Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/197

 B. x. c. in. 20, 21. THE CURETES. 189 Prasians l in Rhodes with the pretext for saying that Cory- bantes were certain daemons, children of Minerva and the sun. By others, the Corybantes are represented to be the children of Saturn ; by others, of Jupiter and Calliope, or to be the same persons as the Cabeiri ; that they went away 2 to Samo- thrace, 3 which was formerly called Melite ; but their lives and actions are mysterious. 20. The Scepsian (Demetrius) who has collected fabulous stories of this kind, does not receive this account because no mysterious tradition about the Cabeiri is preserved in Sa- mothrace, yet he gives the opinion of Stesimbrotus of Thasus, to the effect that the sacred rites in Samothrace were celebrated in honour of the Cabeiri. 4 Demetrius, however, says that they had their name from Cabeirus, the mountain in Berecynthia. According to others, the Curetes were the same as the Cory- bantes, and were ministers of Hecate. The Scepsian says in another place, in contradiction to Euripides, that it is not the custom in Crete to pay divine honours to Rhea, and that these rites were not established there, but in Phrygia only, and in the Troad, and that they who affirm the contrary are mythologists rather than histo- rians ; and were probably misled by an identity of name, for Ida is a mountain both in the Troad and in Crete; and Dicte is a spot in the Scepsian territory, and a mountain in Crete. 5 Pytna is a peak of Ida, (and a mountain in Crete,) whence the city Hierapytna has its name. There is Hippo- corona in the territory of Adramyttium, and Hippocoro- nium 6 in Crete. Samonium also is the eastern promontory of the island, and a plain in the Neandris, 7 and in the terri- tory of the Alexandrians (Alexandria Troas). 21. But Acusilaus, the Argive, mentions a Camillus, the 1 Who were the Prasians of Rhodes I confess I cannot say. Palmer. 2 From whence Strabo does not inform us. 3 The Scholiast of Apollonius remarks that it was formerly called Leucosia, afterwards Samos from a certain Sails, and Samothrace when it came into possession of the Thracians. It had also the name of Dar- dania. 4 The true origin of the word, according to Casaubon, is to be found in the Hebrew word Cabir, signifying powerful. Tobias Gutberlethus, De mysteriis deorum Cabirotum. 5 M. Sitia. 6 Places unknown. 7 In the plain of Troy.