Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/81

 CHAP. ii. 35. INTRODUCTION. 67 is that by which the Greeks anciently designated the Arabs ; the etymon of the word certainly strengthens the idea. Many deduce the etymology of the Erembi from '{par ^ucuv<j/, (to go into the earth,) which [they say] was altered by the people of a later generation into the more intelligible name of Troglodytes, 1 by which are intended those Arabs who dwell on that side of the Arabian Gulf next to Egypt and Ethiopia. It is probable then that the poet describes Menelaus as having visited these people in the same way that he says he visited the Ethiopians ; for they are likewise near to the Thebaid ; and he mentions them not on account of any commerce or gain, (for of these there was not much,) but probably to enhance the length of the journey and his meed of praise : for such distant travelling was highly thought of. For example, " Discover'd various cities, and the mind And manners learn'd of men in lands remote.'' 2 And again : " After numerous toils And perilous wanderings o'er the stormy deep, In the eighth year at last I brought them home." 3 Hesiod, in his Catalogue, 4 writes, And the daughter of Arabus, whom gracious Hermes and Thronia, descended from king Belus, brought forth. Thus, too, says Stesichorus. Whence it seems that at that time the country was from him named Arabia, though it is not likely this was the case in the heroic period. 5 35. There are many who would make the Erembi a tribe of the Ethiopians, or of the Cephenes, or again of the Pygmies, and a thousand other fancies. These ought to be regarded with little trust ; since their opinion is not only incredible, but they evidently labour under a certain confusion as to the 1 Dwelling in caverns. 2 He saw the cities of many men, and learned their manners. Odyssey i. 3. 3 Having suffered many things, and having wandered much, I was brouaht. Odyssey iv. 81. 4 See Hesiod, Fragments, ed. Loesner, p. 434. 5 This derivation of Arabia is as problematical as the existence of the hero from whom it is said to have received its name ; a far more probable etymology is derived from ereb, signifying the west, a name supposed to have been conferred upon it at a very early period by a people inhabiting Persia. F 2