Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/67

 AEOLIAE IXSULAE. af AnSstts in Aetolia and Locris, at Goriotb, in i: fis, io Prhis and in Messenia. Thus a great part cf mtlieni Groeoe, and the western side of Pelopan* Msas ^tie inHahited at an earlj period hj tlie Aei£an i moe. ^ In most of these Aeolian settlements wfiod a jBvdDection for maritime situations; and Fasddoo appears to bav>e been the deity diieflj wor- ibipped by them. The Aeolians also migzated to isia HEnor where thej settled in the district called ifter them Aeohs [Aeous], and also in the island of Lobos. The Aeolian migratian is general! j re- preseatai as the first of the series of movements prodnced hy the irruption of the Aeolians into BoeoUa, and of the Donans into Peloponnesos. The Afhaens, who had been driven from, their homes in the Pdoponnesas by the Dorians, ireie believed to kav« been joined in Boeotia by a part of the ancient infadbitaats of Boeotia and of their Aeolian conquerors. The ktter seem to have been predominant in influence, fr froDi them the migration was called the Aeolian, and i mueiimes the Boeotian. An account of the eailj settksnents and migrations of the Aeolians is prm at kngth by Thirlwall, to which we must refer oar leaders €or details and authorities. {Hist, of GrsBoe, voL L p. 88, seq. vol. u. p. 82, seq.; comp. Grotr, HiH, of Greece, voL L p. 145, seq., vol. ii. p. 26, seq.) The Aeolian dialect of the Greek lan- fiafe ooinprised several subordinate modifications; bat the variety establiahed by the colonists in Lesbos asad onthe opposite coasts of Asia, became eventually hs popular standard, having been carried to perfection fey the Ledaan school of lyric poetiy. (Mure, History oftkeLanguaffej fc of Greece, voL L p. 108, seq.) Thus WB find the Soman poets calling Sap|dio Aeolia pmeUa (Hor. Carm. iv. 9. 12), and the lyric poetry of AicamsaDd Sappho J eotmin carmen, Aeolia fides aad AeoUa lyra. (Hor. Carm. m, 30. 13, iL 13. 24; Or. Her. xv. 200.) AEOXIAE rNSULAE (AioA»« i^troi. Died. ^JiAam rqcrot, Thuc. Strab.), a group of volcanic isjanda, Ijing in the Tynhenian Sea to the north of Sidly, be tw e e n that islukl and the coast of Lucania. Thfy dberived the name of Aeolian from some fimcied eoDnection vrith the fabulous island of Aeolus men- tioiied by Homer in the Odyssey (x. 1, &c.), but tbcT were also finequently termed NvtucajxhlR or HsFHAESTiAE, from their volcanic character, which was ascribed to the subterranean operatioDS of Vulcan, as veil as LirARAKA:^ (al Anraf>eduv y^o-oc, Strab. fi. p. 123), from Lipaba, the largrat and most im- portant among them, from which they still derive the ttame of the L^Ktri Islands. Ancient authors generally agree in reckoning them as seven in nmnber (Strab. vi. p. 275 ; Plin. ii. 8. 14; Scynm. Ch. 255; Diod. v. 7; Mela, ii. 7; DioDyi. Peri^. 465; SchoL ad ApoU, Khod, iii. 41 ), wfaidi is correct, if the smaller i^ets be omitted. Bot there is oonaderable diversity with regard to their names, and the confusion has been greatly ang- vwnted by some modem geogmphers. They are enu- merated as feUowB by Strabo, IHodorus, and Pliny: 1. LlPAiLi, still called lApari; the most con- riderable if the seven, and the onlj one which con- taiaed a town of any importance. [Lipara.] 2. HiEBA, sitnated between Lipara and the coast af Srily. Its original name according to Strabo was Thermeasa (BipfiurvtC), or, as Plmy writes it, Tbensia, bat it was commonly known to the Gredcs as *Upa or 'Ic^ 'H^aitrrov, being considered sacred tvYuican on accoont of the volcanic phenomena which it ^hihr t ftfl For the same reason it was called by AEOLIAE INSULAE, 51 the Romans Vulcaki Insula, firom whence its mo« dem appellation of Vvlcano, It is the southern- most of the whole group, and is distant cmly 12 G. miles from Capo Calava, the nearest point on the coast of Sicily. 3. Stro^^gyus (Xrp(ryy6i, now Stromholi)^ so called from its general roundness of form (Stiub. L c; Ludl. AeinGj 431): the northernmost of the islands, and like Hiera an active volcano^ 4. DiDYME (AiS^/ii}), now called <Sa/trta, or Isoh deUe Saline, is next to Lipara the largest of the whole group. Its ancient name was derived (as Stmbo expressly tells us, vi. p. 276), from its form, which circumstance leaves no doubt of its being the same with the modem SaUna, that island being conspicuous for two high conical mountains which rise to a height of 3,500 feet (Smyth's Sicily, p. 272 ; Ferrara, Campi Flegrei della SiciUa,^. 243 ; Daubeny, On Volcanoes, p. 262). Groskurd {ad Strab. L c), Mannert;and Forbiger, have erroneously identified Didymc with Panaria, and thus thrown the whole subject into confusion. It is distant only three miles NW. from Lipara. 5. Phoenicusa (^tvueova-ffa, Strab. ^owuc<iJins, Diod.), 80 called from the palms (^oii^Tires) in which it abounded, is evidently Felicttdi about 12 miles W.of5b/tna. 6. Ericusa {'Epucowraa or *E.piK^Ulfis probably named from its abundance of heath {ipfiicri), is the little island of AUcudi, the westernmost of the whole group. These two were both veiy small islands and were occupied only for pasturage. 7. EuoNTMUS (El(ivvfxos), which we are ex- pressly told was the smallest of the seven and un- inhabited. The other six being clearly identified, there can be no doubt that this u) the island now called Paftaria, which is situated between Lipara and Strongyle, though it does not accord with Strabo's description that it lies the farthest out to sea (ir§ayla fidurra). But it agrees, better at least than any other, with his statement that it lay on the left hand as one suled from Lipara towards Sicily, from whence he supposes it to have derived its name. Several small islets adjacent to Panaria^ are now called the DaUole, the largest of which Basilwaso, is probably the Hicesia of Ptolemy ('I«r€(r(a, PtoL iii. 4. § 16; 'Ikwiov, Eustath. ad Horn, Odyss, X. 1), whose list, with the exception of this addition, corresponds with that of Strabo. That of Mela (ii. 7) is veiy confused and erroneous: he is cer- tainly in error in including Osteodes in the Aeolian group. The volcanic character of these islands was early noticed by the Greeks: and Diodorus justly remarks (v. 7) that they had aU been eridently at one time vents of eruptive action, as appeared from tlieir still extant craters, though in his time two only, Hiera nnd Strongyle, were active volcanoes. Strabo indeed (/. c, p. 275) appears to speak of volcanic eruptions in the island of Lipara itself, but his expressions, which are not very precise, may probably refer only to out- breaks of volcanic vapours and hot springs, such as are still found there. Earlier writers, as Thucy- dides and Scymnus Ohius, allude to the eruptions of Hiera only, and these were probably in ancient times the most frequent and violent, as they appear to have attracted much more attention than those of Strongyle, which is now by far the most active of the two. Hence arose the idea that this was the abode of Vulcan, and the peculiar sounds that accompanied its internal agitations were attributed £2