Strabo, Geography, Hans Claude Hamilton (Translator), William Falconer (Translator), 13.4.6

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[6] The verses in Homer are to this effect,

Mesthles and Antiphus, sons of Talaemenes, born of the lake Gygaea, were the leaders of the Meones, who live below Tmolus.¹

Some persons add a fourth verse to these,

below snowy Tmolus, in the rich district of Hyde.

But no Hyde² is to be found among the Lydians. Others make this the birth-place of Tychius, mentioned by the poet,

he was the best leather-cutter in Hyde.³

Il. vii. 221. They add that the place is woody, and frequently struck with lightning, and that here also were the dwellings of the Arimi; for to this verse, Among the Arimi, where they say is the bed of Typhoëus,⁴ they add the following,

in a woody country, in the rich district of Hyde.

Some lay the scene of the last fable in Cilicia, others in Syria, others among the Pithecussae (islands),⁵ who say that the Pitheci (or monkeys) are called by the Tyrrhenians Arimi. Some call Sardes Hyde; others give this name to its Acropolis.

The Scepsian (Demetrius) says that the opinion of those authors is most to be depended upon who place the Arimi in the Catacecaumene in Mysia. But Pindar associates the Pithecussae which lie in front of the Cymaean territory and Sicily with Cilicia, for the poet says that Typhon lay beneath Aetna;

Once he dwelt in far-famed Cilician caverns, but now Sicily, and the sea-girt isle, o’ershadowing Cyme, press upon his shaggy breast.⁶

And again,

O’er him lies Aetna, and in her vast prison holds him.

And again,

’Twas the great Jove alone of gods that overpowered, with resistless force, the fifty-headed monster Typhon, of yore among the Arimi.

Others understand Syrians by the Arimi, who are now called Aramaei, and maintain that the Cilicians in the Troad migrated and settled in Syria, and deprived the Syrians of the country which is now called Cilicia. Callisthenes says, that the Arimi from whom the mountains in the neighbourhood have the name of Arima, are situated near the Calycadnus,⁷ and the promontory Sarpedon close to the Corycian cave.

Geography. Strabo. Hans Claude Hamilton (Translator), William Falconer (Translator). London. 1854-1857.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by Tufts University.

Current edition Perseus

Geography (English) (Strabo. The Geography of Strabo, Vols. 1-3. Hamilton, Hans Claude, translator; Falconer, William, translator. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854-1857.)

Editions (1)

Γεωγραφικά Perseus (Strabo. Strabonis Geographica, Vols. 1-3. Meineke, August, editor. Leipzig: Teubner. 1877.) — 13.4.6 focus

[6] κειμένων δʼ οὕτω πως τῶν ἐπῶν παρʼ Ὁμήρῳ

Μῄοσιν αὖ Μέσθλης τε καὶ Ἄντιφος ἡγησάσθην,

υἷε Ταλαιμένεος, τὼ Γυγαίη τέκε λίμνη,

οἳ καὶ Μῄονας ἦγον ὑπὸ Τμώλῳ γεγαῶτας,

¹ προσγράφουσί τινες τοῦτο τέταρτον ἔπος

Τμώλῳ ὑπὸ νιφόεντι, Ὕδης ἐν πίονι δήμῳ.

οὐδεμία δʼ εὑρίσκεται Ὕδη ἐν τοῖς Λυδοῖς. οἱ δὲ καὶ τὸν Τυχίον ἐνθένδε ποιοῦσιν ὅν φησιν ὁ ποιητής

σκυτοτόμων ὄχʼ ἄριστος Ὕδῃ ἔνι.

² προστιθέασι δὲ καὶ διότι δρυμώδης ὁ τόπος καὶ κεραυνόβολος, καὶ ὅτι ἐνταῦθα οἱ Ἄριμοι· καὶ γὰρ τῷ

εἰν Ἀρίμοις, ὅθι φασὶ Τυφωέος ἔμμεναι εὐνάς

³ ἐπεισφέρουσι

χώρῳ ἐνὶ δρυόεντι, Ὕδης ἐν πίονι δήμῳ.

ἄλλοι δʼ ἐν Κιλικίᾳ, τινὲς δʼ ἐν Συρία πλάττουσι τὸν μῦθον τοῦτον, οἱ δʼ ἐν Πιθηκούσσαις, οἳ καὶ τοὺς πιθήκους φασὶ παρὰ τοῖς Τυρρηνοῖς ἀρίμους καλεῖσθαι· οἱ δὲ τὰς Σάρδεις Ὕδην ὀνομάζουσιν, οἱ δὲ τὴν ἀκρόπολιν αὐτῆς. πιθανωτάτους δʼ ὁ Σκήψιος ἡγεῖται τοὺς ἐν τῇ Κατακεκαυμένῃ τῆς Μυσίας τοὺς Ἀρίμους τιθέντας. Πίνδαρος δὲ συνοικειοῖ τοῖς ἐν τῇ Κιλικίᾳ τὰ ἐν Πιθηκούσσαις, ἅπερ ἐστὶ πρὸ τῆς Κυμαίας, καὶ τὰ ἐν Σικελίᾳ· καὶ γὰρ τῇ Αἴτνῃ φησὶν ὑποκεῖσθαι τὸν Τυφῶνα

τόν ποτε

Κιλίκιον θρέψεν πολυώνυμον ἄντρον· νῦν γε μὰν

ταί θʼ ὑπὲρ Κύμας ἁλιερκέες ὄχθαι

Σικελία τʼ αὐτοῦ πιέζει στέρνα λαχνάεντα.

