[1] The islands near Crete are Thera, the metropolis of the Cyrenaeans, a colony of the Lacedaemonians, and, near Thera, Anaphe, where is the temple of the Aegletan Apollo. Callimachus speaks in one place as follows, ¹ and in another, mentioning only Thera, ² Thera is a long island, being two hundred stadia in perimeter; it lies opposite Dia, ³ an island near the Cnossian Heracleium, ⁴ but it is seven hundred stadia distant from Crete. Near it are both Anaphe and Therasia. One hundred stadia distant from the latter is the little island Ios, where, according to some writers, the poet Homer was buried. From Ios towards the west one comes to Sicinos and Lagusa and Pholegandros, which last Aratus calls “Iron” Island, because of its ruggedness. Near these is Cimolos, whence comes the Cimolian earth. ⁵ From Cimolos Siphnos is visible, in reference to which island, because of its worthlessness, people say “Siphnian knuckle-bone.” ⁶ And still nearer both to Cimolos and to Crete is Melos, which is more notable than these and is seven hundred stadia from the Hermionic promontory, the Scyllaeum, and almost the same distance from the Dictynnaeum. The Athenians once sent an expedition to Melos and slaughtered most of the inhabitants from youth upwards. ⁷ Now these islands are indeed in the Cretan Sea, but Delos itself and the Cyclades in its neighborhood and the Sporades which lie close to these, to which belong the aforesaid islands in the neighborhood of Crete, are rather in the Aegaean Sea.

[2] Now the city which belongs to Delos, as also the temple of Apollo, and the Letöum, ⁸ are situated in a plain; and above the city lies Cynthus, a bare and rugged mountain; and a river named Inopus flows through the island—not a large river, for the island itself is small. From olden times, beginning with the times of the heroes, Delos has been revered because of its gods, for the myth is told that there Leto was delivered of her travail by the birth of Apollo and Artemis: says Pindar, ¹² The neighboring islands, called the Cyclades, made it famous, since in its honor they would send at public expense sacred envoys, sacrifices, and choruses composed of virgins, and would celebrate great general festivals there. ¹³

[3] Now at first the Cyclades are said to have been only twelve in number, but later several others were added. At any rate, Artemidorus enumerates fifteen, after saying of Helena that it stretches parallel to the coast from Thoricus to Sunium and is a long island, about sixty stadia in length; for it is from Helena, he says, that the Cyclades, as they are called, begin; and he names Ceos, the island nearest to Helena, and, after this island, Cythnos and Seriphos and Melos and Siphnos and Cimolos and Prepesinthos and Oliaros, and, in addition to these, Paros, Naxos, Syros, Myconos, Tenos, Andros, and Gyaros. Now I consider all of these among the twelve except Prepesinthos, Oliaros, and Gyaros. When our ship anchored at one of these, Gyaros, I saw a small village that was settled by fishermen; and when we sailed away we took on board one of the fishermen, who had been chosen to go from there to Caesar as ambassador (Caesar was at Corinth, on his way ¹⁴ to celebrate the Triumph alter the victory at Actium ¹⁵ ). While on the voyage he told enquirers that he had been sent as ambassador to request a reduction in their tribute; for, he said, they were paying one hundred and fifty drachmas when they could only with difficulty pay one hundred. Aratus also points out the poverty of the island in his Catalepton ¹⁶

[4] Now although Delos had become so famous, yet the razing of Corinth to the ground by the Romans ¹⁷ increased its fame still more; for the importers changed their business to Delos because they were attracted both by the immunity which the temple enjoyed and by the convenient situation of the harbor; for it is happily situated for those who are sailing from Italy and Greece to Asia. The general festival is a kind of commercial affair, and it was frequented by Romans more than by any other people, even when Corinth was still in existence. ¹⁸ And when the Athenians took the island they at the same time took good care of the importers as well as of the religious rites. But when the generals of Mithridates, and the tyrant ¹⁹ who caused it to revolt, visited Delos, they completely ruined it, and when the Romans again got the island, alter the king withdrew to his homeland, it was desolate; and it has remained in an impoverished condition until the present time. It is now held by the Athenians.

