Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/306

 298 STRABO. CASATTB. 549. cially when we know that names are subject to many changes, more especially among barbarians. For example, a tribe of Thracians were called Sinties, then Sinti, then Saii, in whose country Archilochus is said to have thrown away his shield : " one of the Saii exults in having a shield, which, without blame, I invo- luntarily left behind in a thicket." This same people have now the name of Saprci. For all these people were settled about Abdera, they also held Lem- nos and the islands about Lemnos. Thus also Brygi, Briges, and Phryges are the same people; and Mysi, Maeones, and Meones are the same people. But it is unnecessary to multi- ply instances of this kind. The Scepsian (Demetrius) throws some doubt on the alter- ation of the name from Alybes to Chalybes, but not under- standing what follows, nor what accords with it, nor, in par- ticular, why the poet calls the Chalybes Alizoni, he rejects the opinion that there has been an alteration of name. In comparing his opinion with my own I shall consider also the hypotheses entertained by others. 21. Some persons alter the word to Alazones, others to Amazons, and " Alybe " to " Alope," or " Alobe," calling the Scythians above the Borysthenes Alazones and Callipida^, and by other names, about which Hellanicus, Herodotus, and Eudoxus have talked very absurdly ; some say that the Ama- zons were situated between Mysia, Caria, and Lydia near Cyme, which is the opinion also of Ephorus, who was a native of the latter place. And this opinion may not be unreason- able, for he may mean the country which in later times was inhabited by the ^Eolians and lonians, but formerly by Ama- zons. There are some cities, it is said, which have their names from the Amazons ; as Ephesus, Smyrna, Cyme, and Myrina. But would any one think of inquiring in these places after Alybe, or, according to some writers, Alope, or Alobe ; what would be the meaning of " from afar," or where is the silver mine ? 22. These objections he solves by an alteration in the text, for he writes the verses in this manner, " But Odius and Epistrophus led the Amazons, Who came from Alope, whence the tribe of the Amazonides." But by this solution he has invented another fiction. For