[1] As for the Curetes, some assign them to the Acarnanians, others to the Aetolians; and some assert that they originated in Crete, but others in Euboea; but since Homer mentions them, I should first investigate his account. It is thought that he means that they were Aetolians rather than Acarnanians, if indeed the sons of Porthaon were ¹ These are both Aetolian cities, and are referred to in the Aetolian catalogue; and therefore, since, even according to the poet, the Curetes obviously lived in Pleuron, they would be Aetolians. Those writers who oppose this view are misled by Homer’s mode of expression when he says, ² for, they add, neither would he have spoken appropriately if he had said, “the Boeotians and the Thebans were fighting against one another”; or “the Argives and the Peloponnesians.” But, as I have shown heretofore, ³ this habit of expression not only is Homeric, but is much used by the other poets also. This interpretation, then, is easy to defend; but let those writers explain how the poet could catalogue the Pleuronians among the Aetolians if they were not Aetolians or at least of the same race.

[2] Ephorus, ⁴ after saying that the Aetolians were a race which had never become subject to any other people, but throughout all time of which there is any record had remained undevastated, both because of the ruggedness of their country and because of their training in warfare, says at the outset that the Curetes held possession of the whole country, but when Aetolus, ⁵ the son of Endymion, arrived from Elis and overpowered them in war, the Curetes withdrew to what is now called Acarnania, whereas the Aetolians came back with Epeians and founded the earliest of the cities of Aetolia, and in the tenth generation after that Elis was settled by Oxylus ⁶ the son of Haemon, who had crossed over from Aetolia. And he cites as evidence of all this two inscriptions, the one at Therma in Aetolia (where it is their ancestral custom to hold their elections of magistrates), engraved on the base of the statue of Aetolus: and the other inscription in the marketplace of the Eleians on the statue of Oxylus:

[3] Now through these inscriptions Ephorus correctly signifies the kinship of the Eleians and Aetolians with one another, since both inscriptions agree, not merely as to the kinship of the two peoples, but also that each people was the founder of the other, through which he successfully convicts of falsehood those who assert that, while the Eleians were indeed colonists of the Aetolians, the Aetolians were not colonists of the Eleians. But here, too, Ephorus manifestly displays the same inconsistency in his writing and his pronouncements as in the case of the oracle at Delphi, which I have already set forth; ⁷ for, after saying that Aetolia has been undevastated throughout all times of which there is any record, and after saying also that in the beginning the Curetes held possession of this country, he should have added as a corollary to what he had already said that the Curetes continued to hold possession of the Aetolian land down to his own time, for only thus could it have been rightly said that the land had been undevastated and that it had never come under the power of others; and yet, utterly forgetting his promise, ⁸ he does not add this, but the contrary, that when Aetolus arrived from Elis and overpowered the Curetes in war, they withdrew into Acarnania. What else, pray, is specifically characteristic of a devastation than being overpowered in war and abandoning the country? And this is evidenced also by the inscription among the Eleians, for Aetolus, it says,

[4] Perhaps, however, one might say that Ephorus means that Aetolia was undevastated from the time when it got this name, that is, after Aetolus arrived there; but Ephorus has deprived himself of the argument in support of this idea by saying in his next words that this, meaning the tribe of the Epeians, constituted the greatest part of the people who stayed on among the Aetolians, but that later, when Aeolians, who at the same time with Boeotians had been compelled to migrate from Thessaly, were intermingled with them, they in common with these held possession of the country. Is it credible, pray, that without war they invaded the country of a different people and divided it up with its possessors, when the latter had no need of such a partnership? Or, since this is not credible, is it credible that those who were overpowered by arms came out on an equality with the victors? What else, pray, is devastation than being overpowered by arms? Apollodorus, also, says that, according to history, the Hyantes left Boeotia and settled among the Aetolians. But Ephorus, as though he had achieved success in his argument, adds: “It is my wont to examine such matters as these with precision, whenever any matter is either altogether doubtful or falsely interpreted.”

[5] But though Ephorus is such, still he is better than others. And Polybius ⁹ himself, who praises him so earnestly, and says concerning the Greek histories that Eudoxus ¹⁰ indeed gave a good account, but Ephorus gave the best account of the foundings of cities, kinships, migrations, and original founders, “but I,” he says, ¹¹ But assuredly you, Polybius, who introduce “popular notions” ¹² concerning distances, not only in dealing with places outside of Greece, but also when treating Greece itself, must also submit to an accounting, not only to Poseidonius, ¹³ and to Apollodorus, but to several others as well. One should therefore pardon me as well, and not be vexed, if I make any mistakes when I borrow from such writers most of my historical material, but should rather be content if in the majority of cases I improve upon the accounts given by others, or if I add such facts as have elsewhere, owing to lack of knowledge, been left untold.

[6] Concerning the Curetes still further accounts, to the following effect, are given, some of them being more closely related to the history of the Aetolians and the Acarnanians, others more remotely. More closely related are such accounts as I have given before—that the Curetes were living in the country which is now called Aetolia, and that the Aetolians came with Aetolus and drove them into Acarnania; and also accounts of this kind, that, when Pleuronia was inhabited by the Curetes and was called Curetis, Aeolians made an invasion and took it away from them, and drove out its occupants. Archemachus the Euboean ¹⁴ says that the Curetes settled at Chalcis, but since they were continually at war for the Lelantine Plain and the enemy would catch them by the front hair and drag them down, he says, they let their hair grow long behind but cut short the part in front, and because of this they were called “Curetes,” from the cut of their hair, ¹⁵ and they then migrated to Aetolia, and, after taking possession of the region round Pleuron, called the people who lived on the far side of the Acheloüs “Acarnanians,” because they kept their heads “unshorn.” ¹⁶ But some say that each of the two tribes got its name from a hero; others, that the Curetes were named after the mountain Curium, which is situated about Pleuron, and also that this is an Aetolian tribe, like the Ophians and the Agraeans and the Eurytanians and several others. But, as I have already stated, ¹⁷ when Aetolia was divided into two parts, the region round Calydon, they say, was in the possession of Oeneus, whereas a certain part of Pleuronia was in the possession of the sons of Porthaon, that is, Agrius and his followers, if it be true that ¹⁸ the mastery over Pleuronia, however, was held by Thestius (the father-in-law of Oeneus and father of Althaea), who was leader of the Curetes; but when war broke out between the sons of Thestius, on the one hand, and Oeneus and Meleager, on the other ( ¹⁹ as the poet says, following the mythical story of the boar, ²⁰ but in all probability about the possession of a part of the territory), according to the words of the poet, ²¹ So much for the accounts which are more closely related.

