Previous Page
| Next Page
|
parently with more probability on their side. For they say, that in their territory there is a place better known, called Gerena, and once well inhabited.
Such then is the present state of the Hollow Elis. note 8
The poet however, after having divided the country into
four parts, and mentioned the four chiefs, does not clearly
express himself, when he says:
those who inhabit Buprasium and the sacred Elis, all whom Hyrminë
and Myrsinus, situated at the extremity of the territory and the Olenian
rock, and Aleisium contain, these were led by four chiefs; ten swift vessels
accompanied each, and multitudes of Epeii were embarked in them. note
For, by applying the name Epeii to both people, the Buprasians and the Eleii, and by never applying the name Eleii to
the Buprasians, he may seem to divide, not Eleia, but the
country of the Epeii, into four parts, which he had before
divided into two; nor would Buprasium then be a part of Elis,
but rather of the country of the Epeii. For that he terms
the Buprasians Epeii, is evident from these words:
As when the Epeii were burying King Amarynces at Buprasium. note
Again, by enumerating together Buprasium and sacred
Elis, and then by making a fourfold division, he seems to
arrange these very four divisions in common under both Buprasium and Elis.
Buprasium, it is probable, was a considerable settlement in Eleia, which does not exist at present. But the territory only has this name, which lies on the road to Dyme from Elis the present city. It might be supposed that Buprasium had at that time some superiority over Elis, as the Epeii had over the Eleii, but afterwards they had the name of Eleii instead of Epeii.
Buprasium then was a part of Elis, and they say, that
Homer, by a poetical figure, speaks of the whole and of the
part together, as in these lines:
through Greece and the middle of Argos; note through Greece and
Pthia; note the Curetes and the Aetoli were fighting note those from
Dulichium and the sacred Echinades; note
for Dulichium is one of the Echinades. Modern writers also
use this figure, as Hipponax,
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
Strabo, Geography (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Str.].