Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/196

 188 STRABO. CASAUB. 471. gian. Some of the instruments also have barbarous names, as Nablas, Sambyce, 1 Barbitus, 2 Magadis, 3 and many others. 18. As in other things the Athenians always showed their admiration of foreign customs, so they displayed it in what respected the gods. They adopted many foreign sacred ceremonies, particularly those of Thrace and Phrygia ; for which they were ridiculed in comedies. Plato mentions the Bendidean, and Demosthenes the Phrygian rites, where he is exposing .ZEschines and his mother to the scorn of the people ; the former for having been present when his mother was sacrificing, and for frequently joining the band of Baccha- nalians in celebrating their festivals, and shouting, Evo'i, Sabo'i, Hyes Attes, and Attes Hyes, for these cries belong to the rites of Sabazius and the Great Mother. 19. But there may be discovered respecting these daemons, and the variety of their names, that they were not called minis- ters only of the gods, but themselves were called gods. For Hesiod says that Hecaterus and the daughter of Phoroneus had five daughters, " From whom sprung the goddesses, the mountain nymphs, And the worthless and idle race of satyrs, And the gods Curetes, lovers of sport and dance." The author of the Phoronis calls the Curetes, players upon the pipe, and Phrygians ; others call them " earth-born, and wearing brazen shields." Another author terms the Cory- bantes, and not the Curetes, Phrygians, and the Curetes, Cret- ans. Brazen shields were first worn in Eubrea, whence the people had the name of Chalcidenses. 4 Others say, that the Corybantes who came from Bactriana, or, according to some writers, from the Colchi, were given to Rhea, as a band of armed ministers, by Titan. But in the Cretan history the Curetes are called nurses and guardians of Jove, and are described as having been sent for from Phrygia to Crete by Rhea. Ac- cording to other writers, there were nine Telchines in Rhodes, who accompanied Rhea to Crete, and from nursing 5 Jupiter had the name of Curetes; 6 that Corybus, one of their party, was the founder of Hierapytna, and furnished the 1 Nablas and Sambyce are Syriac words. Athenaeus, b. iv. c. 24. 2 The invention of Anacreon, according to Neanthus Cyzicenus. 3 Athenaeus, b. xiv. c. 8, 9. 4 See above, ch. iii. 1, 6, 8.