Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/424

 410 STRABO. CASAUB. 271. that the flow of the river should remain compact through so long a course, not mixing with the sea until it should fall into the fancied channel, is entirely visionary ; for we can scarcely credit it of the Rhone, the body of the waters of which remains compact during its passage through the lake, and preserves a visible course, but in that instance both the dis- tance is short and the lake is not agitated by waves like the sea, but in this case of the Alpheus, 1 where there are great storms and the waters are tossed with violence, the supposi- tion is by no means worthy of attention. The fable of the chalice being carried over is likewise a mere fabrication, for it is not calculated for transfer, nor is it by any means pro- bable it should be washed away so far, nor yet by such diffi- cult passages. Many rivers, however, and in many parts of the world, flow beneath the earth, but none for so great a distance. Still, although there may be no impossibility in this circumstance, yet the above-mentioned accounts are alto- gether impossible, and almost as absurd as the fable related of the Inachus: this river, as Sophocles 2 feigns, " Flowing from the heights of Pindus and Lacmus, passes from the country of the Perrhcebi 3 to that of the Amphilochi 4 and the Acarnani- ans, and mingles its waters with the Achelous :" 5 and further on [lie says], " Thence to Argos, cutting through the waves, it comes to the territory of Lyrceius." Those who would have the river Inopus to be a branch of the Nile flowing to Delos, exaggerate this kind of marvel to the utmost. Zoi'lus the rhetorician, in his Eulogium of the people of Tenedos, says that the river Alpheus flows from Tenedos : yet this is the man who blames Homer for fabulous writing. Ibycus also says that the Asopus, a river of Sicyon, 6 flows from Phrygia. Hecata3us is more rational, who says that the Inachus of the Amphilochi, which flows from Mount Lacmus, from whence also the ^Eas 7 descends, was distinct from the river of like name in Argolis, and was so named after Amphilochus, from whom likewise the city of Argos was de- 1 A river of Elis. 2 The play from which this is quoted is not extant. In the Peloponnesus. 7 The Lao or the Pollina.
 * A people of Thessaly. 4 A people of Argos. 5 Aspro-potama.