Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/275

 MEMORIALS LEFT BY THE ARGONAUTS. 243 Roman general Pompey, after having completed the conquest and expulsion of Mithridates, made long marches through Kolchis into the regions of Caucasus, for the express purpose of contem- plating the spots which had been ennobled by the exploits of the Argonauts, the Dioskuri and Herakles. 1 In the west, memorials either of the Argonauts or of the pur suing Kolchians were pointed out in Korkyra, in Krete, in Epi- rus near the Akrokeraunian mountains, in the islands called Ap- syrtides near the Illyrian coast, at the bay of Caieta as well as at Poseidonia on the southern coast of Italy, in the island of ^Etha- lia or Elba, and in Libya. 2 Such is a brief outline of the Argonautic expedition, one of the most celebrated and widely-diffused among the ancient tales of Greece. Since so many able men have treated it as an un- disputed reality, and even made it the pivot of systematic chro- nological calculations, I may here repeat the opinion long ago expressed by Heyne, and even indicated by Burmann, that the process of dissecting the story, in search of a basis of fact, is one altogether fruitless. 3 Not only are we unable to assign the date vivifying and multiplying all these old fables, proving an ancient kindred between the Modes and Thessalians. See Strabo, xi. p. 530. The temples of Jason were Ti/iupeva otj>6fipa into rdv /3apf3upuv (ib. p. 526J. The able and inquisitive geographer Eratosthenes was among those who fully belie red that Jason had left his ships in the Phasis, and had undertaken a land expedition into the interior country, in which he had conquered Media and Armenia (Strabo, i. p. 48). 1 Appian, Mithridatic. 103 : roi)f KoA^ovc ETTJJEI, KOI?' laroplav T7/f 'Apyo i>avT(Jv Kal AioctKOvpuv Kal 'Hpa/c/leovf imdTjfiiai;, Kal fiuXiara TO 7rai9of Ideiv idehuv, o lipofiri-del <paal ycvea&ai trepl TO KavKaaov opoi;. The lofty crag of Caucasus called Strobilus, to which Prometheus had been attached, was pointed out to Arrian himself in his Periplns (p. 12. Geogr. Minor vol. i.). 3 Strabo, i. pp. 21, 45,46; v. 224-252. Pompon. Mel. ii 3. Diodor. IT. 56. Apollon. Ilhod. iv. 656. Lycophron, 1273. Tvpaiv fiaKeSvu.^ ufKpl Ktp/caiov vairaf 'ApyoCf re ufaivdv oppov ^Irirrjv peyav. ' Hevne, Observ. ad Apollodor. i. 9, 16. p. 72. " Mirum in modum fallitnrj qni in his commentis ccrtum fundum historicum vel geographicnm ant ex-