Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/58

 44 STRABO. BOOK I. nia, and the Sellae who inhabit the territory around Dodona 1 as far as the [river] Achelous, 2 but he never mentions Thrace, as being beyond these. He has evidently a predilec- tion for the sea which is nearest to him, and with which he is most familiar, as where he says, " Commotion shook The whole assembly, such as heaves the flood Of the Icarian deep." 3 21. Some writers tell us there are but two principal winds, the north and south, and that the other winds are only a slight difference in the direction of these two. That is, (sup- posing only two winds, the north and south,) the south wind from the commencement of the summer quarter blows in a south-easterly direction ; and from the commencement of the winter quarter from the east. The north wind from the de- cline of the .summer, blows in a westerly direction, and from the decline of the winter, in a north-westerly direction. In support of this opinion of the two winds they adduce Thrasyalces and our poet himself, forasmuch as he mentions the north-west with the south, " From the north-west south," 4 and the west with the north, " As when two adverse winds, blowing from Thrace, Boreas and Zephyrus." 5 But Posidonius remarks that none of those who are really acquainted with these subjects, such as Aristotle, Timosthenes, mans, and dwelt in the north of that part of Thrace which afterwards formed Macedonia. Later, however, they descended into Thessaly, and established themselves around Pindus. 1 Dodona was in Epirus, but its exact position is not known. 2 Now Aspro-potamo, or the White River ; this river flows into the sea at the entrance of the Gulf of Corinth. 3 And the assembly was moved, as the great waves of the Icarian sea. Iliad ii. 144. 4 'Apylcrrcro Noroio, Iliad xi. 306, xxi. 334. ' Apygffrjje strictly speak- ing means the north-west, and although, to an English ear, the north-west south seems at first absurd, yet in following up the argument which Strabo is engaged in, it is impossible to make use of any other terms than those which he has brought forward, and merely to have translated dpyserrao Noroio by Argest-south, would have mystified the passage without cause. We do not here attempt to reconcile the various renderings of dpygorao Noroio by Homeric critics, as Strabo's sense alone concerns us. 5 The north and west winds, which both blow from Thrace. Iliad ix. 5.