[7] The accounts which are more remotely related, however, to the present subject, but are wrongly, on account of the identity of the names, brought into the same connection by the historians—I mean those accounts which, although they are called “Curetan History” and “History of the Curetes,” just as if they were the history of those Curetes who lived in Aetolia and Acarnania, not only are different from that history, but are more like the accounts of the Satyri, Sileni, Bacchae, and Tityri; for the Curetes, like these, are called genii or ministers of gods by those who have handed down to us the Cretan and the Phrygian traditions, which are interwoven with certain sacred rites, some mystical, the others connected in part with the rearing of the child Zeus ²² in Crete and in part with the orgies in honor of the mother of the gods which are celebrated in Phrygia and in the region of the Trojan Ida. But the variation in these accounts is so small that, whereas some represent the Corybantes, the Cabeiri, the Idaean Dactyli, and the Telchines as identical with the Curetes, others represent them as all kinsmen of one another and differentiate only certain small matters in which they differ in respect to one another; but, roughly speaking and in general, they represent them, one and all, as a kind of inspired people and as subject to Bacchic frenzy, and, in the guise of ministers, as inspiring terror at the celebration of the sacred rites by means of war-dances, accompanied by uproar and noise and cymbals and drums and arms, and also by flute and outcry; and consequently these rites are in a way regarded as having a common relationship, I mean these and those of the Samothracians and those in Lemnos and in several other places, because the divine ministers are called the same. However, every investigation of this kind pertains to theology, and is not foreign to the speculation of the philosopher.

[8] But since also the historians, because of the identity of name of the Curetes, have classed together things that are unlike, neither should I myself shrink from discussing them at greater length, by way of digression, adding such account of their physical habits as is appropriate to history. And yet some historians even wish to assimilate their physical habits with those others, and perhaps there is something plausible in their undertaking. For instance, they say that the Curetes of Aetolia got this name because, like “girls,” ²³ they wore women’s clothes, for, they add, there was a fashion of this kind among the Greeks, and the Ionians were called “tunic-trailing,” ²⁴ and the soldiers of Leonidas were “dressing their hair” ²⁵ when they were to go forth to battle, so that the Persians, it is said, conceived a contempt for them, though in the battle they marvelled at them. Speaking generally, the art of caring for the hair consists both in its nurture and in the way it is cut, and both are given special attention by “girls” and “youths”; ²⁶ so that there are several ways in which it is easy to derive an etymology of the word “Curetes.” It is reasonable to suppose, also, that the war-dance was first introduced by persons who were trained in this particular way in the matter of hair and dress, these being called Curetes, and that this dance afforded a pretext to those also who were more warlike than the rest and spent their life under arms, so that they too came to be called by the same name, “Curetes “—I mean the Curetes in Euboea, Aetolia, and Acarnania. And indeed Homer applied this name to young soldiers, ²⁸ and again, ²⁹ So much for the etymology of the word “Curetes.” The war-dance was a soldiers’ dance; and this is plainly indicated both by the “Pyrrhic dance,” ³⁰ and by “Pyrrichus,” who is said to be the founder of this kind of training for young men, as also by the treatises on military affairs. ³¹

[9] But I must now investigate how it comes about that so many names have been used of one and the same thing, and the theological element contained in their history. Now this is common both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, to perform their sacred rites in connection with the relaxation of a festival, these rites being performed sometimes with religious frenzy, sometimes without it; sometimes with music, sometimes not; and sometimes in secret, sometimes openly. And it is in accordance with the dictates of nature that this should be so, for, in the first place, the relaxation draws the mind away from human occupations and turns the real mind towards that which is divine; and, secondly, the religious frenzy seems to afford a kind of divine inspiration and to be very like that of the soothsayer; and, thirdly, the secrecy with which the sacred rites are concealed induces reverence for the divine, since it imitates the nature of the divine, which is to avoid being perceived by our human senses; and, fourthly, music, which includes dancing as well as rhythm and melody, at the same time, by the delight it affords and by its artistic beauty, brings us in touch with the divine, and this for the following reason; for although it has been well said that human beings then act most like the gods when they are doing good to others, yet one might better say, when they are happy; and such happiness consists of rejoicing, celebrating festivals, pursuing philosophy, and engaging in music; for, if music is perverted when musicians turn their art to sensual delights at symposiums and in orchestric and scenic performances and the like, we should not lay the blame upon music itself, but should rather examine the nature of our system of education, since this is based on music.

[10] And on this account Plato, and even before his time the Pythagoreians, called philosophy music; ³² and they say that the universe is constituted in accordance with harmony, ³³ assuming that every form of music is the work of the gods. And in this sense, also, the Muses are goddesses, and Apollo is leader of the Muses, and poetry as a whole is laudatory of the gods. And by the same course of reasoning they also attribute to music the upbuilding of morals, believing that everything which tends to correct the mind is close to the gods. Now most of the Greeks assigned to Dionysus, Apollo, Hecate, the Muses, and above all to Demeter, everything of an orgiastic or Bacchic or choral nature, as well as the mystic element in initiations; and they give the name “Iacchus” not only to Dionysus but also to the leader-in-chief of the mysteries, who is the genius of Demeter. And branch-bearing, choral dancing, and initiations are common elements in the worship of these gods. As for the Muses and Apollo, the Muses preside over the choruses, whereas Apollo presides both over these and the rites of divination. But all educated men, and especially the musicians, are ministers of the Muses; and both these and those who have to do with divination are ministers of Apollo; and the initiated and torch-bearers and hierophants, of Demeter; and the Sileni and Satyri and Bacchae, and also the Lenae and Thyiae and Mimallones and Naïdes and Nymphae and the beings called Tityri, of Dionysus.

