Poseidonius goes on to say of the Mysians that in accordance with their religion they abstain from eating any living thing, and therefore from their flocks as well; and that they use as food honey and milk and cheese, living a peaceable life, and for this reason are called both “god-fearing” and “capnobatae”; Scholars have suggested various emendations to “capnobatae,” but there is no variation in the spelling of the word in any of the manuscripts, either here or in section 4 below. Its literal meaning is “smoke-treaders” (cp. ἀεροβάτης, ἀεροβάτῳ Aristophanes, Clouds 225, 1503 ), and it seems to allude in some way to the smoke of sacrifice and the more of less ethereal existence of the people, or else (see Herodotus 1. 202 and 4.75 ) to the custom of generating an intoxicating vapor by throwing hemp-seed upon red-hot stones. Berkel and Wakefield would emend, respectively to “capnopatae” and “capnobotae” (“smoke-eaters,” i.e., people who live on food of no value). and there are some of the Thracians who live apart from woman-kind; these are called “Ctistae,” Literally, “creators” or “founders.” But, like “capnobatae,” the force of the word here is unknown. and because of the honor in which they are held, have been dedicated to the gods and live with freedom from every fear; accordingly, Homer speaks collectively of all these peoples as “proud Hippemolgi, Galactophagi and Abii, men most just,” but he calls them “Abii” more especially for this reason, that they live apart from women, since he thinks that a life which is bereft of woman is only half-complete (just as he thinks the “house of Protesilaüs” is only “half complete,” because it is so bereft Hom. Il. 2.701 ); and he speaks of the Mysians as “hand-to-hand fighters” because they were indomitable, as is the case with all brave warriors; and Poseidonius adds that in the Thirteenth Book Hom. Il. 13.5 one should read “Moesi, hand-to-hand fighters” instead of “Mysi, hand-to-hand fighters.” However, it is perhaps superfluous to disturb the reading that has had approval for so many years; for it is much more credible that the people were called Mysi at first and that later their name was changed to what it is now. And as for the term “Abii,” one might interpret it as meaning those who are “without hearth:” and “live on wagons” quite as well as those who are “bereft”; for since, in general, injustices arise only in connection with contracts and a too high regard for property, so it is reasonable that those who, like the Abii, live cheaply, on slight resources, should have been called “most just.” In fact, the philosophers who put justice next to self-restraint strive above all things for frugality and personal independence; and consequently extreme self-restraint diverts some of them to the Cynical mode of life. But as for the statement that they live “bereft of women,” the poet suggests nothing of the sort, and particularly in the country of the Thracians and of those of their number who are Getae. And see the statement of Menander about them, which, as one may reasonably suppose, was not invented by him but taken from history: “All the Thracians, and most of all we Getae (for I too boast that I am of this stock) are not very continent;” Menander Fr. 547 (Kock and a little below he sets down the proofs of their incontinence in their relations with women: “For every man of us marries ten or eleven women, and some, twelve or more; but if anyone meets death before he has married more than four or five, he is lamented among the people there as a wretch without bride and nuptial song.” Menander Fr. 548 (Kock Indeed, these facts are confirmed by the other writers as well. Further, it is not reasonable to suppose that the same people regard as wretched a life without many women, and yet at the same time regard as pious and just a life that is wholly bereft of women. And of course to regard as “both god-fearing and capnobatae” those who are without women is very much opposed to the common notions on that subject; for all agree in regarding the women as the chief founders of religion, and it is the women who provoke the men to the more attentive worship of the gods, to festivals, and to supplications, and it is a rare thing for a man who lives by himself to be found addicted to these things. See again what the same poet says when he introduces as speaker the man who is vexed by the money spent by the women in connection with the sacrifices: “The