PLA´TEA INSULA
PLA´TEA INSULA (
Πλατέα,
Πλάτεα,
Πλάταια, var. lect.;
Hdt. 4.151,
153,
156,
169;
Φλατείαι, Scyl. p. 46;
Πλαταίαι,
Πλατεῖα,
Steph. B. sub voce Stadiasm. § 41), an island off the shores of Libya, and on the side not far removed from the W. limits of Aegypt, where for two years in the seventh century B.C. the Theraean colonists settled before they founded Cyrene.
It has been identified with the island of
Bomba or
Bhourda in the
Gulf of Bomba. The island AEDONIA (
Ἀηδονία, Ἀηδονίς, Ptol. 4.5.75), which Scylax (
l.c.) and the Coast-describer (
l.c.) couple with Platea, may then be referred to the small island
Seal off the harbour of Batrachus; unless it be assumed that there is some mistake in our present charts, and that Aedonia or Aedonis and Platea be two different names for the same island. (Pacho,
Voyage dans la Marmarique, p. 52; Barth,
Wanderungen, pp. 506, 548.)
[
E.B.J]