[11] In Crete, not only these rites, but in particular those sacred to Zeus, were performed along with orgiastic worship and with the kind of ministers who were in the service of Dionysus, I mean the Satyri. These ministers they called “Curetes,” young men who executed movements in armour, accompanied by dancing, as they set forth the mythical story of the birth of Zeus; in this they introduced Cronus as accustomed to swallow his children immediately after their birth, and Rhea as trying to keep her travail secret and, when the child was born, to get it out of the way and save its life by every means in her power; and to accomplish this it is said that she took as helpers the Curetes, who, by surrounding the goddess with tambourines and similar noisy instruments and with war-dance and uproar, were supposed to strike terror into Cronus and without his knowledge to steal his child away; and that, according to tradition, Zeus was actually reared by them with the same diligence; consequently the Curetes, either because, being young, that is “youths,” ³⁴ they performed this service, or because they “reared” Zeus “in his youth” ³⁵ (for both explanations are given), were accorded this appellation, as if they were Satyrs, so to speak, in the service of Zeus. Such, then, were the Greeks in the matter of orgiastic worship.

[12] But as for the Berecyntes, ³⁶ a tribe of Phrygians, and the Phrygians in general, and those of the Trojans who live round Ida, they too hold Rhea in honor and worship her with orgies, calling her Mother of the gods and Agdistis and Phrygia the Great Goddess, and also, from the places where she is worshipped, Idaea and Dindymene and Sipylene and Pessinuntis and Cybele and Cybebe. ³⁷ The Greeks use the same name “Curetes” for the ministers of the goddess, not taking the name, however, from the same mythical story, ³⁸ but regarding them as a different set of “Curetes,” helpers as it were, analogous to the Satyri; and the same they also call Corybantes.

[13] The poets bear witness to such views as I have suggested. For instance, when Pindar, in the dithyramb which begins with these words, mentions the hymns sung in honor of Dionysus, both the ancient and the later ones, and then, passing on from these, says, he bears witness to the common relationship between the rites exhibited in the worship of Dionysus among the Greeks and those in the worship of the Mother of the gods among the Phrygians, for he makes these rites closely akin to one another. And Euripides does likewise, in his Bacchae, citing the Lydian usages at the same time with those of Phrygia, because of their similarity: ⁴⁰ And again, ⁴³ And again, in the following verses he connects the Cretan usages also with the Phrygian: ⁵¹ And in the Palamedes the Chorus says, ⁵²

[14] And when they bring Seilenus and Marsyas and Olympus into one and the same connection, and make them the historical inventors of flutes, they again, a second time, connect the Dionysiac and the Phrygian rites; and they often in a confused manner drum on ⁵³ Ida and Olympus as the same mountain. Now there are four peaks of Ida called Olympus, near Antandria; and there is also the Mysian Olympus, which indeed borders on Ida, but is not the same. At any rate, Sophocles, in his Polyxena, representing Menelaus as in haste to set sail from Troy, but Agamemnon as wishing to remain behind for a short time for the sake of propitiating Athena, introduces Menelaüs as saying, ⁵⁴

[15] They invented names appropriate to the flute, and to the noises made by castanets, cymbals, and drums, and to their acclamations and shouts of “ev-ah,” and stampings of the feet; ⁵⁵ and they also invented some of the names by which to designate the ministers, choral dancers, and attendants upon the sacred rites, I mean “Cabeiri” and “Corybantes” and “Pans” and “Satyri” and “Tityri,” and they called the god “Bacchus,” and Rhea “Cybele” or “Cybebe” or “Dindymene” according to the places where she was worshipped. Sabazius also belongs to the Phrygian group and in a way is the child of the Mother, since he too transmitted the rites of Dionysus. ⁵⁶

[16] Also resembling these rites are the Cotytian and the Bendideian rites practiced among the Thracians, among whom the Orphic rites had their beginning. Now the Cotys who is worshipped among the Edonians, and also the instruments used in her rites, are mentioned by Aeschylus; for he says, and he mentions immediately afterwards the attendants of Dionysus: and again, for these rites resemble the Phrygian rites, and it is at least not unlikely that, just as the Phrygians themselves were colonists from Thrace, so also their sacred rites were borrowed from there. Also when they identify Dionysus and the Edonian Lycurgus, they hint at the homogeneity of their sacred rites.

[17] From its melody and rhythm and instruments, all Thracian music has been considered to be Asiatic. And this is clear, first, from the places where the Muses have been worshipped, for Pieria and Olympus and Pimpla and Leibethrum were in ancient times Thracian places and mountains, though they are now held by the Macedonians; and again, Helicon was consecrated to the Muses by the Thracians who settled in Boeotia, the same who consecrated the cave of the nymphs called Leibethrides. And again, those who devoted their attention to the music of early times are called Thracians, I mean Orpheus, Musaeus, and Thamyris; and Eumolpus, ⁶¹ too, got his name from there. And those writers who have consecrated the whole of Asia, as far as India, to Dionysus, derive the greater part of music from there. And one writer says, “striking the Asiatic cithara”; another calls flutes “Berecyntian” and “Phrygian”; and some of the instruments have been called by barbarian names, “nablas,” “sambyce,” “barbitos,” “magadis,” and several others.

[18] Just as in all other respects the Athenians continue to be hospitable to things foreign, so also in their worship of the gods; for they welcomed so many of the foreign rites that they were ridiculed therefore by comic writers; and among these were the Thracian and Phrygian rites. For instance, the Bendideian rites are mentioned by Plato, ⁶² and the Phrygian by Demosthenes, ⁶³ when he casts the reproach upon Aeschines’ mother and Aeschines himself that he was with her when she conducted initiations, that he joined her in leading the Dionysiac march, and that many a time he cried out “evoe saboe,” and “hyes attes, attes hyes”; for these words are in the ritual of Sabazius and the Mother.

