Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/288

 256 HISTORY OF GREECE. traversed wider spaces of ground than any moderns could equal. 1 Such was the compromise which a mind like that of Strabo made with the ancient legends. He shaped or cut them down to the level of his own credence, and in this waste of historical criticism, without any positive evidence, he took to himself the credit of greater penetration than the literal believers, while he escaped the necessity of breaking formally with the bygone heroic world CHAPTER XIV. LEGENDS OF THEBES. THE Boeotians generally, throughout the historical age, though well endowed with bodily strength and courage, 2 are represented as proverbially deficient in intelligence, taste and fancy. But the legendary population of Thebes, the Kadmeians, are rich in mythical antiquities, divine as well as heroic. Both Dionysus and Herakles recognize Thebes as their natal city. Moreover, tho two sieges of Thebes by Adrastus, even taken apart from 1 Strabo, i. p. 48. The far-extending expeditions undertaken in the east- ern regions by Dionysus and Herakles were constantly present to the mind of Alexander the Great as subjects of comparison with himself: he imposed upon his followers perilous and trying marches, from anxiety to equal or surpass the alleged exploits of Semiramis, Cyrus, Perseus, and Herakles. (Arrian, v. 2, 3 ; vi. 24, 3 ; vii. 10, 12. Strabo, iii. p. 171 ; xv. p. 686 ; xvii. p. 81). 2 The eponym Boeotus is son of Poseidon and Arne (Euphorion ap. Eustath. ad Iliad, ii. 507). It was from Arne in Thessaly that the Boeotians were said to have come, when they invaded and occupied Bceotia. Euri- pides made him son of Poseidon and Melanippe. Another legend recited rBoeotus and Hellen as sons of Poseidon and Antiope (Hygin. f. 157-186). The Tanagrsean poetess Korinna (the rival of Pindar, whose compositions in the Boeotian dialect are unfortunately lost) appears to have dwelt upon this native Boeotian genealogy : she derived the Ogygian gates of ThC-bes from Ogygus, son of Bceotus (Schol. Apollon. Rhod. iii. 1178), also the Frajr mcnts of Korinna in Schneidewin's edition, fr. 2. p. 432.