[3] The island had the name not of Macris only, but of Abantis also. The poet in speaking of Eubœa never calls the inhabitants from the name of the island, Eubœans, but always Abantes; “ they who possessed Eubœa, the resolute Abantes;1
in his train Abantes were following.
” Aristotle says that Thracians, taking their departure from Aba, the Phocian city, settled with the other inhabitants in the island, and gave the name of Abantes to those who already occupied it; other writers say that they had their name from a hero,2 as that of Eubœa was derived from a heroine.3 But perhaps as a certain cave on the sea-coast fronting the Ægean Sea is called Boos-Aule, (or the Cow's Stall.) where lo is said to have brought forth Epaphus, so the island may have had the name Eubœa4 on this account. It was also called Oché, which is the name of one of the largest mountains5 there. It had the name of Ellopia, from Ellops, the son of Ion; according to others, he was the brother of Æclus, and Cothus, who is said to have founded Ellopia,6 a small place situated in the district called Oria of the Histiæotis, near the mountain Telethrius.7 He also possessed Histiæa, Perias, Cerinthus, Ædepsus,8 and Orobie, where was an oracle very free from deception. There also was an oracle of Apollo Selinuntius. The Ellopians, after the battle of Leuctra, were compelled by the tyrant Philistides to remove to the city Histiea, and augmented the number of its inhabitants. Demosthenes9 says that Philistides was appointed by Philip tyrant of the Oreitæ also, for afterwards the Histiæans had that name, and the city, instead of Histiæa, was called Oreus. According to some writers, Histiæa was colonized by Athenians from the demus of the Histiæeis, as Eretria was from the demus of the Eretrieis. But Theopompus says, that when Pericles had reduced Eubœa, the Histiæans agreed to remove into Macedonia, and that two thousand Athenians, who formerly composed the demus of the Histiæans, came, and founded Oreus.10
1 Il. ii. 536,542.
2 From Abas, great grandson of Erectheus.
3 From Eubœa, daughter of the river Asopus and mistress of Neptune
4 From εὕ well, and βοῦς, a cow. The ancient coins of the island bear the head of an ox.
5 Mount St. Elias, 4748 feet above the level of the sea. Bochart derives the name from an eastern word signifying ‘narrow.’
6 At the base of Ploko Vuno.
7 Mount Galzades, celebrated for producing medicinal plants. Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. b. ix. c. 15 and 20.
8 Dipso, according to Kiepert.
9 Philipp. iii.
10 Not the town named Histiæa-Oreus, which was on the sea-coast.
The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes, in three volumes. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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