[19] Further, one might also find, in addition to these facts concerning these genii and their various names, that they were called, not only ministers of gods, but also gods themselves. For instance, Hesiod says that five daughters were born to Hecaterus and the daughter of Phoroneus, ⁶⁴ And the author of Phoronis ⁶⁵ speaks of the Curetes as “flute-players” and “Phrygians”; and others as “earth-born” and “wearing brazen shields.” Some call the Corybantes, and not the Curetes, “Phrygians,” but the Curetes “Cretes,” ⁶⁶ and say that the Cretes were the first people to don brazen armour in Euboea, and that on this account they were also called “Chalcidians”; ⁶⁷ still others say that the Corybantes, who came from Bactriana (some say from among the Colchians), were given as armed ministers to Rhea by the Titans. But in the Cretan accounts the Curetes are called “rearers of Zeus,” and “protectors of Zeus,” having been summoned from Phrygia to Crete by Rhea. Some say that, of the nine Telchines ⁶⁸ who lived in Rhodes, those who accompanied Rhea to Crete and “reared” Zeus “in his youth” ⁶⁹ were named “Curetes”; and that Cyrbas, a comrade of these, who was the founder of Hierapytna, afforded a pretext to the Prasians ⁷⁰ for saying among the Rhodians that the Corybantes were certain genii, sons of Athena and Helius. Further, some call the Corybantes sons of Cronus, but others say that the Corybantes were sons of Zeus and Calliope and were identical with the Cabeiri, and that these went off to Samothrace, which in earlier times was called Melite, and that their rites were mystical.

[20] But though the Scepsian, ⁷¹ who compiled these myths, does not accept the last statement, on the ground that no mystic story of the Cabeiri is told in Samothrace, still he cites also the opinion of Stesimbrotus the Thasian ⁷² that the sacred rites in Samothrace were performed in honor of the Cabeiri: and the Scepsian says that they were called Cabeiri after the mountain Cabeirus in Berecyntia. Some, however, believe that the Curetes were the same as the Corybantes and were ministers of Hecate. But the Scepsian again states, in opposition to the words of Euripides, ⁷³ that the rites of Rhea were not sanctioned or in vogue in Crete, but only in Phrygia and the Troad, and that those who say otherwise are dealing in myths rather than in history, though perhaps the identity of the place-names contributed to their making this mistake. For instance, Ida is not only a Trojan, but also a Cretan, mountain; and Dicte is a place in Scepsia ⁷⁴ and also a mountain in Crete; and Pytna, after which the city Hierapytna ⁷⁵ was named, is a peak of Ida. And there is a Hippocorona in the territory of Adramyttium and a Hippocoronium in Crete. And Samonium is the eastern promontory of the island and a plain in the territory of Neandria and in that of the Alexandreians. ⁷⁶

[21] Acusilaüs, ⁷⁷ the Argive, calls Cadmilus the son of Cabeiro and Hephaestus, and Cadmilus the father of three Cabeiri, and these the fathers of the nymphs called Cabeirides. Pherecydes ⁷⁸ says that nine Cyrbantes were sprung from Apollo and Rhetia, and that they took up their abode in Samothrace; and that three Cabeiri and three nymphs called Cabeirides were the children of Cabeiro, the daughter of Proteus, and Hephaestus, and that sacred rites were instituted in honor of each triad. Now it has so happened that the Cabeiri are most honored in Imbros and Lemnos, but they are also honored in separate cities of the Troad; their names, however, are kept secret. Herodotus ⁷⁹ says that there were temples of the Cabeiri in Memphis, as also of Hephaestus, but that Cambyses destroyed them. The places where these deities were worshipped are uninhabited, both the Corybanteium in Hamaxitia in the territory now belonging to the Alexandreians near Sminthium, ⁸⁰ and Corybissa in Scepsia in the neighborhood of the river Eurëeis and of the village which bears the same name and also of the winter torrent Aethalöeis. The Scepsian says that it is probable that the Curetes and the Corybantes were the same, being those who had been accepted as young men, or “youths,” for the war-dance in connection with the holy rites of the Mother of the gods, and also as “corybantes” from the fact that they “walked with a butting of their heads” in a dancing way. ⁸¹ These are called by the poet “betarmones”: ^{82 83} And because the Corybantes are inclined to dancing and to religious frenzy, we say of those who are stirred with frenzy that they are “corybantising.”

[22] Some writers say that the name “Idaean Dactyli” was given to the first settlers of the lower slopes of Mt. Ida, for the lower slopes of mountains are called “feet,” and the summits “heads”; accordingly, the several extremities of Ida (all of which are sacred to the Mother of the gods) were called Dactyli. ⁸⁴ Sophocles ⁸⁵ thinks that the first male Dactyli were five in number, who were the first to discover and to work iron, as well as many other things which are useful for the purposes of life, and that their sisters were five in number, and that they were called Dactyli from their number. But different writers tell the myth in different ways, joining difficulty to difficulty; and both the names and numbers they use are different; and they name one of them “Celmis” and others “Damnameneus” and “Heracles” and “Acmon.” Some call them natives of Ida, others settlers; but all agree that iron was first worked by these on Ida; and all have assumed that they were wizards and attendants of the Mother of the gods, and that they lived in Phrygia about Ida; and they use the term Phrygia for the Troad because, after Troy was sacked, the Phrygians, whose territory bordered on the Troad, got the mastery over it. And they suspect that both the Curetes and the Corybantes were offspring of the Idaean Dactyli; at any rate, the first hundred men born in Crete were called Idaean Dactyli, they say, and as offspring of these were born nine Curetes, and each of these begot ten children who were called Idaean Dactyli.

[23] I have been led on to discuss these people rather at length, although I am not in the least fond of myths, because the facts in their case border on the province of theology. And theology as a whole must examine early opinions and myths, since the ancients expressed enigmatically the physical notions which they entertained concerning the facts and always added the mythical element to their accounts. Now it is not easy to solve with accuracy all the enigmas, but if the multitude of myths be set before us, some agreeing and others contradicting one another, one might be able more readily to conjecture out of them what the truth is. For instance, men probably speak in their myths about the “mountain-roaming” of religious zealots and of gods themselves, and about their “religious frenzies,” for the same reason that they are prompted to believe that the gods dwell in the skies and show forethought, among their other interests, for prognostication by signs. Now seeking for metals, and hunting, and searching for the things that are useful for the purposes of life, are manifestly closely related to mountain-roaming, whereas juggling and magic are closely related to religious frenzies, worship, and divination. And such also is devotion to the arts, in particular to the Dionysiac and Orphic arts. But enough on this subject.

