a band of armed ministers, by Titan.
But in the Cretan history the Curetes are called nurses and guardians of
Jove, and are described as having been sent for from Phrygia to Crete by
Rhea. According to other writers, there were nine Telchines in Rhodes,
who accompanied Rhea to Crete, and from nursing[732] Jupiter had the
name of Curetes;[733] that Corybus, one of their party, was the founder
of Hierapytna, and furnished the Prasians[734] in Rhodes with the
pretext for saying that Corybantes were certain dæmons, children of
Minerva and the sun. By others, the Corybantes are represented to be the
children of Saturn; by others, of Jupiter and Calliope, or to be the
same persons as the Cabeiri; that they went away[735] to
Samothrace,[736] which was formerly called Melite; but their lives and
actions are mysterious.
20. The Scepsian (Demetrius) who has collected fabulous stories of this
kind, does not receive this account because no mysterious tradition
about the Cabeiri is preserved in Samothrace, yet he gives the opinion
of Stesimbrotus of Thasus, to the effect that the sacred rites in
Samothrace were celebrated in honour of the Cabeiri.[737] Demetrius,
however, says that they had their name from Cabeirus, the mountain in
Berecynthia. According to others, the Curetes were the same as the
Corybantes, and were ministers of Hecate.
The Scepsian says in another place, in contradiction to Euripides, that
it is not the custom in Crete to pay divine honours to Rhea, and that
these rites were not established there, but in Phrygia only, and in the
Troad, and that they who affirm the contrary are mythologists rather
than historians; and were probably misled by an identity of name, for
Ida is a mountain both in the Troad and in Crete; and Dicte is a spot in
the Scepsian territory, and a mountain in Crete.[738] Pytna is a peak of
Ida, (and a mountain in Crete,) whence the city Hierapytna has its name.
There is Hippocorona in the territory of Adramyttium, and
Hippocoronium[739] in Crete. Samonium also is the eastern promontory of
the island, and a plain in the Neandris,[740] and in the territory of
the Alexandrians (Alexandria Troas).
21. But Acusilaus, the Argive, mentions a Camillus, the [CAS. 473] son
of Cabeira and Vulcan; who had three sons, Cabeiri, (and three
daughters,) the Nymphs Cabeirides.[741]
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