gods are the undoing of us, especially us married men, for we must always be celebrating some festival;” Menander Fr. 601 (Kock and again when he introduces the Woman-hater, who complains about these very things: “we used to sacrifice five times a day, and seven female attendants would beat the cymbals all round us, while others would cry out to the gods.” Menander Fr. 326 (Kock So, then, the interpretation that the wifeless men of the Getae are in a special way reverential towards the gods is clearly contrary to reason, whereas the interpretation that zeal for religion is strong in this tribe, and that because of their reverence for the gods the people abstain from eating any living thing, is one which, both from what Poseidonius and from what the histories in general tell us, should not be disbelieved. In fact, it is said that a certain man of the Getae, Zamolxis by name, had been a slave to Pythagoras, and had learned some things about the heavenly bodies from him, For another version of the story of Zamolxis, see Hdt. 4.94-96 , who doubts whether such a man ever existed, but says that he was reputed to have been, for a time, a slave pf Pythagoras in Samos. as also certain other things from the Egyptians, for in his wanderings he had gone even as far as Egypt; and when he came on back to his home-land he was eagerly courted by the rulers and the people of the tribe, because he could make predictions from the celestial signs; and at last he persuaded the king to take him as a partner in the government, on the ground that he was competent to report the will of the gods; and although at the outset he was only made a priest of the god who was most honored in their country, yet afterwards he was even addressed as god, and having taken possession of a certain cavernous place that was inaccessible to anyone else he spent his life there, only rarely meeting with any people outside except the king and his own attendants; and the king cooperated with him, because he saw that the people paid much more attention to himself than before, in the belief that the decrees which he promulgated were in accordance with the counsel of the gods. This custom persisted even down to our own time, because some man of that character was always to be found, who, though in fact only a counsellor to the king, was called god among the Getae. And the people took up the notion that the mountain The “cavernous place” previously referred to. was sacred and they so call it, but its name is Cogaeonum, Some scholars identify this mountain with what is now Mt. Gogany (near Mika); others, with Mt. Kaszon (on the borders of Transylvania and Moldavia). The former is more likely. like that of the river which flows past it. So, too, at the time when Byrebistas, Strabo also spells the name “Boerebistas (7. 3. 11, 12). against whom already Cp. 7. 3. 11. the Deified Caesar had prepared to make an expedition, was reigning over the Getae, the office in question was held by Decaeneus, and somehow or other the Pythagorean doctrine of abstention from eating any living thing still survived as taught by Zamolxis. Now although such difficulties as these might fairly be raised concerning what is found in the text of Homer about the Mysians and the “proud Hippemolgi,” yet what Apollodorus states in the preface to the Second Book of his work On Ships Or rather On the Catalogue of Ships (1. 2. 24). can by no means be asserted; for he approves the declaration of Eratosthenes, that although both Homer and the other early authors knew the Greek places, they were decidedly unacquainted with those that were far away, since they had no experience either in making long journeys by land or in making voyages by sea. And in support of this Apollodorus says that Homer calls Aulis “rocky” Hom. Il. 2.496 (and so it is), and Eteonus “place of many ridges,” Hom. Il. 2.497 and Thisbe “haunt of doves,” Hom. Il. 2.502 and Haliartus “grassy,” Hom. Il. 2.503 but, he says, neither Homer nor the others knew the places that were far away. At any rate, he says, although about forty rivers now into the Pontus, Homer mentions not a single one of those that are the most famous, as, for example, the Ister, the Tanaïs, the Borysthenes, the Hypanis, the Phasis, the Thermodon, the Halys; Now, respectively, the Danube, Don, Dnieper, Bog, Rion, Termeh, and Kizil-Irmak. and, besides, he does not mention the Scythians, but invents certain “proud Hippemolgi” and “Galactophagi” and “Abii”; and as for the Paphlagonians of the interior, he reports what he has learned from those who have approached the regions afoot, but he is ignorant of the seaboard, Cp. 12. 