[1] SOME writers reckon the Curetes among the Acarnanians, others among the Aetolians; some allege that they came from Crete, others that they came from Euboea. Since, however, they are mentioned by Homer, we must first examine his account of them. It is thought that he does not mean the Acarnanians, but the Aetolians, in the following verses, for the sons of Porthaon were,

Agrius, Melas, and the hero Oeneus,

These dwelt at Pleuron, and the lofty Calydon, ¹

Il. xiv. 116. both of which are Aetolian cities, and are mentioned in the Aetolian Catalogue; wherefore since those who inhabited Pleuron appear to be, according to Homer, Curetes, they might be Aetolians. The opponents of this conclusion are misled by the mode of expression in these verses,

Curetes and Aetolians, firm in battle, were fighting for the city Calydon, ²

Il. ix. 525. for neither would he have used appropriate terms if he had said, nor But we have shown in a former part of this work, that this mode of expression is usual with Homer, and even trite among other poets. This objection then is easily answered. But let the objectors explain, how, if these people were not Aetolians, the poet came to reckon the Pleuronii among the Aeto lians.

[2] Ephorus, after having asserted that the nation of the Aetolians were never in subjection to any other people, but, from all times of which any memorial remains, their country continued exempt from the ravages of war, both on account of its local obstacles and their own experience in warfare, says, that from the beginning Curetes were in possession of the whole country, but on the arrival of Aetōlus, the son of Endynion, from Elis, who defeated them in various battles, the Curetes retreated to the present Acarnania, and the Aetolians returned with a body of Epeii, and founded ten of the most ancient cities in Aetolia; and in the tenth generation afterwards Elis was founded, in conjunction with that people, by Oxylus, the son of Haemon, who had passed over from Aetolia. They produce, as proofs of these facts, inscriptions, one sculptured on the base of the statue of Aetolus at Therma in Aetolia, where, according to the custom of the country, they assemble to elect their magistrates; And the other inscription on the statue of Oxylus is in the market-place of Elis;

[3] He rightly alleges, as a proof of the affinity subsisting reciprocally between the Eleii and the $Etolians, these inscriptions, both of which recognise not the affinity alone, but also that their founders had established settlers in each other’s country. Whence he clearly convicts those of falsehood who assert, that the Eleii were a colony of Aetolians, and that the Aetolians were not a colony of Eleii. But he seems to exhibit the same inconsistency in his positions here, that we proved with regard to the oracle at Delphi. For after asserting that Aetolia had never been ravaged by war from all time of which there was any memorial, and saying, that from the first the Curetes were in possession of this country, he ³ ought to have inferred from such premises, that the Curetes continued to occupy the country of Aetolia to his days. For in this manner it might be understood never to have been devastated, nor in subjection to any other nation. But forgetting his position, he does not infer this, but the contrary, that Aetolus came from Elis, and having defeated the Curetes in various battles, these people retreated into Acarnania. What else then is there peculiar to the devastation of a country than the defeat of the inhabitants in war and their abandonment of their land, which is evinced by the inscription among the Eleii; for speaking of Aetolus the words are,

[4] But perhaps some person may say, that he means Aetolia was not laid waste, reckoning from the time that it had this name after the arrival of Aetolus; but he takes away the ground of this supposition, by saying afterwards, that the greatest part of the people, that remained among the Aetolians, were those called Epeii, with whom Aetolians were afterwards intermingled, who had been expelled from Thessaly together with Boeotians, and possessed the country in common with these people. But is it probable that, without any hostilities, they invaded the country of another nation and divided it among themselves and the original possessors, who did not require such a partition of their land? If this is not probable, is it to be believed that the victors agreed to an equal division of the territory? What else then is devastation of a country, but the conquest of it by arms? Besides, Apollodorus says that, according to history, the Hyantes abandoned Boeotia and came and settled among the Aetolians, and concludes as confident that his opinion is right by saying it is our custom to relate these and similar facts exactly, whenever any of them is altogether dubious, or concerning which erroneous opinions are entertained.

[5] Notwithstanding these faults in Ephorus, still he is superior to other writers. Polybius himself, who has studiously given him so much praise, has said that Eudoxus has written well on Grecian affairs, but that Ephorus has given the best account of the foundation of cities, of the relationship subsisting between nations, of changes of settlements, and of leaders of colonies, in these words, but I shall explain the present state of places, both as to position and distances; for this is the peculiar province of chorography. ⁴

But you, Polybius, who introduce popular hearsay, and rumours on the subject of distances, not only of places beyond Greece, but in Greece itself, have you not been called to answer the charges sometimes of Posidonius, sometimes of Artemidorus, and of many other writers? ought you not therefore to excuse us, and not to be offended, if in transferring into our own work a large part of the historical poets from such writers we commit some errors, and to commend us when we are generally more exact in what we say than others, or supply what they omitted through want of information.

[6] With respect to the Curetes, some facts are related which belong more immediately, some more remotely, to the history of the Aetolians and Acarnanians. The facts more immediately relating to them, are those which have been mentioned before, as that the Curetes were living in the country which is now called Aetolia, and that a body of Aetolians under the command of Aetolus came there, and drove them into Acarnania; and these facts besides, that Aeolians invaded Pleuronia, which was inhabited by Curetes, and called Curetis, took away their territory, and expelled the possessors.

But Archemachus ⁵ of Euboea says that the Curetes had their settlement at Chalcis, but being continually at war about the plain Lelantum, and finding that the enemy used to seize and drag them by the hair of the forehead, they wore their hair long behind, and cut the hair short in front, whence they had the name of Curetes, (or the shorn,) from eura, ( κουοͅά,) or the tonsure which they had undergone; that they removed to Aetolia, and occupied the places about Pleuron; that others, who lived on the other side of the Achelous, because they kept their heads unshorn, were called Acarnanians. ⁶

But according to some writers each tribe derived its name from some hero; ⁷ according to others, that they had the name of Curetes from the mountain Curium, ⁸ which is situated above Pleuron, and that this is an Aetolian tribe, like the Ophieis, Agraei, Eurytanes, and many others.

