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[184] Ξολύμοισι: cf. Od. 5.283. Herod.i. 173 identifies them with the Milyai, the original inhabitants of Lykia; according to Strabo (pp. 21, 630) and Pliny (H. N. v. 27) this would seem to have been the general name for the Semitic inhabitants of Southern Asia Minor, the Milyai, Kabali, and Pisidians being subordinate divisions. It is a natural inference from the passage in the Odyssey that they had been driven to the mountains by the invading Lykians (who, acc. to Herod., came from Crete), and were in a state of chronic feud with them. According to Tacitus ( Hist. v. 2) some made them the ancestors of the Jews: “Solymos, carminibus Homeri celebratam gentem, conditae urbi Hierosolyma nomen e suo fecisse.”

The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices. Walter Leaf. London. Macmillan. 1900.

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