3. 26. and naturally so, for at that time this sea was not navigable, and was called Axine That is “Inhospitable. because of its wintry storms and the ferocity of the tribes that lived around it, and particularly the Scythians, in that they sacrificed strangers, ate their flesh, and used their skulls as drinking-cups; but later it was called “Euxine,” “Hospitable,” euphemistically. when the Ionians founded cities on the seaboard. And, likewise, Homer is also ignorant of the facts about Egypt and Libya, as, for example, about the risings of the Nile and the silting up of the sea, Cp. 1. 2. 29. things which he nowhere mentions; neither does he mention the isthmus between the Erythraean Red. and the Egyptian Mediterranean. Seas, nor the regions of Arabia and Ethiopia and the ocean, unless one should give heed to Zeno the philosopher when he writes, “And I came to the Ethiopians and Sidonians and Arabians.” Hom Od. 4.84 Zeno emended the Homeric text to read as above (see 1. 2. 34). But this ignorance in Homer’s case is not amazing, for those who have lived later than he have been ignorant of many things and have invented marvellous tales: Hesiod, when he speaks of “men who are half-dog,” Cp. 1. 2. 35. of “long-headed men,” and of “Pygmies”; and Alcman, when he speaks of “web footed men”; and Aeschylus, when he speaks of “dog-headed men,” of “men with eyes in their breasts”, and of “one-eyed men” (in his Prometheus it is said Aeschylus refers to “one-eyed” men in Aesch. PB 804 . The other epithets (See Nauck, Fr. 431, 441) were taken from plays now lost. ); and a host of other tales. From these men he proceeds against the historians who speak of the “Rhipaean Mountains,” Cp. 7. 3. 1. and of “Mt. Ogyium,” “Mt. Ogyium” is otherwise unknown. The reading is probably corrupt. and of the settlement of the Gorgons and Hesperides, and of the “Land of Meropis” Aelian Var. Hist. 3.18 says that Theopompus the historian related a conversation between King Midas and Silenus in which Silenus reported a race called “meropians” who inhabited a continent larger than Asia, Europe, and Africa combined. in Theopompus, Theopompus (b. about 380 B.C.) write, among other works, two histories, (1) the Hellenica , in twelve books, being a continuation of Thucydides and covering the period from 411 to 394 B.C., and (2) the Philippica , in fifty-eight books, being a history of the life and times of Philip of Macedon ( 360 -336 BC.). Only a few fragments of these works remain. and the “City of Cimmeris” in Hecataeus, Hecataeus (b. about 540 B.C.) wrote both a geographical and an historical treatise. Only fragments remain. and the “Land of Panchaea” Cp. 2. 4. 2. in Euhemerus, Euhemerus (fl. about 310 B.C.) wrote a work on Sacred History (cp. 1. 3. 1). and in Aristotle “the river-stones, which are formed of sand but are melted by the rains.” Such words as these have not been found in the extant works of Aristotle. And in Libya, Apollodorus continues, there is a “City of Dionysus” which it is impossible for the same man ever to find twice. He censures also those who speak of the Homeric wanderings of Odysseus as having been in the neighborhood of Sicily; for in that case, says he, one should go on and say that, although the wanderings took place there, the poet, for the sake of mythology, placed them out in Oceanus. Cp. 1. 2. 17-19. And, he adds, the writers in general can be pardoned, but Callimachus Callimachus of Cyrene (fl. about 250 B.C.) is said to have written about 800 works, in prose and verse. Only 6 hymns, 64 epigrams and some fragments are extant. cannot be pardoned at all, because he makes a pretence of being a scholar; Cp. 1. 2. 37. for he calls Gaudos See footnote 2 on 1. 2. 37. the “Isle of Calypso” and Corcyra “Scheria.” And others he charges with falsifying about “Gerena,” Cp. 8. 3. 7, 29 and the Odyssey (the “Gerenian” Nestor). and “Aeacesium,” Strabo alludes to the wrong interpretation which some put upon ἀκάκητα , the epithet of Hermes ( Hom. Il. 16.185 ), making it refer to a cavern in “Arcadia, called “Acacesium,” near Mt. Cyllene, where Hermes was born. Hesiod ( Theog. 