Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/382

 368 STRABO. CASAUB. 247. Pompeia is Surrentum, 1 [a city] of the Campanians. from whence the Athenaeum, 2 called by some the promontory of the Sirenusae, projects [into the sea] ; upon its summit is the temple of Minerva, founded by Ulysses. From hence to the island of Capreas the passage is short; after doubling the promontory you encounter various desert and rocky little islands, which are called the SirenusaB. 3 On the side towards Surrentum there is shown a temple with the ancient offerings of those who held this place in veneration. Here is the end of the bay named Crater, 4 which is bounded by the two pro- montories of Misenum 5 and the Athenasum, both looking towards the south. The whole is adorned by the cities we have described, by villas, and plantations, so close together that to the eye they appear but one city. 9. In front of Misenum lies the island of Prochyta, 6 which has been rent from the Pithecussa?. 7 Pithecussre was peopled by a colony of Eretrians and Chalcidians, which was very prosperous on account of the fertility of the soil and the pro- ductive gold-mines ; however, they abandoned the island on account of civil dissensions, and were ultimately driven out by earthquakes, and eruptions of fire, sea, and hot waters. It was on account of these eruptions, to which the island is subject, that the colonists sent by Hiero, 8 the king of Syracuse, abandoned the island, together with the town which they had built, when it was taken possession of by the Neapolitans. This explains the myth concerning Typhon, who, they say, lies beneath the island, and when he turns himself, causes flames and water to rush forth, and sometimes even small 1 Sorrento. 8 Punta della Campanella. 3 The Sirenusse were three small rocks detached* from the land, and celebrated as the islands of the Sirens ; they are now called Galli. See Holsten. Adnot.p. 248 ; Romanelli, torn, iii.p. 619. Virgil, ^En. v. 864, describes them as, Jamque adeo scopulos advecta subibat ; Difficiles quondam, multorumque ossibus albos. It had been decreed that the Sirens should lire only till some one hearing their song should pass on unmoved, and Orpheus, who accompanied the Argonauts, having surpassed the Sirens, and led on the ship, they cast themselves into the sea, and were metamorphosed into these rocks. 4 The bay of Naples. 5 Punta di Miseno. 6 Procida. 7 Ischia. 8 It appears that Hiero the First is here alluded to ; he ascended the throne 478 years before the Christian era.