Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/251

 B. in. c. iv. 4, 5. SPAIN. drink ; for they possess [no drink], being without These people they say extend as i'ar as the region^ Cyrene. There are others also called Lotpj)hagi, who inhabit Memnx, 1 one of the islands situated opposite the Lesser Syrtes. 2 4. No one should be surprised that the poet, in his fiction descriptive of the wanderings of Ulysses, should have located the majority of the ^scenes which he narrates without the Pil^ Jars,"nrthe Atlantic! For historical events of a sinularjchar- acter did actually occur nejar tcTthe places, so that the other circumstances which he feigned did not make his fiction in- credible ; nor [should anyone be surprised] if certain persons, putting faith in the historical accuracy and extensive know- ledge of the poet, should have attempted to explain the poem of Homer on scientific principles ; a proceeding undertaken by Crates of Mallos, 3 and some others. On the other hand, there have been those who have treated the undertaking of Homer so contemptuously, as not only 'to'cleny any such know- ledge tcTtne poet, as though he were a ditcher or reaper, but have stigmatized as fools those who commented on his writings. And not one either of the grammarians, or of those skilled in the mathematics, has dared to undertake their defence, or to set right any mistakes in what they have advanced, or any thing else ; although it seems to me possible both to grove correct much that they have said, and also" to set right other points, especially where they have been misled by putting faith, in Pytheas, who was ignorant of the countries situated along the ocean, both to the west and north. But we must let these matters pass, as they require a particular and length- ened discussion. 5. The settlement of the Grecians amongst these barbarous nations may EeTegarded as theTesult of the division ^Fthese latter into small tribes and sovereignties, having' on account of thdrjaQroaej^ess nojunion amongst themselves, and there- fore~powerless~against attacks from without. This morose- ness is remarkably^grevalent amongst the Iberians, who are 1 The Island of Zerbi. 2 The Gulf of Cabes. 3 A celebrated stoic philosopher and grammarian contemporary with Aristarchus. He was of Mallos, a city of Cilicia, and surnamed the Critic and the Homeric, on account of the corrections, explanations, and remarks which he composed in nme_J>poks on the poems of Homer.