[5] Rheneia is a desert isle within four stadia from Delos, and there the Delians bury their dead; ²⁰ for it is unlawful to bury, or even burn, a corpse in Delos itself, and it is unlawful even to keep a dog there. In earlier times it was called Ortygia.

[6] Ceos was at first a Tetrapolis, but only two cities are left, Iulis and Carthaea, into which the remaining two were incorporated, Poeëessa into Carthaea and Coressia into Iulis. Both Simonides the melic poet and his nephew Bacchylides were natives of Iulis, and also after their time Erasistratus the physician, and Ariston the peripatetic philosopher and emulator of Bion the Borysthenite. It is reputed that there was once a law among these people (it is mentioned by Menander, ), which appears to have ordered those who were over sixty years of age to drink hemlock, in order that the food might be sufficient for the rest. And it is said that once, when they were being besieged by the Athenians, they voted, setting a definite age, that the oldest among them should be put to death, but the Athenians raised the siege. The city lies on a mountain, about twenty-five stadia distant from the sea; and its seaport is the place on which Coressia was situated, which has not as great a population as even a village. Near Coressia, and also near Poeëessa, is a temple of Sminthian Apollo; and between the temple and the ruins of Poeëessa is the temple of Nedusian Athena, founded by Nestor when he was on his return from Troy. There is also a River Elixus in the neighborhood of Coressia.

[7] After Ceos one comes to Naxos and Andros, notable islands, and to Paros. Archilochus the poet was a native of Paros. Thasos was founded by the Parians, as also Parium, a city on the Propontis. Now the altar in this city is said to be a spectacle worth seeing, its sides being a stadium in length; and so is the Parian stone, as it is called, in Paros, the best for sculpture in marble.

[8] And there is Syros (the first syllable is pronounced long), where Pherecydes ²¹ the son of Babys was born. The Athenian Pherecydes is later than he. ²² The poet seems to mention this island, though he calls it Syria: ²³

[9] And there is Myconos, beneath which, according to the myth, lie the last of the giants that were destroyed by Heracles. Whence the proverb, “all beneath Myconos alone,” applied to those who bring under one title even those things which are by nature separate. And further, some call bald men Myconians, from the fact that baldness is prevalent in the island.

[10] And there is Seriphos, the scene of the mythical story of Dictys, who with his net drew to land the chest in which were enclosed Perseus and his mother Danae, who had been sunk in the sea by Acrisius the father of Danae; for Perseus was reared there, it is said, and when he brought the Gorgon’s head there, he showed it to the Seriphians and turned them all into stone. This he did to avenge his mother, because Polydectes the king, with their cooperation, intended to marry his mother against her will. The island is so rocky that the comedians say that it was made thus by the Gorgon.

[11] Tenos has no large city, but it has the temple of Poseidon, a great temple in a sacred precinct outside the city, a spectacle worth seeing. In it have been built great banquet halls—an indication of the multitude of neighbors who congregate there and take part with the inhabitants of Tenos in celebrating the Poseidonian festival.

[12] And there is Amorgos, one of the Sporades, the home of Simonides the iambic poet; and also Lebinthos, and Leros: ²⁴ For the natives of the island were reproached with being unprincipled.

[13] Nearby are both Patmos and the Corassiae; these are situated to the west of Icaria, and Icaria to the west of Samos. Now Icaria is deserted, though it has pastures, which are used by the Samians. But although it is such an isle as it is, still it is famous, and after it is named the sea that lies in front of it, in which are itself and Samos and Cos and the islands just mentioned—the Corassiae and Patmos and Leros. Famous, also, is the mountain in it, Cerceteus, more famous than the Ampelus, ²⁵ which is situated above the city of Samians. ²⁶ The Icarian Sea connects with the Carpathian Sea on the south, and the Carpathian with the Aegyptian, and on the west with the Cretan and the Libyan.

