Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/334

 320 STEABO. CASAUII. 215. and after flowing under ground about 130 stadia, discharges itself into the sea. 9. That Diomedes did hold sovereignty over the country around this sea, 1 is proved both by the Diomedean islands, 2 and the traditions concerning the Daunii and Argos-Hippium. 3 Of these we shall narrate as much as may be serviceable to history, and shall leave alone the numerous falsehoods and myths ; such, for instance, as those concerning Phaethon and the Heliades 4 changed into alders near the [river] Erida- nus, which exists no where, although said to be near the Po ; 5 of the islands Electrides, opposite the mouths of the Po, and the Meleagrides, 6 found in them ; none of which things exist in these localities. 7 However, some have narrated that honours are paid to Diomedes amongst the Heneti, and that they sacrifice to him a white horse ; two groves are likewise pointed out, one [sacred] to the Argian Juno, and the other to the -ZEtolian Diana. They have too, as we might expect, fictions concerning these groves ; for instance, that the wild beasts in them grow tame, that the deer herd with wolves, and they suffer men to approach and stroke them; and that when pursued by dogs, as soon as they have reached these groves, 1 The Adriatic. 2 The three islands of Tremiti, namely Domenico, Nicola, and Caprara, opposite Monte Gargano. 3 Arpino. 4 Phaethusa, Lampetie, and Lampethusa. See Virg. Eel. vi. 62 ; JEn. x. 190; Ovid Met. ii. 5 Either this passage has undergone alteration, or else Strabo is the only writer who informs us that certain mythological traditions distin- guished the Eridanus from the Po, placing the former of these rivers in the vicinity of the latter. The pere Bardetti thinks the Greeks originally confounded the Eretenus, a tributary of the Po, with the name Eridanus. 6 Probably Guinea-hens. 7 Strabo seems here to doubt that the Electrides islands ever existed, but the French translators, in a very judicious note, have explained that the geographical features of the country about the mouths of the Po had undergone very considerable changes on account of the immense alluvial deposit brought down from the mountains by that river, and suggest that these islands had been united to the main-land long before Strabo's time, for which reason he would not be able to verify the ancient traditions. Even at the present day the Cavalier Negrelli is employing his celebrated engineering science in making the communication between the Po and the Adriatic navigable, and so rendering the countries bordering on the Ticino, Adda, Mincio, Trebbia, Panono, and the adjacent lakes ac- cessible to steam-boats from the Adriatic.