IX. THE LYCIAN WOMEN
That which is said to have happened in Lycia sounds
like a myth, yet it has some supporting testimony
in the tales that are told.
1 Amisodarus, as they say,
whom the Lycians call Isaras, arrived from the Lycian
colony in the vicinity of Zeleia, bringing with him
pirate ships, in command of which was Chimarrhus, a
warlike man, bloodthirsty and brutal. He sailed in
a vessel which had a lion as its figurehead at the
prow, and a serpent at the stern. He did much evil
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to the Lycians, and it was not possible to sail the sea
or even to live in the cities near the sea.
This man Bellerophon slew, pursuing him with
Pegasus
2 as he was trying to escape. Bellerophon
also drove out the Amazons, but met with no just
treatment; in fact, lobates was most unjust with him.
Because of this, Bellerophon waded into the sea, and
prayed to Poseidon that, as a requital against lobates,
the land might become sterile and unprofitable.
Thereupon he went back after his prayer, and a wave
arose and inundated the land. It was a fearful sight
as the sea, following him, rose high in air and covered
up the plain. The men besought Bellerophon to
check it, but when they could not prevail on him,
the women, pulling up their garments, came to meet
him; and when he, for shame, retreated towards
the sea again,
3 the wave also, it is said, went back
with him.
Some, attempting to explain away the mythical
element in this account, assert that he did not get
the sea to move by imprecations, but that the most
fertile part of the plain lies below the sea-level, and
Bellerophon broke through the ridge extending along
the shore, which kept the sea out; then, as the ocean
rushed in violently and covered up the plain, the men
accomplished nothing by beseeching him, but the
women, flocking about him in a crowd, met with
respect, and caused his anger to subside.
Still others assert that the Chimaera, as it was
called, was nothing but a mountain facing the sun,
and that it caused reflexions of sunlight, fierce and
fiery in the summer time, and by these, striking all over
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the plain, the crops were dried up; and that Bellerophon, sensing this, cut away the smoothest part of
the precipice which mostly sent back the reflexions.
When, however, he met with no gratitude, in anger
he turned to avenge himself upon the Lycians, but
was prevailed upon by the women.
But the reason which Nymphis gives
4 in the fourth
book of his treatise about Heracleia is least mythical
of all; for he says that Bellerophon killed a wild
boar which was making havoc of the stock and crops
in the land of the Xanthians, but obtained no fitting
reward; whereupon he addressed to Poseidon imprecations against the Xanthians, and the whole plain
suddenly became glittering with a salt deposit and was
completely ruined, since the soil had become saline.
This lasted until Bellerophon, out of respect for the
women who besought him, prayed to Poseidon to
give up his anger. For this reason it was the custom
for the Xanthians to bear names derived not from
their fathers but from their mothers.
5