Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/381

 B. xni. c. i. $ 47, 48. THE TKOAD. 373 and others Leucophrys. 1 There are other small islands around it besides these. They lay near the scene of the fable about Tennes, from whom the island has its name, and of the story of Cycnus, a Thracian by descent, and father, according to some writers, of Tennes, and king of Colonae. 47. Continuous with the Achaeium are LaTisa and Colonae, formerly belonging to the people of Tenedos, who occupied the opposite coast ; and the present Chrysa, situated upon a rocky height above the sea, and Hamaxitus lying below, and close to Lectum. But at present Alexandreia is continuous with the Achasium ; the inhabitants of those small towns, and of many other strongholds, were embodied in Alexandreia. Among the latter were Cebrene and Neandria. The territory is in the possession of the Alexandrini, and the spot in which Alexandreia is now situated was called Sigia. 48. The temple of Apollo Smintheus is in this Chrysa, and the symbol, a mouse, which shows the etymology of the epi- thet Smintheus, lying under the foot of the statue.' 2 They are the workmanship of Scopas of Paros. They reconcile the his- tory, and the fable about the mice, in this following manner. The Teucri, who came from Crete, (of whom Callinus, the elegiac poet, gave the first history, and he was followed by many others,) were directed by an oracle to settle wherever the earth-born inhabitants should attack them, which, it is said, occurred to them near Hamaxitus, for in the night-time great multitudes of field-mice came out and devoured all arms or utensils which were made of leather ; the colony therefore settled there. These people also called the mountain Ida, after the name of the mountain in Crete. 1 Called also Lyrnessa and Phoenice. The first of these names is the same as that of one of the 12 towns on the continent sacked by Achilles. The name Phoenice was given to it probably by a Phoenician colony. Leucophrys, (white brows,) from the colour of the coast. 2 From apiv&ot;, a rat, in the JEolic dialect. The worship of Apollo Smintheus was not confined to the town of Chrysa alone ; it was common to all the continent of the Troad and to the adjacent islands ; it extended along the whole coast to the island of Rhodes, as Strabo afterwards informs us. He has already told us that there was a temple of Apollo Smintheus in the island of Tenedos. Coins of this island exist, bearing the effigy of the god with a rat under the chin. The town of Hamaxitus, on the con- tinent, had also its temple of Apollo Smintheus, where was not only to be seen the picture of a rat near the tripod of the god, but also tame rats, maintained at the public expense.