Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/472

 458 STRABO. CASAUB. 298. he even allude to the Scythians, but makes up fables about certain illustrious Hippemolgi, Galactophagi, and Abii. He had become acquainted with the Paphlagonians of the interior from the relations of such as had penetrated into those regions on foot, but he was perfectly unacquainted with the sea-coasts of the country ; which indeed was likely enough, for that sea was in his time closed to navigation, and known by the name of Pontus Axenus [or the Inhospitable] on account of the se- verity of the storms to which it was subject, as well as of the savage disposition of the nations who inhabited its shores, but more especially of the Scythian hordes, 1 who made a practice of sacrificing strangers, devouring their flesh, and using their skulls for drinking-cups ; although at a subsequent period, when the Ionian s had established cities along its shores, it was called by the name of Pontus Euxinus [or the Hospita- ble]. He was likewise in ignorance as to the natural peculi- arities of Egypt and Libya, 2 as the risings of the Nile, and the alluvial deposits, which he no where notices, nor yet the isthmus [of Suez] which separates the Red Sea from the Egyptian Sea; 3 nor yet does he relate any particulars of Arabia, Ethiopia, or the Ocean, unless we should agree with the philosopher Zeno in altering the Homeric line as fol- lows, " I came to the Ethiopians, the Sidonians, and the Arabians." * Indeed we ought not to be surprised at meeting with this in Homer, for those who have lived at a more recent period than he did, have been ignorant of many things, and have told strange tales. Hesiod has talked of Hemicynesf Megaloce- phali, and Pygmies ; Alcman of Steganopodes ; ^Eschylus of Cynocephali, Sternophthalmi, and Monommati, (they say it is in his Prometheus,) and ten thousand other absurdities. From these he proceeds to censure the writers who talk of 1 Gossellin observes, that these must have been the Scythians inhabit- ing the Taurica Chersonesus, now the Crimea. The people on the oppo- site or southern shore were less savage. The lonians had made settle- ments amongst these as early as the sixth century B. c. 2 Africa. 3 The Mediterranean. book i. chap. ii. 34, page 66.
 * Od. book iv. line 83. See Strabo's remarks on this reading of Zeno,
 * See the notes on these various monsters, book i. chap. ii. 35, p. 68.