Volume 1
The geography of Strabo / Literally translated, with notes. The first six books by H. C .Hamilton, esq., the remainder by W. Falconer.
- Strabo
- Date:
- 1854-1857
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The geography of Strabo / Literally translated, with notes. The first six books by H. C .Hamilton, esq., the remainder by W. Falconer. Source: Wellcome Collection.
424/542 page 410
![that the flow of the river should remain compact through so long: a course, not mixing: with the .sea until it should fall into the fancied channel, is entirely visionary; for we can scarcely credit it of the Rhone, the body of the waters of which remains compact during its passage through the lake, and preserves a visible course, but in that instance both the dis- tance is short and the lake is not agitated by waves like the sea, but in this case of the Alpheus,* where there are great storms and the waters are tossed with violence, the supposi- tion is by no means worthy of attention. The fable of the chalice being carried over is likewise a mere fabrication, for it is not calculated for transfer, nor is it by any means pro- bable it should be Avashed away so far, nor yet by such diffi- cult passages. Many rivers, however, and in many parts of the AAmrld, flow beneath the earth, but none for so great a distance.—Still, although there may be no impossibility in this circumstance, yet the above-mentioned accounts are alto- gether impossible, and almost as absurd as the fable related of the Inachus: this river, as Sophocles - feigns, “ Flowing from the heights of Pindus and Lacmus, passes from the country of the Perrhoebi’ to that of the Amphilochi* and the Acamani- ans, and mingles its waters Avith the Achelous and further on [he says], “ Thence to Argos, cutting through the waA’es, it comes to the territory , of Lyrceius.” (Those Avho Avould have the river Inopus to be a branch of the Nile floAAung to Delos, exaggerate this kind of marvel to the utmost. Zoilus the rhetorician, in his Eulogium of the people of Tenedos, says that the river Alpheus flows from Tenedos : yet this is the man Avho blames Homer for ffibulous writing. Ibycus also says that the Asopus, a river of Sicyon,** floAvs from Phrygia. Ilecatmus is more rational. Avho says that the Inachus of the Amphilochi, AA'hich flows from Mount Lacmus, from whence also the ^Eas' descends, Avas distinct from the river of like name in Argolis, and Avas so named after Amphilochus, from Avhom likeAvise the city of Argos Avas de- ' .V river of Elis. • The ]ilay from Avhich this is quoted is not extant. ’ A. people of Thessalj'. ■* A people of Argos. ® .\spro-polamo. ‘ In the Peloponnesus. . ‘ The Lao or the Pollina.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24872556_0001_0424.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
