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[20]

So it is these people, I think, that the poet calls Halizoni, mentioning them next the after Paphlagonians in his Catalogue.“But the Halizones were led by Odius and Epistrophus, from Alybe far away, where is the birth-place of silver,
1since the text has been changed from "Chalybe far away" or else the people were in earlier times called "Alybes" instead of "Chalybes"; for at the present time it proves impossible that they should have been called "Chaldaei," deriving their name from "Chalybe," if in earlier times they could not have been called "Chalybes" instead of "Alybes," and that too when names undergo many changes, particularly among the barbarians; for instance, certain of the Thracians were called Sinties, then Sinti and then Saïi, in whose country Archilochus says he flung away his shield:“One of the Saïi robbed me of my shield, which, a blameless weapon, I left behind me beside a bush, against my will.
2 These same people are now named Sapaei; for all these have their abode round Abdera and the islands round Lemnos. Likewise the Brygi and Bryges and Phryges are the same people; and the Mysi and Maeones and Meïones are the same; but there is no use of enlarging on the subject. The Scepsian3 doubts the alteration of the name from "Alybes" to "Chalybes"; and, failing to note what follows and what accords with it, and especially why the poet calls the Chalybians Halizoni, he rejects this opinion. As for me, let me place his assumption and those of the other critics side by side with my own and consider them.

1 Hom. Il. 2.856

2 Archil. 6 (Bergk). Same fragment quoted in 10. 2. 17.

3 Demetrius of Scepsis.

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