[14] In the Carpathian Sea, also, are many of the Sporades, and in particular between Cos and Rhodes and Crete. Among these are Astypalaea, Telos, Chalcia, and those which Homer names in the Catalogue: ^{27 28} for, excepting Cos and Rhodes, which I shall discuss later, ²⁹ I place them all among the Sporades, and in fact, even though they are near Asia and not Europe, I make mention of them here because my argument has somehow impelled me to include the Sporades with Crete and the Cyclades. But in my geographical description of Asia I shall add a description of such islands that lie close to it as are worthy of note, Cyprus, Rhodes, Cos, and those that lie on the seaboard next thereafter, Samos, Chios, Lesbos, and Tenedos. But now I shall traverse the remainder of the Sporades that are worth mentioning.

[15] Now Astypalaea lies far out in the high sea and has a city. Telos extends alongside Cnidia, is long, high, narrow, has a perimeter of about one hundred and forty stadia, and has an anchoring-place. Chalcia is eighty stadia distant from Telos, four hundred from Carpathos, about twice as far from Astypalaea, and has also a settlement of the same name and a temple of Apollo and a harbor.

[16] Nisyros lies to the north of Telos, and is about sixty stadia distant both from it and from Cos. It is round and high and rocky, the rock being that of which millstones are made; at any rate, the neighboring peoples are well supplied with millstones from there. It has also a city of the same name and a harbor and hot springs and a temple of Poseidon. Its perimeter is eighty stadia. Close to it are also isles called Isles of the Nisyrians. They say that Nisyros is a fragment of Cos, and they add the myth that Poseidon, when he was pursuing one of the giants, Polybotes, broke off a fragment of Cos with his trident and hurled it upon him, and the missile became an island, Nisyros, with the giant lying beneath it. But some say that he lies beneath Cos.

[17] Carpathos, which the poet calls Crapathos, is high, and has a circuit of two hundred stadia. At first it was a Tetrapolis, and it had a renown which is worth noting; and it was from this fact that the sea got the name Carpathian. One of the cities was called Nisyros, the same name as that of the island of the Nisyrians. It lies opposite Leuce Acte in Libya, which is about one thousand stadia distant from Alexandreia and about four thousand from Carpathos.

[18] Casos is seventy stadia from Carpathos, and two hundred and fifty from Cape Samonium in Crete. It has a circuit of eighty stadia. In it there is also a city of the same name, and round it are several islands called Islands of the Casians.

[19] They say that the poet calls the Sporades “Calydnian Islands,” one of which, they say, is Calymna. But it is reasonable to suppose that, as the islands which are near, and subject to, Nisyros and Casos are called “Islands of the Nisyrians” and “Islands of the Casians,” so also those which lie round Calymna were called “Islands of the Calymnians”—Calymna at that time, perhaps, being called Calydna. But some say that there are only two Calydnian islands, Leros and Calymna, the two mentioned by the poet. The Scepsian ³⁰ says that the name of the island was used in the plural, “Calymnae,” like “Athenae” and “Thebae”; but, he adds, the words of the poet should be interpreted as a case of hyperbaton, for he does not say, “Calydnian Islands,” but ³¹ Now all the honey produced in the islands is, for the most part, good, and rivals that of Attica, but the honey produced in the islands in question is exceptionally good, and in particular the Calymnian.

