[32]
The length of this coast, I mean on a straight voyage from Rhoeteium to Sigeium, and the monument of Achilles, is sixty stadia; and the whole of it lies below Ilium, not only the present Ilium, from which, at the Harbor of the Achaeans, it is about twelve stadia distant, but also the earlier Ilium, which lies thirty stadia farther inland in the direction of Mt. Ida. Now there are a temple and a monument of Achilles near Sigeium, as also monuments of Patroclus and Antilochus; and the Ilians offer sacrifices to all four heroes, both to these and to Aias. But they do not honor Heracles, giving as their reason his sacking of the city. But one might say that, although Heracles did sack it, yet he sacked it in such a way as still to leave it a city, even though damaged, for those who were later to sack it utterly; and for this reason the poet states it thus:“He sacked the city of Ilios and widowed her streets;
”1for "widowed" means a loss of the male population, not a complete annihilation. But the others, whom they think fit to worship with sacrifices and to honor as gods, completely annihilated the city. Perhaps they might give as their reason for this that these waged a just war, whereas Heracles waged an unjust one "on account of the horses of Laomedon."2 But writers set over against this reason the myth that it was not on account of the horses but of the reward offered for Hesione and the sea-monster.3 But let us disregard these reasons, for they end merely in controversies about myths. And perhaps we fail to notice certain more credible reasons why it occurred to the Ilians to honor some and not others. And it appears that the poet, in what he says about Heracles, represents the city as small, if it be true that“with only six ships and fewer men he sacked the city of Ilium.
”4And it is clearly shown by this statement that Priam became great and king of kings from a small beginning, as I have said before.5 Advancing a little farther along this shore, one comes to the Achaeïum, where begins the part of the mainland that belongs to Tenedos.
3 To appease the anger of Poseidon, Laomedon exposed his daughter Hesione on the promontory Agameia (see Stephanus s.v.) to be devoted by a sea-monster. Heracles promised to kill the monster and save Hesione if Laomedon would give him his immortal horses. Laomedon agreed. Heracles fulfilled his promise, but Laomedon refused to give up the horses, and hence the war.
5 12. 8. 7, 13. 1. 7.
Strabo. ed. H. L. Jones, The Geography of Strabo. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
Purchase a copy of this text (not necessarily the same edition) from Amazon.com
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.