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[68]

At 100 stadia farther is Cane, the promontory opposite to Lectum, and forming the gulf of Adramyttium, of which the Elaitic Gulf is a part. Canoe is a small city of the Locrians who came from Cynus; it is situated in the Canæan territory, opposite the most southerly extremities of Lesbos. This territory extends to the Arginusæ, and the promontory above, which some call Æga, or the goat. The second syllable however must be pronounced long, Aigan, like Actan and Archan, for this was the name of the whole mountain, which at present is called Cane, or Canæ.1 The sea surrounds the mountain on the south and west; towards the east the plain of Cæcus lies below, and on the north the Elaïtic district. The mountain itself is very much contracted. It inclines indeed towards the Ægnæan Sea, from which it has the name (Ega), but afterwards the promontory itself was called Æga, the name which Sappho gives it, and then Cane and Canæ. 69. Between Elæa, Pitane, Atarneus, and Pergamum on this side the Caïcus, is Teuthrania, distant from none of these places above 70 stadia. Teuthras is said to have been king of the Cilicians and Mysians. According to Euripides, Auge, with her son Telephus, was enclosed in a chest and thrown into the sea, by command of her father Aleus, who discovered that she had been violated by Hercules. By the care of Minerva the chest crossed the sea, and was cast ashore at the mouth of the Caïcus. Teuthras took up the mother and her son, married the former, and treated the latter as his own child. This is a fable, but another concurrence of circumstances is wanting to explain how the daughter of the Arcadian became the wife of the king of the Mysians, and how her son succeeded to the throne of the Mysians. It is however believed that Teuthras and Telephus governed the country lying about Teuthrania and the Caïcus, but the poet mentions a few particulars only of this history: “‘as when he slew the son of Telephus, the hero Eurypylns, and many of his companions, the Ceæi, were killed around him for the sake of the gifts of women.’2” Homer here rather proposes an enigma than a clear meaning. For we do not know who the Cetæi were, nor what people we are to understand by this name, nor what is meant by the words, ‘for the sake of the gifts of women.’3 Gram- marians adduce and compare with this other trifling stories, but they indulge in invetion rather than solve the difficulty.

1 It is difficult to clear up this passage ἣν αιγα τινὲς ὀνομάζουσιν ὁμωνύμως τῷ ξώω δεῖ μακοͅῶς τὴν δευτὲραν συλλαβὴν ἐκφεοͅειν ᾿αιγαν ὡς ᾿ακταν καὶ ᾿απχαν. There is no doubt that the first of these words in capitals, to be homonymous with goat, should be αἷγα, as is read in the old editions, and in many manuscripts, and not αἰγᾶ, αἰγὰ, or αἰγὰν, as in others. αὶ̂γα is the accusative of αϊξ (Æx,) a goat, which name Artemidorus actually gives to this promontory. But as our language has no termination of cases, the passage requires some explanation. If the Greeks desired to express in the nominative case the position of the promontory with respect to the island of Lesbos, they would say, according to Artemidorus, The cape Æx (αϊξ) is in front of Lesbos; according to Strabo, The cape Æga (αἰγᾶ) is in front of Lesbos. The first, Æx, signifies a goat, as Artemidorus intended; the second, Æga, in the Doric dialect (for Æge, αἰγῆ) means a goat's skin. If they desired to employ the word in the accusative, they said, according to Artemidorus, We have doubled Cape Æga (αῖγα); according to Strabo, We have doubled Cape Ægan (αῖγα). The matter is clear thus far, but what follows, δεῖ δὲ μακοͅως * * * ὡς ἀκτᾶν καὶ ἀρχᾶν is difficult to explain. The two last words are Doric genitive plurals, the first for ἀκτῶν shores, the second for ἀρχῶν, beginnings; and yet one would expect to find examples of accusatives in the singular number, as ἀκτὰν and ἀοͅζὰν; the difference of accent is here of no importance, for the last syllables of these accusatives are long, as Strabo wishes to make the last syllable long of Ægan (αἰγᾶν). If he had required examples agreeing with this last word in quantity, accent, and case, he might have cited sycan, (συκᾶν, a fig-tree,) or some other word of this form. It might be supposed that ακτᾶν was here taken in the acceptation [ἀκτέην, ἀκτῆν, and, in the Doric dialect, ἀκτᾶν]; but there still remains ἀοͅχᾶν, unless we change the word to ἀρχτᾶν a bear's skin.Coraÿ.

2 Od. xi. 521.

3 Eurypylus, son of Telephus, being invited by Priam to come to his assistance, answered that he could not do so without the permission of his mother, Astyoche. Priam by rich presents obtained from her this permission. There are other explanations equally uncertain. Bryant asserts that the Cetæi were pirates, and exacted young women as tribute from the people whom they attacked.

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