previous next


Σικανίην. While Beloch (i. 178) and Nissen (i. 548) maintain, after Niebuhr, that Sican and Sicel are mere variants of one name and one race, Freeman (i. 472 f.), who has converted Holm (Cl. R. v. 423), strongly argues that Thucydides (vi. 2) and Philistus (ap. Diodor. v. 6; fr. 3, F. H. G. i. 185) are right in saying that the Sicans are Iberians, though they claimed to be autochthonous (Thuc. l. c.; Timaeus; fr. 2, F. H. G. i. 193). It seems clear that the Sicels were later immigrants from Italy who drove the Sicans to the west of Sicily, and were in turn pressed by the Greeks into the centre and north of the island.

Minos found Daedalus in Camicus, the city he had built for Cocalus the Sican king. He was hospitably received by Cocalus, but enticed into a warm bath and there slain by the king or his daughters. Of Sophocles' play the Καμίκιοι but two small fragments remain. For later versions cf. Diod. iv. 79; Strabo 279.

Πολίχνη: a small place near Cydonia in Western Crete on the north coast; cf. Thuc. ii. 85.

Πραῖσος: high on the central plateau near the east end of Crete. Two ‘Eteocretan’ inscriptions have been found there in recent excavations (J. H. S. xxi. 340). That these two cities took no part in the expedition is no historical tradition, though it may have been derived, like the notice of the newer colonists, from Praesus (cf. 171. 1), but merely an inference from the fact that their inhabitants belonged to the pre-Hellenic ‘Minoan’ race (Hom. Od. xix. 176; Strabo 475, 478), and therefore presumably had not been affected by the migration preceding or following the death of Minos. The words στόλῳ μεγάλῳ imply a large migration which left Crete empty (cf. 171. 1); this hypothesis explained the disappearance of the ‘Minoan’ people, and the existence as early as Homer of Achaeans, Pelasgians, and Dorians in Crete. For other Minoan traditions cf. i. 171-3; iii. 122 nn.

Καμικός (Strabo 273, 279) may perhaps be placed at Caltabelotta (cf. Freeman, i. 503), if that stronghold on the hill be within the territory of Acragas (Diod. iv. 78).

Later writers (Paus. vii. 4. 6; Steph. Byz.) inaccurately substitute Ἴνυξ or Ἴνυκον (cf. vi. 23. 4 n.). Freeman (i. 113, 502) believes that this whole legend grew up in Acragas, the existence of Minoa (cf. v. 46. 2 n.) suggesting the presence of Minos (but cf. iii. 122. 2 n.). Thero is said to have sent back to Crete the supposed remains of Minos (Diod. iv. 79).


Γ̔ρίην. Probably the Uria of Strabo (282) (modern Oria), on a ridge between Tarentum and Brundisium, still containing in his day the palace of an early king, not Veretum, close to the heel of Italy, cape Leuca; cf. Nissen, Ital. ii. 875, 884. Iapygia (cf. iv. 99) is the promontory south of Tarentum and Brundisium, the Messapii being the tribe nearest Tarentum (Nissen, op. cit. i. 539-40).

Other accounts make these Cretans found Brundisium (Strabo 279, 282) and even cross the Adriatic and Illyria, to settle on the Thermaic gulf as Bottiaeans (ch. 123. 3).


This disaster is dated by Diodorus (xi. 52) to the year 473 B. C. It was to some extent balanced by a Tarentine victory over Messapians and Peucetians (Paus. x. 13. 10). Probably Micythus made alliance with Tarentum in the hope of opposing a barrier to the growing power of Syracuse.

φόνος Ἑλληνικὸς μέγιστος. The phrase makes it certain that H. did not live to see the destruction of the Athenians in Sicily which Thucydides (vii. 85) describes in similar terms; πλεῖστος γὰρ δὴ φόνος οὗτος καὶ οὐδενὸς ἐλάσσων τῶν ἐν τῷ πολέμῳ τούτῳ ἐγένετο.

τῶν ἀστῶν: partitive genitive with οἵ; ‘so many of the citizens,’ as vi. 58. 2 ad fin.; ix. 94. 1; i. 67. 5.


οἰκέτης ... ἐπίτροπος: translated by Pausanias (v. 26. 4) δοῦλος καὶ ταμίας τῶν Ἀναξίλα χρημάτων (cf. vi. 137. 3; viii. 75. 1) and by Justin ‘servus spectatae fidei’, but though this might be the meaning of the word, οἰκέτης is certainly in the plural used for the whole familia, free-born as well as slave (viii. 4. 2, 44. 1, 106. 2, 142. 4), and is distinguished from δοῦλος by Plato in the Laws, &c. It is unlikely that a slave (or even a freedman) should add his father's name on his offerings at Olympia (v. inf.) and call Rhegium and Messana his fatherland (Paus. l. c.). Probably he was a low-born dependant of Anaxilas (cf. Maeandrius, iii. 142). For ἐπίτροπος cf. the case of Aristagoras at Miletus (v. 30. 2), and again Maeandrius (iii. 142. 1) ἐπιτροπαίην παρὰ Πολυκράτεος λαβὼν τὴν ἀρχήν, and Theras. iv. 147. 2. Micythus was clearly regent of Rhegium and Messana for the young sons of Anaxilas.

ἐκπεσών. Paus. l. c. ἀπιὼν οἴχοιτο. According to Diodorus (xi. 66), after Micythus had been regent nine years (476-467), his wards, instigated by Hiero, demanded an account of his stewardship. Through this, his honesty was so strikingly proved that they begged him to keep on the administration, but Micythus, preferring to retire, lived in honour at Tegea till his death. This is a little inconsistent with H.'s ἐκπεσών.

The offerings of Micythus at Olympia seen by Pausanias (v. 26) were in three groups, comprising in all fifteen figures (besides some removed by Nero) by Argive sculptors, Glaucus and Dionysius. Fragments of pedestals have been found bearing inscriptions restored by Roehl, I. G. A. 532, 533, and better by Kaibel (Hermes, xxviii. 60), showing that the offerings were made for the recovery of his son from sickness.

[Μίκυθος Χοίρου Ῥηγῖν]ος κ[αὶ Μεσσή]νιος Ϝοικέων ἐν Τεγέῃ

[τἀγάλματα τάδε θεοῖς ἀ]νέθ[ηκε πᾶσι]ν καὶ θεαῖς πάσαις:

[παιδὸς δὲ νόσον φθινάδα νοσέοντος κ]αὶ χρημάτων ὅσσα ϝοι πλεῖστα ἐγέν[ετο δυνατὸν]

[ἰητροῖς δαπανηθέντων, ἐς Ὀλυμπίην] ἐλθὼν ἔπειτα εὐξάμεν-

[ος, ὥς ϝοι παῖς ἐσώθη ἀνέθηκεν]

Creative Commons License
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.

hide References (6 total)
  • Commentary references from this page (6):
    • Homer, Odyssey, 19.176
    • Pausanias, Description of Greece, 10.13.10
    • Pausanias, Description of Greece, 7.4.6
    • Thucydides, Histories, 2.85
    • Diodorus, Historical Library, 4.78
    • Diodorus, Historical Library, 4.79
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: