[1227] Ἴστρον the Thracian name for the lower course of the river which the Kelts called Danuvius （for this rather than Danubius is the correct form, Kiepert Anc. Geo. §196 n., Byzantine and modern Δούναβις）.
Φᾶσιν （Rion）, dividing Colchis from Asia Minor and flowing into the Euxine. （ “Phasis ” in Xen. Anab. 4.6.4 must mean the Araxes, which flows into the Caspian.） Soph. names these simply as great rivers, not with conscious choice as representatives of Europe and Asia. Ovid Met. 2.248 arsit Orontes | Thermodonque citus Gangesque et Phasis et Ister. Commentators compare Seneca Hipp. 715 Quis eluet me Tanais? aut quae barbaris Maeotis undis Pontico incumbens mari? Non ipse toto magnus Oceano pater Tantum piarit sceleris, and Shaksp. Macbeth 2.2.60 ““Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand?””: where, however, the agony of personal remorse renders the hyperbole somewhat more natural than it is here in the mouth of a messenger.This text is part of:
Table of Contents:
Professional Data Entry.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.