The imagery of the Homeric poems (supposed to be written about 900 B. C.) affords abundant evidence of these facts. They continually mention shepherds, who had the care of sheep, as well as goat-herds, who managed goats. They speak of the folds, in which the flocks were secured at night to preserve them from the attacks of wild beasts. The dangers to which the flocks were exposed from both wolves and lions, are in accordance with similar expressions and incidents in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, arising from the existence of the same ravenous and destructive quadrupeds in Palestine. Also, the language both of the Scriptures and of the Homeric poems _is precisely the same_, in which the king, ruling his people is compared to the shepherd tending his flock, or to the strong and large ram, which leads the sheep[258]. It is to be observed, that the geographical knowledge expressed in the Homeric poems extended as far as the promontory of Carambis on the south coast of the Euxine Sea, and included all Phrygia, Ionia, and the western half of Asia Minor. [258] See Bochart’s Hierozoïcon, l. ii. cap. 44. De Gregum Pastoribus. The Greek mythology affords similar evidence. The well-known story of Paris, adjudging the golden apple, is founded on the pastoral scenes of Ida. Marsyas also was a shepherd on mount Ida[259]: the river Marsyas, famed for his contest with Apollo, was among the Phrygian mountains[260]. [259] Hyginus, Fab. 165. [260] It appears not impossible, that, when Theocritus in Idyll. iii. 46, represents Adonis as “tending flocks upon the mountains,” he may have referred to the mountains of Phrygia or of Ionia. For in another Idyll. (i. 105-110,) he seems to connect the love of Venus for Adonis with her love for Anchises, as if the scene of both were in the same region. Among the various accounts of Adonis, one makes him the offspring of Smyrna; and Cinyras, _the father of Adonis, is said to have founded the city of Smyrna in Ionia, calling it by that name after his daughter_. (Hyginus, Fab. 58 and 275.) This supposition accounts most satisfactorily for the production of the beautiful elegy on the death of Adonis by Bion, who was a native of Smyrna. The historical evidence to which we now proceed, though referring to times much posterior to the mythological, is more exact as well as more entitled to absolute credit. According to Strabo the branches of Mount Taurus in _Pisidia_ were rich in pastures “for all kinds of cattle[261].” The chief town of this region was _Selge_, a very flourishing city, and hence Tertullian, in a passage, mentions “oves Selgicæ,” Selgic sheep, among those of the greatest celebrity. The superior whiteness of the fleeces of _Pamphylia_ is mentioned by Philostratus. [261] Lib. xii. c. 7, § 3.