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[7] Now as for Homer’s statements, those who have studied the subject more carefully
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conjecture from them that the whole of this coast became subject to the Trojans, and, though divided into nine dynasties, was under the sway of Priam at the time of the Trojan War and was called Troy. And this is clear from his detailed statements. For instance, Achilles and his army, seeing at the outset that the inhabitants of Ilium were enclosed by walls, tried to carry on the war outside and, by making raids all round, to take away from them all the surrounding places:
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For by “Troy” he means the part of the mainland that was sacked by him; and, along with other places, Achilles also sacked the country opposite Lesbos in the neighborhood of Thebe and Lyrnessus and Pedasus,
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which last belonged to the Leleges, and also the country of Eurypylus the son of Telephus.
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that is, the hero Eurypylus, slain by Neoptolemus. Now the poet says that these places were sacked, including Lesbos itself:
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and
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and
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It was at Lyrnessus that Briseïs was taken captive,
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and it was at her capture, according to the poet, that Mynes and Epistrophus fell, as is shown by the lament of Briseïs over Patroclus:
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for in calling Lyrnessus “the city of divine Mynes” the poet indicates that Mynes was dynast over it and that he fell in battle there. But it was at Thebe that Chryseïs was taken captive:
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and the poet says that Chryseïs was part of the spoil brought from that place.
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Thence, too, came Andromache:
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This is the second Trojan dynasty after that of Mynes. And consistently with these facts writers think that the following statement of Andromache,
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should not be interpreted strictly, I mean the words “thou in Troy, but I at Thebae” (or Thebe), but as a case of hyperbaton, meaning “both of us in Troy—thou in the house of Priam, but I at Thebae.” The third dynasty was that of the Leleges, which was also Trojan:
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by whose daughter Priam begot Lycaon and Polydorus. And indeed those who are placed under Hector in the
Catalogue are called Trojans:
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And then come those under Aeneias:
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and these, too, were Trojans; at any rate, the poet says,
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And then come the Lycians under Pandarus, and these also he calls Trojans:
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And this was the sixth dynasty. And indeed those who lived between the Aesepus River and Abydus were Trojans; for not only were the parts round Abydus subject to Asius,
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but a son of Priam lived at Abydus, pasturing mares, clearly his father’s:
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while in Percote a son of Hicetaon was pasturing kine, he likewise pasturing kine that belonged to no other:
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so that this country would be a part of the Troad, as also the next country after it as far as Adrasteia, for the leaders of the latter were
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Accordingly, the people from Abydus to Adrasteia were all Trojans, although they were divided into two groups, one under Asius and the other under the sons of Merops, just as Cilicia
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also was divided into two parts, the Theban Cilicia and the Lyrnessian;
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but one might include in the Lyrnessian Cilicia the territory subject to Eurypylus, which lay next to the Lyrnessian Cilicia.
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But that Priam was ruler of these countries, one and all, is clearly indicated by Achilles’ words to Priam:
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Twelve cities of men I have laid waste with my ships, and eleven, I declare, by land throughout the fertile land of Troy.
But what a man was that son of Telephus who was slain by him with the bronze,
when he himself took well-built Lesbos;
he sacked Lyrnessus and Pedasus;
when he laid waste Lyrnessus and the walls of Thebe.
whom he carried away from Lyrnessus;
thou wouldst not even, not even, let me weep when swift Achilles slew my husband and sacked the city of divine Mynes;
We went into Thebe, the sacred city of Eëtion;
Andromache, daughter of great hearted Eëtion; Eëtion who dwelt ’neath wooded Placus in Thebe Hypoplacia,
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and was lord over the men of Cilicia.
Hector, woe is me! surely to one doom we were born, both of us—thou in Troy in the house of Priam, but I at Thebae,
Of Altes, who is lord over the war-loving Leleges,
The Trojans were led by great Hector of the flashing helmet.
The Dardanians in turn were commanded by the valiant son of Anchises
Aeneias, counsellor of the Trojans.
And those who dwelt in Zeleia beneath the nethermost foot of Ida, Aphneiï,
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who drink the dark water of the Aesepus, Trojans; these in turn were commanded by Pandarus, the glorious son of Lycaon.
But he smote Democoön, the bastard son of Priam, who had come at Priam’s bidding from his swift mares;
And first he rebuked mighty Melanippus the son of Hicetaon, who until this time had been wont to feed the kine of shambling gait in Percote;
the two sons of Merops of Percote.
And of thee, old sire, we hear that formerly thou wast blest; how of all that is enclosed by Lesbos, out at sea, city of Macar, and by Phrygia in the upland, and by the boundless Hellespont.
Geography. Strabo. Horace Leonard Jones (Translator). London. 1924-1929.
Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.
Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.