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The Panionium was in the territory of Priene (Strabo, 384, 639), three stades from the sea. It is identified at Tshangli, between Ephesus and Cape Trogilium (Leake, A. M. p. 260), at the northeast corner of the promontory; here the name has been found on an inscription (cf. Dittenberger, 189).

Ἑλικώνιος would naturally mean ‘of Helicon’, and Farnell (C. G. S. iv. 29 seq.) argues that the neighbourhood of Mount Helicon must have been ‘long the abiding home’ of the Ionians, where they came in contact with the Minyae. There was a Ἵππου κρήνη, a fountain of the Poseidon horse, Pegasus, near its top (Paus. ix. 31. 3). If Farnell's view is right, the worship of Poseidon at Helice in Achaia (c. 145 n.) would have been only an isolated local cult.

Πανιώνια. This religious amphictyony (cf. Freeman, Federal Government, p. 185 seq.) is as old as Homer (Il. xx. 404). It never developed into a complete political union, though it tended to do so (c. 170 n.). We have instances of united action in 141. 1, v. 108. 2, vi. 7. Thucydides (iii. 104) pointedly ignores this festival when he speaks of the gathering of the Ionians at Delos; but Strabo (u. s.) says it was still celebrated in the time of Augustus. Thucydides' festival was for the περικτίονες νησιῶται, not for Ionians only.


τοῦτο: i.e. that the names end in a. Cf. c. 139 n. for Persian names.

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  • Commentary references from this page (2):
    • Pausanias, Description of Greece, 9.31.3
    • Homer, Iliad, 20.404
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