But, as we have before said, when Aetolia was divided into two parts, the country about Calydon was said to be in the possession of Oeneus; and a portion of Pleuronia in that of the Porthaonidae of the branch of Agrius, ⁹ for

they dwelt at Pleuron, and the lofty Calydon. ¹⁰

Il. xiv. 117. Thestius however, father-in-law of Oeneus, and father of Althea, chief of the Curetes, was master of Pleuronia. But when war broke out between the Thestiadae, Oeneus, and Meleager about a boar’s head and skin, according to the poet, ¹¹ following the fable concerning the boar of Calydon, but, as is probable, the dispute related to a portion of the territory; the words are these,

Curetes and Aetolians, firm in battle, fought against one another. ¹²

Il. ix. 525. These then are the facts more immediately connected (with geography).

[7] There ¹³ are others more remote from the subject of this work, which have been erroneously placed by historians under one head on account of the sameness of name: for instance, accounts relating to Curetic affairs and concerning the Curetes have been considered as identical with accounts concerning the people (of the same name) who inhabited Aetolia and Acarnania. But the former differ from the latter, and resemble rather the accounts which we have of Satyri and Silenes, Bacchae and Tityri; for the Curetes are represented as certain daemons, or ministers of the gods, by those who have handed down the traditions respecting Cretan and Phrygian affairs, and which involve certain religious rites, some mystical, others the contrary, relative to the nurture of Jupiter in Crete; the celebration of orgies in honour of the mother of the gods, in Phrygia, and in the neighbourhood of the Trojan Ida. There is however a very great variety ¹⁴ in these accounts. According to some, the Corybantes, Cabeiri, Idaean Dactyli, and Telchines are represented as the same persons as the Curetes; according to others, they are related to, yet distinguished from, each other by some slight differences; but to describe them in general terms and more at length, they are inspired with an enthusiastic and Bacchic frenzy, which is exhibited by them as ministers at the celebration of the sacred rites, by inspiring terror with armed dances, accompanied with the tumult and noise of cymbals, drums, and armour, and with the sound of pipes and shouting; so that these sacred ceremonies are nearly the same as those that are performed among the Samothracians in Lemnus, and in many other places; since the ministers of the god are said to be the same. ¹⁵ The whole of this kind of discussion is of a theological nature, and is not alien to the contemplation of the philosopher.

[8] But since even the historians, through the similarity of the name Curetes, have collected into one body a mass of dissimilar facts, I myself do not hesitate to speak of them at length by way of digression, adding the physical considerations which belong to the history. ¹⁶ Some writers however endeavour to reconcile one account with the other, and perhaps they have some degree of probability in their favour. They say, for instance, that the people about Aetolia have the name of Curetes from wearing long dresses like girls, ( κόραι,) and that there was, among the Greeks, a fondness for some such fashion. The Ionians also were called tunic-trailers, ¹⁷ and the soldiers of Leonidas, ¹⁸ who went out to battle with their hair dressed, were despised by the Persians, but subjects of their admiration in the contest. In short, the application of art to the hair consists in attending to its growth, and the manner of cutting it, ¹⁹ and both these are the peculiar care of girls and youths; ²⁰ whence in several ways it is easy to find a derivation of the name Curetes. It is also probable, that the practice of armed dances, first introduced by persons who paid so much attention to their hair and their dress, and who were called Curetes, afforded a pretence for men more warlike than others, and who passed their lives in arms, to be themselves called by the same name of Curetes, I mean those in Euboea, Aetolia, and Acarnania. Homer also gives this name to the young soldiers; And again;

Curetes Acheei carried the presents. ²²

Il. xvi. 617. So much then on the subject of the etymology of the name Curetes. [The dance in armour is a military dance; this is shown by the Pyrrhic dance and by Pyrrichus, who, it is said, invented this kind of exercise for youths, to prepare them for military service.] ²³

[9] We are now to consider how the names of these people agree together, and the theology, which is contained in their history.

Now this is common both to the Greeks and the Barbarians, to perform their religious ceremonies with the observance of a festival, and a relaxation from labour; some are performed with enthusiasm, others without any emotion; some accompanied with music, others without music; some in mysterious privacy, others publicly; and these are the dictates of nature. ²⁴ For relaxation from labour withdraws the thoughts from human occupations, and directs the reflecting mind to the divinity: enthusiasm seems to be attended with a certain divine inspiration, and to approach the prophetic character; the mystical concealment of the sacred rites excites veneration for the divinity, and imitates his nature, which shuns human senses and perception; music also, accompanied with the dance, rhythm, and song, for the same reason brings us near the deity by the pleasure which it excites, and by the charms of art. For it has been justly said, that men resemble the gods chiefly in doing good, but it may be said more properly, when they are happy; and this happiness consists in rejoicing, in festivals, in philosophy, and in music. ²⁵ For let not the art be blamed, if it should sometimes be abused by the musician employing it to excite voluptuousness in convivial meetings at banquets, on the stage, or under other circum stances, but let the nature of the institutions which are founded on it be examined. ²⁶

[10] Hence Plato, and, before his time, the Pythagoreans, called music philosophy. They maintained that the world subsisted by harmony, and considered every kind of music to be the work of the gods. It is thus that the muses are regarded as deities, and Apollo has the name of President of the Muses, and all poetry divine, as being conversant about the praises of the gods. Thus also they ascribe to music the formation of manners, as everything which refines the mind approximates to the power of the gods.

The greater part of the Greeks attribute to Bacchus, Apollo, Hecate, the Muses, and Ceres, everything connected with orgies and Bacchanalian rites, dances, and the mysteries attended upon initiation. They call also Bacchus, Dionysus, and the chief Daemon of the mysteries of Ceres. ²⁷ The carrying about of branches of trees, dances, and initiations are common to the worship of these gods. But with respect to Apollo and the Muses, the latter preside over choirs of singers and dancers; the former presides both over these and divination. All persons instructed in science, and particularly those who have cultivated music, are ministers of the Muses; these and also all who are engaged in divination are ministers of Apollo. Those of Ceres, are the Mystae, torch-bearers and Hierophants; of Dionysus, Seileni, Satyri, Tityri, Bacchae Lenae, Thyiae, Mimallones, Naïdes, and Nymphae, as they are called.