[1] THE islands about Crete are Thera, ¹ the capital of the Cyrenaeans, and a colony of the Lacedaemonians; and near Thera is Anaphe, ² in which is the temple of Apollo Aegletes. Callimachus speaks of it in one place, thus, and in another, he mentions Thera only,

Mother of my country, celebrated for its fine breed of horses. Thera is a long island, about 200 stadia in circumference. It lies opposite to the island Dia, ³ towards the Cnossian Heracleium. It is distant about 700 stadia from Crete. Near it are Anaphe and Therasia. ⁴ The little island Ios ⁵ is distant from the latter about 100 stadia. Here according to some authors the poet Homer was buried. ⁶ In going from Ios towards the west are Sicenus ⁷ and Lagusa, ⁸ and Pholegandrus, ⁹ which Aratus calls the iron island, on account of its rocks. Near these islands is Cimolus, ¹⁰ whence is obtained the Cimolian earth. From Cimolus Siphnus ¹¹ is visible. To this island is applied the proverb, a Siphnian bone (astragalus), on account of its insignificance. Still nearer, both to Cimolus and Crete, is Melos, ¹² more considerable than these. It is distant from the Hermionic promontory, the Scyllaeum, ¹³ 700 stadia, and nearly as many from the Dictynnaean promontory. The Athenians formerly despatched an army to Melos, ¹⁴ and put to death the inhabitants from youth upwards.

These islands are situated in the Cretan sea. Delos, ¹⁵ the Cyclades about it, and the Sporades adjacent to these, belong rather to the Aegoean sea. To the Sporades also are to be referred the islands about Crete, which I have already mentioned.

[2] The city of Delos is in a plain. Delos contains the temple of Apollo, and the Latoum, or temple of Latona. The Cynthus, ¹⁶ a naked and rugged mountain, overhangs the city. The Inopus, ¹⁷ not a large river, for the island is small, flows through it. Anciently, even from the heroic times, this island has been held in veneration on account of the divinities worshipped here. Here, according to the fable, Latona was relieved from the pains of labour, and gave birth to Apollo and Diana. The islands lying about it, called Cyclades, gave it celebrity, since they were in the habit of sending at the public charge, as a testimony of respect, sacred delegates, (Theori,) sacrifices, and bands of virgins; they also repaired thither in great multitudes to celebrate festivals. ¹⁹

[3] Originally, there were said to be twelve Cyclades, but many others were added to them. Artemidorus enumerates (fifteen?) where he is speaking of the island Helena, ²⁰ and of which he says that it extends from Thoricus ²¹ to Sunium, ²² and is about 60 stadia in length; it is from this island, he says, the Cyclades, as they are called, begin. He names Ceos, ²³ as the nearest island to Helena, and next to this Cythnus, Seriphus, ²⁴ Melos, Siphnus, Cimolus, Prepesinthus, ²⁵ Oliarus, ²⁶ and besides these Paros, ²⁷ “Naxos, ²⁸ Syros, ²⁹ Myconus, ³⁰ Tenos, ³¹ Andros, ³² Gyarus. ³³ The rest I consider as belonging to the Twelve, but not Prepesinthus, Oliarus, and Gyarus. When I put in at the latter island I found a small village inhabited by fishermen. When we left it we took in a fisherman, deputed from the inhabitants to go to C$esar, who was at Corinth on his way to celebrate his triumph after the victory at Actium. ³⁴ He told his fellow-passengers, that he was deputed to apply for an abatement of the tribute, for they were required to pay 150 drachmae, when it was with difficulty they could pay 100.

Aratus, ³⁵ in his Details, intimates how poor they were;

[4] Although Delos ³⁶ was so famous, yet it became still more so, and flourished after the destruction of Corinth by the Romans. ³⁷ For the merchants resorted thither, induced by the immunities of the temple, and the convenience of its harbour. It lies favourably ³⁸ for those who are sailing from Italy and Greece to Asia. The general festival held there serves the purposes of commerce, and the Romans particularly frequented it even before the destruction of Corinth. ³⁹ The Athenians, after having taken the island, paid equal attention to the affairs both of religion and of commerce. But the generals ⁴⁰ of Mithridates, and the tyrant, ⁴¹ who had occasioned the detection of (Athens from the Romans), ravaged it entirely. The Romans received the island in a desolate state on the departure of the king to his own country; and it has continued in an impoverished condition to the present time. ⁴² The Athenians are now in possession of it.

