Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/63

 804 ECHINADES. was one of the cities of this island, which Pherecjdes Kipposed to be Pale, an opinion supported by Pau- aanias. (Strab. x. p. 456 ; Pans. yi. 15. § 7.) But Strabo maintains that Dulichium was one of the Echinades, and identifies it with Doucha (i^ AoX/x^)> ^Q island which he describes as situated opposite Oeniadae and the mouth of the Achelous, and distant 100 stadia from the promontory of Araxtis in Ells (z. p. 458). Dolicha appears to be the same which now bears the synonymous appel- lation of Makri, derbed from its long narrow form. (Leake, Northern Greece^ vol. iil p. 574.) Most modern writers have followed Strabo in connecting Dulichium with the Echinades, though it seems impossible to identify it with any particular island. It is observed by Leake that ^ Fetalis being the largest of the Echinades, and possessing the ad- vantage of two well-sheltered luirbours, seems te have the best claim to be considered the ancient Dulichium. It is, Indeed, a mere rock, but being separated only by a strait of a few hundred yards firom the fertile plains at the mouth of the Achelous and river of Oenia, its natural deficiencies may have been there supplied, and the epithets of 'grassy' and 'abounding in wheat,' which Homer applies to Dulichium (Od. xvL 396),— AovXix^ov ToXuir^pov, irot^evrof, may be referred to that part of its territory." But Leake adds, with justice, that " there is no proof in the Iliad or Odyssey that Dulichium, although at the head of an insular confederacy, was itself an island : it may very possibly, therefore, have been a city on the coast of Acamania, opposite to the Echinades, perhaps at TragameUiy or more probably at the harbour named PcmdtUimona or PUUyd^ which is separated only by a channel of a mile or two from the Echinades." Homer, as we have already seen, describes the Echinades as inhabited ; but both Thucydides and Scylax represent them as deserted. (Thuc. ii. 102 ; Scylax, p. 14.) Strabo simply says that they were barren and rugged (x. p. 458). Stephanus B. names a town Apolionia situated in one of the islands («. V. * kiroKKwvia). Pliny gives ns the names of nine of these islands, — Aegialia, Cotonis, Thyatira, Geoaris, Dionysia, Cymus, Chalds, Pinara, Mystus (iv. 12. s. 19). Another of the Echinades was Artemita ('Aprc^ra), which became united to the the munland. (Strab. i. p. 59 ; Plin. iv. 1. s. 2.) Artemidorus spoke of Artemita as a peninsula near the mouth of the Achelous, and Rhianus connected it with tlie Oxeiae. (St^h. B. t. v, ^Aprtfiirei) The Oxeiae (a/ '0(«iiu) are sometimes spoken of as a separate group of islands to the west of the Echi- ^uides (comp. Plin. iv. 12. s. 19), but are included by Strabo under the general name of Echinades (x. p. 458). The Oxeiae, according to Strabo, are mentioned by Homer under the synonymous name of Thoae (eoeU, Od. xv. 299). The Echinades dwived their name from the echinus or the "sea-urchin," in consequence of their sharp and prickly outlines. For the same reason they were called Oxeiae, or the " Sharp Islands," a name which some of them still retain under the slightly altered form of Oxies. Leake remarks that " the Echinades are divided into two clusters, besides Petala^ which, being quite barren and close to the mainland, is not claimed, or at least is not occupied by the Ithacans, though anciently it was undoubtedly one of the Echinades. The northern ECNOMUS. cluster is commonly called the Dkragtmattt^ firaia Dhmgondra, the principal island ; and the coii&eni, the Oxiet or 8crofe$. By the Venetians they were known as the islands of KwrtzoUari^ which name be- longs properly to a peninsula to the left of the moothof the Achelous, near Chad, Seventeen of the iaUnds have luunes besides the four ifo<2&ta, two of which m mere rocks, and nine of them are cultivated. These are, beginning from the southward: — Oxid^ Makri, VrdmonOf Pondikdmri, Karloniti, ProvdUy Lcm- brinOj Sqfid, Dhragonara, Oxid alone is loftj. Makri and Vr&mona are the two islands next in importance." (Kruse, Hdlas, vol. ii. pt. il p. 455, seq..; Leake, Northern Greece^ vol. iii. pp. 30, s^ 50, seq. ; Mure, Tour in Greece, voL i. pi 104.) EGHrNUS ( Ex^os: Eth. 'Exi^aicvs^ Polyb. ix. 41). 1. A town of Phthiotis in Thessaly, situated upon the Maliac gulf, .between Lamia and Larisaa Gremaste, in a fertile district (Strab. ix. pp. 433, 435; Polyb. ix. 41; comp. Aristoph. TAfiitL 1169.) It was said to derive its name from Echion, who sprang from the dragon's teeth. (Sc^mn. Oh. 602; comp. Steph. B. t. r.) Demosthenes says that Echi- nus was taken by Philip, the father of Alezandff the Great, from the Thebans (Dem. PhU iii. p. 120); but whether he means the Thessalian town, or the one in Acamania of the same name, is uncertain. At a later time we find the Thessalian Echinos in the hands of the Aetolians, from whom it was taken by the last Philip, after a siege of some length. (Polyb. ix. 41, seq., xviL 3, xviii. 21 ; Liv. xzziL 33, xxxiv. 23.) Strabo mentions it as one of the Grecian cities which had been destroyed by an earth- quake. (Strab. i. p. 60.) Its site is marked by the modem vilUge of ^ibAmd, which is only a slight cor- ruption of the ancient name. The modem rilhige stands upon the side of a hill, the summit of vhich was occupied by the ancient Acrqpolis. DodweU remarks that it appears, as well from its ntoatiooai its works, to have been a place of great stnength. "• Opposite the Acropolis, at the distance of a fiev hundred paces, is a hill, where there are some rains, ' and foundations of large blocks, probably a temple." (Dodwdl, vol. ii. p. 80; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 20.) 2. A town in Acamania, also said to have been founded by Echion. It was mentioned by the poet Rhianus, and occurs in the list of Acama&ian toirns preserved by Pliuy, where it is placed between He- raclia and Actinm. Leake places it at At VatiU, remarking that, "from Stephanus and the poet Rhianus, it is evident that Echinus was an Acarna- nian town of some importance : the story attached to it shows that it was one of the early cohnies of this coast; the mins at At Vaeili indicate a remote an- tiquity, and their safe position on a mountain re- moved from the sea, is in conformity with that which is generally found in the early foundations of the Greeks." (Steph. B. s. v. 'Exlvof; PUn. !▼- 2 ; Leake. Northern Greece j vol. iv. p. 23, seq.) E'CNOMUS C^yofMs), a hiU on the S. coast of Sicily, between Agrigentum and Gela, at the nwath of the river Himera (SaUo), According to Diodorns (xix. 108), the tyrant Phakris had a castle on this hill, in which he kept his celebrated braxen boll: and the spot derived its name from this drcuinstanoe. The etymology is obviously fiwdful; but it seems clear that the site was inhabited at an early period, though there waa no city there, for Plutarch tells w that Dion, in his advance against Syracuse (b. c. 357), was joined by the Agrigentine knights who