Previous Page
| Next Page
|
islands to rise in the sea, containing springs of hot water.
Pindar throws more credibility into the myth, by making it
conformable to the actual phenomena, for the whole strait
from Cumae to Sicily is subigneous, and below the sea has
certain galleries which form a communication between [the
volcanos note of the islands note] and those of the main-land. He
shows that Aetna is on this account of the nature described
by all, and also the Lipari Islands, with the regions around
Dicaearchia, Neapolis, Baïae, and the Pithecussae. And mindful hereof, [Pindar] says that Typhon lies under the whole of
this space.
Now indeed the sea-girt shores beyond Cumae, and Sicily, press on his
shaggy breast. note
Timaeus, note who remarks that many paradoxical accounts were
related by the ancients concerning the Pithecussae, states,
nevertheless, that a little before his time, Mount Epomeus, note in
the middle of the island, being shaken by an earthquake,
vomited forth fire; and that the land between it and the coast
was driven out into the sea. That the powdered soil, after
being whirled on high, was poured down again upon the
island in a whirlwind. That the sea retired from it to a distance of three stadia, but after remaining so for a short time it
returned, and inundated the island, thus extinguishing the fire.
And that the inhabitants of the continent fled at the noise,
from the sea-coast, into the interior of Campania. It seems
that the hot-springs note here are a remedy for those afflicted with
gravel. Capreae note anciently possessed two small cities, afterwards but one. The Neapolitans possessed this island, but
having lost Pithecussae in war, they received it again from
Caesar Augustus, giving him in exchange Capreae. This
[island] having thus become the property of that prince, he
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
Strabo, Geography (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Str.].