[5] Rheneia ⁴³ is a small desert island 4 stadia from Delos, where are the sepulchral monuments of the Delians. For it is not permitted to bury the dead in Delos, nor to burn a dead body there. It is not permitted even to keep a dog in Delos.

Formerly it had the name of Ortygia. ⁴⁴

[6] Ceos ⁴⁵ once contained four cities. Two remain, Iulis and Carthae, to which the inhabitants of the others were transferred; those of Poaeëssa to Carthae, and those of Coressia to Iulis. Simonides the lyric poet, and Bacchylides his nephew, and after their times Erasistratus the physician, and Ariston the Peripatetic philosopher, the imitator of Bion, ⁴⁶ the Borysthenite, were natives of this city.

There was an ancient law among these people, mentioned by Menander. For the law, it seems, ordained that those above sixty years old should be compelled to drink hemlock, in order that there might be sufficient food for the rest. It is said that once when they were besieged by the Athenians, a decree was passed to the effect that the oldest persons, fixing the age, should be put to death, and that the besiegers retired in consequence.

The city lies on a mountain, at a distance from the sea of about 25 stadia. Its arsenal is the place on which Coressia was built, which does not contain the population even of a village. Near the Coressian territory and Poeëessa is a temple of Apollo Sminthius. But between the temple and the ruins of Poeëessa is the temple of Minerva Nedusia, built by Nestor, on his return from Troy. The river Elixus runs around the territory of Coressia.

[7] After Ceos are Naxos ⁴⁸ and Andros, ⁴⁹ considerable islands, and Paros, the birth-place of the poet Archilochus. Thasos ⁵⁰ was founded by Parians, and Parium, ⁵¹ a city in the Propontis. In this last place there is said to be an altar worthy of notice, each of whose sides is a stadium in length. In Paros is obtained the Parian marble, the best adapted for statuary work. ⁵²

[8] Here also is Syros, (the first syllable is long,) where Pherecydes the son of Babys was born. The Athenian Pherecydes is younger than the latter person. The poet seems to have mentioned this island under the name of Syria;

above Ortygia is an island called Syria. ⁵³

Od. xv. 402.

[9] Myconus ⁵⁴ is an island beneath which, according to the mythologists, lie the last of the giants, destroyed by Hercules; whence the proverb, all under one Myconus, applied to persons who collect under one title things that are disjoined by nature. Some also call bald persons Miconians, because baldness is frequent among the inhabitants of the island. ⁵⁵

[10] Seriphos ⁵⁶ is the island where is laid the scene of the fable of Dictys, who drew to land in his net the chest in which were enclosed Perseus and his mother Danaë, who were thrown into the sea by order of Acrisius, the father of Danaë. There it is said Perseus was brought up, and to this island he brought the head of the Gorgon; he exhibited it to the Seriphians, and turned them all into stone. This he did to avenge the wrongs of his mother, because their king Polydectes, with the assistance of his subjects, desired to make her his wife by force. Seriphus abounds so much with rocks, that they say in jest that it was the work of the Gorgon.

[11] Tenos ⁵⁷ has a small city, but there is, in a grove beyond it, a large temple of Neptune worthy of notice. It contains large banqueting rooms, a proof of the great multitudes that repair thither from the neighbouring places to celebrate a feast, and to perform a common sacrifice in honour of Neptune.

[12] To the Sporades belongs Amorgos, ⁵⁸ the birth-place of Simonides, the Iambic poet; Lebinthus ⁵⁹ also, and Leria (Leros). ⁶⁰ Phocylides refers to Leria in these lines; for the Lerians are reputed to have bad dispositions.

[13] Near these islands are Patmos, ⁶¹ and the Corassia, ⁶² islands, situated to the west of Icaria, ⁶³ as the latter is with respect to Samos.