[11] But in Crete both these, and the sacred rites of Jupiter in particular, were celebrated with the performance of orgies, and by ministers, like the Satyri, who are employed in the worship of Dionysus. These were called Curetes, certain youths who executed military movements in armour, accompanied with dancing, exhibiting the fable of the birth of Jupiter, in which Saturn was introduced, whose custom it was to devour his children immediately after their birth; Rhea attempts to conceal the pains of childbirth, and to remove the new-born infant out of sight, using her utmost endeavours to preserve it. In this she has the assistance of the Curetes who surround the goddess, and by the noise of drums and other similar sounds, by dancing in armour and by tumult, endeavour to strike terror into Saturn, and escape notice whilst removing his child. The child is then delivered into their hands to be brought up with the same care by which he was rescued. The Curetes therefore obtained this appellation, either because they were boys ( κόροι), or because they educated Jupiter in his youth ( κουροτροθεῖν), for there are two explanations, inasmuch as they acted the same part with respect to Jupiter as the Satyri (with respect to Dionysus). Such then is the worship of the Greeks, as far as relates to the celebration of orgies.

[12] But the Berecyntes, a tribe of Phrygians, the Phrygians in general, and the Trojans, who live about Mount Ida, themselves also worship Rhea, and perform orgies in her honour; they call her mother of gods, Agdistis, and Phrygia, ²⁸ the Great Goddess; from the places also where she is worshipped, Idaea, and Dindymene, ²⁹ Sipylene, ³⁰ Pessinuntis, ³¹ and Cybele. ³² The Greeks call her ministers by the same name Curetes, not that they follow the same mythology, but they mean a different kind of persons, a sort of agents analogous to the Satyri. These same ministers are also called by them Corybantes.

[13] We have the testimony of the poets in favour of these opinions. Pindar, in the Dithyrambus, which begins in this manner; After mentioning the hymns, both ancient and modern, in honour of Bacchus, he makes a digression, and says, where he combines with one another the rites celebrated among the Greeks in honour of Dionysus with those performed among the Phrygians in honour of the mother of the gods. Euripides, in the Bacchae, does the same thing, con joining, from the proximity of the countries, ³³ Lydian and Phrygian customs. And again, in what follows, he combines with these the Cretan rites. And the chorus in Palamedes says,

[14] Conjoining then Seilenus, Marsyas, and Olympus, and ascribing to them the invention of the flute, they thus again combine Dionysiac and Phrygian rites, frequently confounding Ida and Olympus, ³⁵ and making them re-echo with their noise, as if they were the same mountain. There are four peaks of Ida called Olympi, opposite Antandros. ³⁶ There is also a Mysian Olympus, bordering upon Ida, but not the same mountain. Sopholes represents Menelaus in the Polyxena as setting sail in haste from Troy, and Agamemnon as wishing to remain behind a short time, with a view to propitiate Minerva. He introduces Menelaus as saying,

But do thou remain there on the Idaean land,

Collect the flocks on Olympus, and offer sacrifice. ³⁷

Od. iii. 144.

[15] They invented terms appropriate to the sounds of the pipe, of the crotala, cymbals, and drums; to the noise also of shouts; to the cries of Evoe; and to the beating of the ground with the feet. They invented certain well-known names also to designate the ministers, dancers, and servants employed about the sacred rites, as Cabeiri, Corybantes, Pans, Satyri, Tityri, the god Bacchus; Rhea, Cybele, Cybebe, and Dindymene, from the places where she was worshipped. [The god] Sabazius belongs to the Phrygian rites, and may be considered the child as it were of the [Great] Mother. The traditional ceremonies observed in his worship are those of Bacchus. ³⁸

[16] The rites called Cotytia, and Bendideia, ³⁹ celebrated among the Thracians, resemble these. The Orphic ceremonies had their origin among these people. Aeschylus mentions the goddess Cotys, and the instruments used in her worship among the Edoni. ⁴⁰ For after saying, And in another passage; for these are like the Phrygian ceremonies, nor is it at all improbable that, as the Phrygians themselves are a colony of Thracians, so they brought from Thrace their sacred ceremonies, and by joining together Dionysus and the Edonian Lycurgus they intimate a similarity in the mode of the worship of both.

[17] From the song, the rhythm, and the instruments, all Thracian music is supposed to be Asiatic. This is evident also from the places where the Muses are held in honour. For Pieria, Olympus, Pimpla, and Leibethrum were anciently places, and mountains, belonging to the Thracians, but at present they are in the possession of the Macedonians. The Thracians, who were settled in Boeotia, dedicated Helicon to the Muses, and consecrated the cave of the Nymphs, Leibethriades. The cultivators of ancient music are said to have been Thracians, as Orpheus, Musaus, Thamyris; hence also Eumolpus had his name. Those who regard the whole of Asia as far as India as consecrated to Bacchus, refer to that country as the origin of a great portion of the present music. One author speaks of striking forcibly the Asiatic cithara; another calls the pipes Berecynthian and Phrygian. Some of the instruments also have barbarous names, as Nablas, Sambyce, ⁴² Barbitus, ⁴³ Magadis, ⁴⁴ and many others.

[18] As in other things the Athenians always showed their admiration of foreign customs, so they displayed it in what respected the gods. They adopted many foreign sacred ceremonies, particularly those of Thrace and Phrygia; for which they were ridiculed in comedies. Plato mentions the Bendidean, and Demosthenes the Phrygian rites, where he is exposing Aeschines and his mother to the scorn of the people; the former for having been present when his mother was sacrificing, and for frequently joining the band of Bacchanalians in celebrating their festivals, and shouting, Evoi, Saboi, Hyes Attes, and Attes Hyes, for these cries belong to the rites of Sabazius and the Great Mother.

