Greek Texts & Translations

7

The greater part of the city of the Argives is situated in a plain. It has a citadel called Larisa, a hill moderately fortified, and upon it a temple of Jupiter. Near it flows the Inachus, a torrent river; its source is in Lyrceium [the Arcadian mountain near Cynuria]. We have said before that the fabulous stories about its sources are the inventions of poets; it is a fiction also that Argos is without water— but the gods made Argos a land without water.
Now the ground consists of hollows, it is intersected by rivers, and is full of marshes and lakes; the city also has a copious supply of water from many wells, which rises near the surface.

They attribute the mistake to this verse, and I shall return disgraced to Argos (πολυδιψιον) the very thirsty. ^note
Il. iv. 171. This word is used for πολυπόθητον, or much longed after,
or without the δ for πολυίψιον, equivalent to the expression πολύφθορον in Sophocles, this house of the Pelopidae abounding in slaughter,
Sophocles, El. 10. [for ποϊάψαι and ἰάψαι and ἴψασθαι, denote some injury or destruction; at present he is making the attempt, and he will soon-destroy (ἴψεται) the sons of the Achaei; ^note and again, lest she should injure (ἰάψν) her beautiful skin; ^note
Od. ii. 376. and, has prematurely sent down, προαψεν, to Ades. ^note] ^note
Il. i. 3.

Besides, he does not mean the city Argos, for it was not thither that he was about to return, but he meant Peloponnesus, which, certainly, is not a thirsty land.

With respect to the letter δ, they introduce the conjunction by the figure hyperbaton, and make an elision of the vowel, so that the verse would run thus, και κεν ἐλὲγχιστος, πολὺ δʼ ἴψιον αργος ἱκοίμην,
that is, πολυίψιον αγοσδε ἱκοίμην, instead of, εἰς αγος. 8

The Inachus ^note is one of the rivers, which flows through the Argive territory; there is also another in Argia, the