Sir Richard C. Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Oedipus at Colonus

ἀργῆτα, “"white,"” contrasting with “χλωραῖς” (673). See Tozer, Geography of Greece p. 242: “"The site of Colonus is distinguished by two bare knolls of lightcoloured earth, the “ἀργῆτα Κολωνόν"” of the poet,—not chalky, as the expositors of that passage often describe it to be.” Schol. “τὸν λευκόγεων”. From √ARG, denoting “"brightness,"” come (a) the group of words for “"bright"” or white, “ἀργός, ἀργής, ἀργινόεις, ἀργεννός, ἄργυφος”: (b) “ἄργυρος”: (c) “ἄργιλος”, argilla, white clay. Thus the notion of a light-coloured soil was specially associated with this root. And this was certainly one reason why places were called “"white,"”—whether the soil was merely light-coloured, as at Colonus, or chalky. Pindar puts Cyrene “ἐν ἀργινόεντι μαστῷ” (P. 4. 8), and it is known to have stood on a chalk cliff (F. B. Goddard in Amer. Journ. Philol. v. 31 ap. Gildersleeve ad loc.). Soil is suggested by “ἀργείλοφον πὰρ Ζεφυρίων κολώναν” (the town “Λοκροὶ Ἐπιζεφύριοι” on the S.E. coast of Italy, Pind. fr. 200); and soil or light-coloured rocks by “Ἀργινοῦσαι”, the three islets off the coast of Aeolis (Strabo 617). Cp. “"Albion."” But a town on a hill might also owe the epithet to its buildings. We cannot now decide between soil and buildings in the cases of “τὸν ἀργινόεντα Λύκαστον” and “Κάμειρον” (Il. 2.647, 656) in central Crete (?), nor always in the case of the name “"Alba."”