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I have spoken of the Pelasgi in the account of Tyrrhenia.
With respect to Dodona, Homer clearly intimates that the
people who lived about the temple were barbarians, from their
mode of life, describing them as persons who do not wash
their feet, and who sleep on the ground. Whether we should
read Helli, with Pindar, or Selli, as it is conjectured the word
existed in Homer, the ambiguity of the writing does not
permit us to affirm confidently. Philochorus says, that the
country about Dodona was called, like Euboea, Hellopia; for
these are the words of Hesiod,
There is a country Hellopia, rich in corn-fields and pastures; at its
extremity is built Dodona.
It is supposed, says Apollodorus, that it had this name from
the hele, or marshes about the temple. He is of opinion
that the poet did not call the people about the temple Helli,
but Selli, adding, that Homer mentions a certain river (near)
of the name of Selleis. He specifies the name in this line,
At a distance far from Ephyra, from the river Selleis.
[Demetrius of Skepsis contends that] Ephyra of Thesprotia
is not here meant, but Ephyra of Elis. For the river Selleis
is in Elis, and there is no river of this name either in Thesprotia or among the Molotti. The fable of the oak and the
doves, and other similar things, like the stories connected with
Delphi, although they are subjects more adapted to engage
the attention of a poet, yet are appropriate to the description
of the country with which we are now occupied.
Dodona was formerly subject to the Thesproti, as was the mountain Tomarus, or Tmarus, (both names are in use,) be low which the temple is situated. The tragic writers and Pindar give the epithet of Thesprotis to Dodona. It was said to be subject, in later times, to the Molotti. Those called by the poet Jove's interpreters, note and described by him as men with unwashen feet, who slept on the ground, were, it is said called Tomuri note from Mount Tomarus, and the passage in the
Odyssey containing the advice of Amphinomus to the suitors
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Strabo, Geography (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Str.].