Notes on the current edition
Geography
1.
According to the Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius (
1933), cited by Leaf (
Troy, p. 187, “Lampsacus was formerly called Pityeia, or, as others spell it, Pitya. Some say that Phrixus stored his treasure there and that the city was named after the treasure, for the Thracian word for treasure is ‘pitye’” (but cf. the Greek word “pitys,” “pine tree”). Strabo, however, places Pitya to the east of Parium, whereas Lampsacus lies to the west (see Leaf, l.c., pp. 185 ff.; and his
Strabo on the Troad, p. 87). In section 18 (following) Strabo says that “Lampsacus was formerly called Pityussa.”
2.
Leaf (l.c.) translates, “hill shaped like a pine tree,” adding (p. 187) that “the resemblance to a pine tree, so far as my personal observation went, means no more than that the hill slopes gently up to a rounded top.” However, the Greek adjective probably means in the present passage “pine covered” (cf. the use of the same adjective in 8. 6. 22, where it applies to a sacred precinct on the Isthmus of Corinth).