⁴ καὶ πάλιν

κείνῳ μὲν Αἴτνα δεσμὸς ὑπερφίαλος

ἀμφίκειται.

καὶ πάλιν

ἀλλʼ οἶος ἄπλατον κεράιζε θεῶν

Τυφῶνα πεντηκοντακάρανον ἀνάγκᾳ Ζεὺς πατὴρ

ἐν Ἀρίμοις ποτέ.

⁵ οἱ δὲ τοὺς Σύρους Ἀρίμους δέχονται, οὓς νῦν Ἀραμαίους λέγουσι, τοὺς δὲ Κίλικας τοὺς ἐν Τροίᾳ μεταναστάντας εἰς Συρίαν ἀνῳκισμένους ἀποτεμέσθαι παρὰ τῶν Σύρων τὴν νῦν λεγομένην Κιλικίαν. Καλλισθένης δʼ ἐγγὺς τοῦ Καλυκάδνου καὶ τῆς Σαρπηδόνος ἄκρας παρʼ αὐτὸ τὸ Κωρύκιον ἄντρον εἶναι τοὺς Ἀρίμους, ἀφʼ ὧν τὰ ἐγγὺς ὄρη λέγεσθαι Ἄριμα.

Translations (1)

Geography (Books 6-14) Perseus (Strabo. The Geography of Strabo, Vols. 3-6. Jones, Horace Leonard, translator. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd., 1924-1929 (printing).) — 13.4.6 focus

[6] The verses of Homer are about as follows:

Mnesthles and Antiphus, the two sons of Talaemenes, whose mother was Lake Gygaea, who led also the Meïonians, who were born at the foot of Tmolus;

¹but some add the following fourth verse:

At the foot of snowy Tmolus, in the fertile land of Hyde.

But there is no Hyde to be found in the country of the Lydians. Some also put Tychius there, of whom the poet says,

far the best of workers in hide, who lived in Hyde.

²And they add that the place is woody and subject to strokes of lightning, and that the Arimi live there, for after Homer’s verse,

in the land of the Arimi where men say is the couch of Typhon,

³they insert the words,

in a wooded place, in the fertile land of Hyde.

But others lay the scene of this myth in Cilicia, and some lay it in Syria, and still others in the Pithecussae Islands, who say that among the Tyrrhenians “pitheci”⁴ are called “arimi.” Some call Sardeis Hyde, while others call its acropolis Hyde. But the Scepsian⁵ thinks that those writers are most plausible who place the Arimi in the Catacecaumene country in Mysia. But Pindar associates the Pithecussae which lie off the Cymaean territory, as also the territory in Sicily, with the territory in Cilicia, for he says that Typhon lies beneath Aetna:

Once he dwelt in a far-famed Cilician cavern; now, however, his shaggy breast is o’er-pressed by the sea-girt shores above Cymae and by Sicily.

⁶And again,

round about him lies Aetna with her haughty fetters,

and again,

but it was father Zeus that once amongst the Arimi, by necessity, alone of the gods, smote monstrous Typhon of the fifty heads.

⁷But some understand that the Syrians are Arimi, who are now called the Arimaeans, and that the Cilicians in Troy, forced to migrate, settled again in Syria and cut off for themselves what is now called Cilicia. Callisthenes says that the Arimi, after whom the neighboring mountains are called Arima, are situated near Mt. Calycadnus and the promontory of Sarpedon near the Corycian cave itself.

Notes on the current edition

Geography

1. Il. ii. 864.

2. B. ix.

3. Il. vii. 221.

4. Il. ii. 783.

5. Pliny does not approve of the word Pithecussae being derived from πίθηκος, a monkey; but from πίθος, a cask. This latter derivation is not natural, whilst the former is at least conformable to analogy. Hesychius confirms the Tyrrhenian meaning of the word Arimi, calling ̓́αριμος, πίθηκος. The expression in Homer, εἰν?̓αοͅίμοις, among the Arini, (which in Roman letters would be ein Arimis, and which is translated into Latin by in Arimis,) signifies in the Pithecussae Islands, according to the opinion of those who placed Typhoëus in Italy. But it is remarkable that from the two words ein Arimis of Homer the name Inarimis has been invented; and quoted as Homer’s by Pliny (iii. 6): Aenasia ipsa, a statione navium Aeneae, Homero Inarime dicta, Graecis Pithecussa, non a simiarum multitudine, ut aliqui existimavere sed a figlinis doliorum. It is not Homer, however, that he ought to have quoted, but Virgil, who was the first to coin one word out of the two Greek words. Inarime Jovis imperiis imposta Typhoëo. Aen. ix. 716. The modern name is Ischia.

6. Pyth. i. 31.

7. Ke’ikdni.

Strabo Geography 13.4.6

Hans Claude Hamilton (Translator), William Falconer (Translator)

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