Greek Texts & Translations

and says we must reckon the failing of the hot spring as the cause. He goes on to relate certain catastrophes recorded by Democles, how formerly in the reign of Tantalus ^note there were great earthquakes in Lydia and Ionia as far as the Troad, ^note which swallowed up whole villages and overturned Mount Sipylus; ^note marshes then became lakes, and the city of Troy was covered by the waters. ^note Pharos, near Egypt, which anciently was an island, may now be called a peninsula, and the same may be said of Tyre and Clazomenae. ^note

During my stay at Alexandria in Egypt the sea rose so high near Pelusium ^note and Mount Casius ^note as to overflow the land, and convert the mountain into an island, so that a journey from Casius into Phoenicia might have been undertaken by water. We should not be surprised therefore if in time to come the isthmus ^note which separates the Egyptian sea ^note from the Erythraean, ^note should part asunder or subside, and becoming a strait, connect the outer and inner seas, ^note similarly to what has taken place at the strait of the Pillars.

At the commencement of this work will be found some other narrations of a similar kind, which should be considered at the same time, and which will greatly tend to strengthen our belief both in these works of nature and also in its other changes. 18

The Piraeus having been formerly an island, and lying πέραν, or off the shore, is said to have thus received its name. Leucas, ^note on the contrary, has been made an island by the Corinthians, who cut through the isthmus which connected it with the shore [of the mainland]. It is concerning this place that Laertes is made to say,