This is, moreover, the common opinion. Thus Dionysios (Perieg. v. 907, seq.) —πρῶτοι νήεσσιν ἐπειρήσαντο θαλάσσης, Πρῶτοι δ᾽ ἐμπορίης ἁλιδινέος ἐμνήσαντο. They first in ships the billowy ocean tried, And first sea-wandering commerce gave to man. On this account Cicero observes: “Eos primos mercatores mercibus suis avaritiam, magnificentiam et inexplebiles cupiditates primum in Græciam intulisse.” De Rep. fr. l. 111. ap. Feith, Antiq. Hom. ii. 10. 1. Footnote 1468: Some such event as this is no doubt alluded to in the story of Cadmos. ----- However, tradition has preserved evident traces of voyages of discovery and commercial adventure undertaken by the Greeks[1469] themselves, in imitation of the Phœnicians,—for, into this the Argonautic expedition, in what direction soever it proceeded, resolves itself, in fact. The Greeks possessed manufactures, ships, commerce, and, as a consequence, considerable wealth, long before the birth of history, a circumstance which goes far to overthrow the wild theories of certain modern scholars respecting the Iliad and Odyssey; for, if the Greeks had constant dealings with nations who were indisputably in possession of the art of writing, with abundant materials, they must have been the slowest and most stupid of mankind if they neglected to imitate those nations. Besides, the Phœnicians would be as ready to supply them with paper, parchment, and whatever else they wrote on, as with any other articles of commerce, and must have desired to awaken in them the wish to consume what they were deeply interested in supplying. Thus, if the Phœnicians and Egyptians understood the art of writing, as from the sacred Scriptures we know they did, it is all but impossible that the Greeks should have remained ignorant of it. ----- Footnote 1469: Apollodoros, recounting the exploits of the Argonauts, mentions incidentally a curious particular respecting the women of Lemnos, who, he says, were deserted by their husbands on account of the ill odour they exhaled. Their places were supplied by female slaves from Thrace; upon which, in revenge, they murdered all the men in the island, with the exception of Thoas, who was saved by his daughter, Hypsipyle. Biblioth. i. 9. 17. Cf. Pind. Pyth. iv. 159, sqq. ed. Dissen. whose commentary may be consulted, t. ii. p. 235. Homer, of course, supplies the best account we can possess of Grecian commerce in remote antiquity, though it had been carried on ages before his time. Mariners, in the Odyssey, obtain the name of πρηκτῆρες, or “merchants,” and are elsewhere said to plough the seas, ἐπὶ πρῆξιν καὶ χρήματα,—“for traffic and gain.”[1470] The most celebrated mariners known to Homer were the Phœnicians, whom he therefore terms, Ναυσίκλυτοι ἄνδρες Τρῶκται, μυρί᾽ ἄγοντες ἀθύρματα νηῒ μελαίνῃ.[1471]