Icaria has no inhabitants, but it has pastures, of which the Samians avail themselves. Notwithstanding its condition it is famous, and gives the name of Icarian to the sea in front of it, in which are situated Samos, Cos, and the islands just mentioned, ⁶⁴ the Corassiae, Patmos, and Leros ⁶⁵ [in Samos is the mountain the Cerceteus, more celebrated than the Ampelus, which overhangs the city of the Samians]. ⁶⁶ Continuous to the Icarian sea, towards the south, is the Carpathian sea, and the Aegyptian sea to this; to the west are the Cretan and African seas.

[14] In the Carpathian sea, between Cos, Rhodes, and Crete, are situated many of the Sporades, as Astypalaea, ⁶⁷ Telos, ⁶⁸ Chalcia, ⁶⁹ and those mentioned by Homer in the Catalogue.

They who occupied Nisyrus, Crapathus, Casus, and Cos,

The city of Eurypylus, and the Calydnae islands. ⁷⁰

Il. ii. 676. Except Cos, and Rhodes, of which we shall speak hereafter, we place the rest among the Sporades, and we mention them here although they do not lie near Europe, but Asia, because the course of my work induces me to include the Sporades in the description of Crete and of the Cyclades.

We shall traverse in the description of Asia the considerable islands adjacent to that country, as Cyprus, Rhodes, Cos, and those situated on the succeeding line of coast, Samos, Chios, Lesbos, and Tenedos. At present we are to describe the remaining islands of the Sporades, which deserve mention.

[15] Astypalaea lies far out at sea, and contains a city.

Telos, which is long, high, and narrow, in circumference about 140 stadia, with a shelter for vessels, extends along the Cnidian territory.

Chalcia is distant from Telos 80, from Carpathus 400 stadia, and about double this number from Astypalaea. It has a settlement of the same name, a temple of Apollo, and a harbour.

[16] Nisyrus lies to the north of Telos, at the distance of about 60 stadia, which is its distance also from Cos. It is round, lofty, and rocky, and has abundance of mill-stone, whence the neighbouring people are well supplied with stones for grinding. It contains a city of the same name, a harbour, hot springs, and a temple of Neptune. Its circumference is 80 stadia. Near it are small islands, called the islands of the Nisyrians. Nisyrus is said to be a fragment broken off from Cos; a story is also told of Neptune, that when pursuing Polybotes, one of the giants, he broke off with his trident a piece of the island Cos, and hurled it at him, and that the missile became the island Nisyrus, with the giant lying beneath it. But some say that the giant lies beneath Cos.

[17] Carpathus, which the poet calls Crapathus, is lofty, having a circumference of 200 stadia. It contained four cities, and its name was famous, which it imparted to the surrounding sea. One of the cities was called Nisyrus, after the name of the island Nisyrus. It lies opposite Leuce Acte in Africa, which is distant about 1000 stadia from Alexandria, and about 4000 from Carpathus.

[18] Casus is distant from Carpathus 70, and from the promontory Salmonium in Crete 250 stadia. It is 80 stadia in circumference. It contains a city of the same name; and many islands, called the islands of the Casii, lie about it.

[19] They say that the poet calls the Sporades, Calydnae, one of which is Calymna. ⁷¹ But it is probable that as the islands, which are near and dependent, have their names from the Nisyrii and Casii, so those that lie around Calymna had their name from that island, which was then perhaps called Calydna. Some say that the Calydnoe islands are two, Leros and Calymna, and that the poet means these. But the Scepsian says, that the name of the island was used in the plural number, Calymnae, like Athenae, Thebae, and that the words of the poet must be understood according to the figure hyperbaton, or inversion, for he does not say, the islands Calydnae, but,

All the honey of the islands is, for the most part, excellent, and rivals that of Attica; but the honey of these islands surpasses it, particularly that of Calymna. ⁷²