[19] But there may be discovered respecting these daemons, and the variety of their names, that they were not called ministers only of the gods, but themselves were called gods. For Hesiod says that Hecaterus and the daughter of Phoroneus had five daughters, The author of the Phoronis calls the Curetes, players upon the pipe, and Phrygians; others call them earth-born, and wearing brazen shields. Another author terms the Corybantes, and not the Curetes, Phrygians, and the Curetes, Cretans. Brazen shields were first worn in Euboea, whence the people had the name of Chalcidenses. ⁴⁵ Others say, that the Corybantes who came from Bactriana, or, according to some writers, from the Colchi, were given to Rhea, as a band of armed ministers, by Titan. But in the Cretan history the Curetes are called nurses and guardians of Jove, and are described as having been sent for from Phrygia to Crete by Rhea. According to other writers, there were nine Telchines in Rhodes, who accompanied Rhea to Crete, and from nursing ⁴⁶ Jupiter had the name of Curetes; ⁴⁷ that Corybus, one of their party, was the founder of Hierapytna, and furnished the Prasians ⁴⁸ in Rhodes with the pretext for saying that Cory bantes were certain daemons, children of Minerva and the sun. By others, the Corybantes are represented to be the children of Saturn; by others, of Jupiter and Calliope, or to be the same persons as the Cabeiri; that they went away ⁴⁹ to Samothrace, ⁵⁰ which was formerly called Melite; but their lives and actions are mysterious.

[20] The Scepsian (Demetrius) who has collected fabulous stories of this kind, does not receive this account because no mysterious tradition about the Cabeiri is preserved in Samothrace, yet he gives the opinion of Stesimbrotus of Thasus, to the effect that the sacred rites in Samothrace were celebrated in honour of the Cabeiri. ⁵¹ Demetrius, however, says that they had their name from Cabeirus, the mountain in Berecynthia. According to others, the Curetes were the same as the Corybantes, and were ministers of Hecate.

The Scepsian says in another place, in contradiction to Euripides, that it is not the custom in Crete to pay divine honours to Rhea, and that these rites were not established there, but in Phrygia only, and in the Troad, and that they who affirm the contrary are mythologists rather than historians; and were probably misled by an identity of name, for Ida is a mountain both in the Troad and in Crete; and Dicte is a spot in the Scepsian territory, and a mountain in Crete. ⁵² Pytna is a peak of Ida, (and a mountain in Crete,) whence the city Hierapytna has its name. There is Hippocorona in the territory of Adramyttium, and Hippocoronium ⁵³ in Crete. Samonium also is the eastern promontory of the island, and a plain in the Neandris, ⁵⁴ and in the territory of the Alexandrians (Alexandria Troas).

[21] But Acusilaus, the Argive, mentions a Camillus, the son of Cabeira and Vulcan; who had three sons, Cabeiri, (and three daughters,) the Nymphs Cabeirides. ⁵⁵

According to Pherecydes, there sprung from Apollo and Rhetia nine Corybantes, who lived in Samothrace; that from Cabeira, the daughter of Proteus and Vulcan, there were three Cabeiri, and three Nymphs, Cabeirides, and that each had their own sacred rites. But it was at Lemnos and Imbros that the Cabeiri were more especially the objects of divine worship, and in some of the cities of the Troad; their names are mystical.

Herodotus ⁵⁶ mentions, that there were at Memphis temples of the Cabeiri as well as of Vulcan, which were destroyed by Cambyses. The places where these demons received divine honours are uninhabited, as Corybantium in the territory Hamaxitia belonging to the country of the Alexandrians, near Sminthium; ⁵⁷ and Corybissa in the Scepsian territory about the river Eureis, and a village of the same name, and the winter torrent Aethaloeïs. ⁵⁸

The Scepsian says, that it is probable that the Curetes and Corybantes are the same persons, who as youths and boys were employed to perform the armed dance in the worship of the mother of the gods. They were called Corybantes ⁵⁹ from their dancing gait, and butting with their head ( κοοͅύπτοντας) by the poet they were called βητάπμονες, Because the Corybantes are dancers, and are frantic, we call those persons by this name whose movements are furious.

[22] Some writers say that the first inhabitants of the country at the foot of Mount Ida were called Idaean Dactyli, for the country below mountains is called the foot, and the summits of mountains their heads; so the separate extremities of Ida (and all are sacred to the mother of the gods) are called Idaean Dactyli. ⁶¹

But Sophocles ⁶² supposes, that the first five were males, who discovered and forged iron, ⁶³ and many other things which were useful for the purposes of life; that these persons had five sisters, and from their number had the name of Dactyli. ⁶⁴ Different persons however relate these fables differently, connecting one uncertainty with another. They differ both with respect to the numbers and the names of these persons; some of whom they call Celmis, and Damnameneus, and Hercules, and Acmon, who, according to some writers, were natives of Ida, according to others, were settlers, but all agree that they were the first workers in iron, and upon Mount Ida. All writers suppose them to have been magicians, attendants upon the mother of the gods, and to have lived in Phrygia about Mount Ida. They call the Troad Phrygia, because, after the devastation of Troy, the neighbouring Phrygians became masters of the country. It is also supposed that the Curetes and the Corybantes were descendants of the Idaean Dactyli, and that they gave the name of Idaean Dactyli to the first hundred persons who were born in Crete; that from these descended nine Curetes, each of whom had ten children, who were called Idaean Dactyli. ⁶⁵

[23] Although we are not fond of fabulous stories, yet we have expatiated upon these, because they belong to subjects of a theological nature.

All discussion respecting the gods requires an examination of ancient opinions, and of fables, since the ancients expressed enigmatically their physical notions concerning the nature of things, and always intermixed fable with their discoveries. It is not easy therefore to solve these enigmas exactly, but if we lay before the reader a multitude of fabulous tales, some consistent with each other, others which are contradictory, we may thus with less difficulty form conjectures about the truth. For example, mythologists probably represented the ministers of the gods, and the gods themselves, as coursing over the mountains, and their enthusiastic behaviour, for the same reason that they considered the gods to be celestial beings, and to exercise a providential care over all things, and especially over signs and presages. Mining, hunting, and a search after things useful for the purposes of life, appeared to have a relation to this coursing over the mountains, but juggling and magic to be connected with enthusiastic behaviour, religious rites, and divination. Of such a nature, and connected in particular with the improvement of the arts of life, were the Dionysiac and Orphic arts. But enough of this subject.