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was not aware how it happened that Jason, who was a Thes-
salian of Iolcos, should leave no descendants in the land of his
nativity, but establish his son as ruler of Lemnos? Homer
then was familiar with the history of Pelias and the daughters
of Pelias, of Alcestis, who was the most charming of them
all, and of her son
Eumelus, whom Alcestis, praised
Iliad ii. 714.
For beauty above all her sisters fair,
In Thessaly to king Admetus bore, note
If, however, the expedition to the Phasis, fitted out by Pelias, its return, and the conquest of several islands, have at the bottom any truth whatever, as all say they have, so also has the account of their wanderings, no less than those of Ulysses and Menelaus; monuments of the actual occurrence of which remain to this day elsewhere than in the writings of Homer. The city of Aea, close by the Phasis, is still pointed Out Aeetes is generally believed to have reigned in Colchis, the name is still common throughout the country, tales of the sorceress Medea are yet abroad, and the riches of the country in gold, silver, and iron, proclaim the motive of Jason's expedition, as well as of that which Phrixus had formerly undertaken. Traces both of one and the other still remain. Such is Phrixium, note midway between Colchis and Iberia, and the Jasonia, or towns of Jason, which are every where met with in Armenia, Media, and the surrounding countries. Many are the witnesses to the reality of the expeditions of Jason and Phrixus at Sinope note and its shore, at Propontis, at the Hellespont, and even at Lemnos. Of Jason and his Colchian followers there are traces even as far as Crete, note Italy, and the Adriatic. Callimachus himself alludes to it where he says,
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Strabo, Geography (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Str.].