614) gives the same epithet to Prometheus, who, according to the scholiast, was so called from “Mt. Acacesium” in Arcadia, where he was much revered. and “Demus” Hom. Il. 3.201 The critics in question maintained that “demus” (“deme,” “people”) was the name of a place in Ithaca. in Ithaca, and about “Pelethronium” “Pelethronium” is not found in Homer of Hesiod. According to some it was a city of Thessaly; others, a mountain (or a part of Mt. Pelion) in Thessaly; and others, the cave where Cheiron trained Achilles. in Pelion, and about Glaucopium “Glauconpium” is not found in Homer or Hesiod. According to Eustathius it was applied by the ancients to the citadel of Athens, or to the temple of Athene, and was derived from Athene “Glaucopis” (“Flashing-eyed”); but Stephanus Byzantinus derives the word from Glaucopus, son of Alalcomeneus. in Athens. To these criticisms Apollodorus adds some petty ones of like sort and then stops, but he borrowed most of them from Eratosthenes, and as I have remarked before 1. 2. 24. they are wrong. For while one must concede to Eratosthenes and Apollodorus that the later writers have shown themselves better acquainted with such matters than the men of early times, yet to proceed beyond all moderation as they do, and particularly in the case of Homer, is a thing for which, as it seems to me, one might justly rebuke them and make the reverse statement: that where they are ignorant themselves, there they reproach the poet with ignorance. However, what remains to be said on this subject meets with appropriate mention in my detailed descriptions of the several countries, For example, 12. 3. 26-27. as also in my general description. The first and second books, passim. Just now I was discussing the Thracians, and the “Mysians, hand-to-hand fighters, and the proud Hippemolgi, Galactophagi, and Abii, men most just,” Hom. Il. 13.5f See 7. 3. 2 and the footnote. because I wished to make a comparison between the statements made by Poseidonius and myself and those made by the two men in question. Take first the fact that the argument which they have attempted is contrary to the proposition which they set out to prove; for although they set out to prove that the men of earlier times were more ignorant of regions remote from Greece than the men of more recent times, they showed the reverse, not only in regard to regions remote, but also in regard to places in Greece itself. However, as I was saying, let me put off everything else and look to what is now before me: they Eratosthenes and Apollodorus. say that the poet through ignorance fails to mention the Scythians, or their savage dealings with strangers, in that they sacrifice them, eat their flesh, and use their skulls as drinking-cups, although it was on account of the Scythians that the Puntus was called “Axine,” but that he invents certain “proud Hippemolgi, Galactophagi, and Abii, men most just”—people that exist nowhere on earth, How, then, could they call the sea “Axine” if they did not know about the ferocity or about the people who were most ferocious? And these, of course, are the Scythians. And were the people who lived beyond the Mysians and Thracians and Getae not also “Hippemolgi,” “Mare-milkers.” not also “Galactophagi” “Curd-eaters.” and “Abii”? “A resourceless folk.” In fact, even now Cp. the similar words quoted from Ephorus, 7. 3. 9. there are Wagon-dwellers and Nomads, so called, who live off their herds, and on milk and cheese, and particularly on cheese made from mare’s milk, and know nothing about storing up food or about peddling merchandise either, except the exchange of wares for wares. How, then, could the poet be ignorant of the Scythians if he called certain people “Hippemolgi and Galactophagi”? For that the people of his time were wont to call the Scythians “Hippemolgi,” Hesiod, too, is witness in the words cited by Eratosthenes: The Ethiopians, the Ligurians, and also the Scythians, Hippemolgi.” Eratosthenes Fr. 232 (Loeb); (Rzach, Fr. 55 Now wherein is it to be wondered at that, because of the widespread injustice connected with contracts in our country, Homer called “most just” and “proud” those who by no means spend their lives on contracts and money-getting but actually possess all things in common except sword and drinking-cup, and above all things have their wives and their children in common, in the Platonic way? Plat. Rep. 457d, 458c-d, 460b-d, 540, 543 Aeschylus, too, is clearly pleading the cause of the poet when he says about the Scythians: “But the Scythians, law-abiding, eaters of cheese made of mare’s milk.” Aesch. Fr. 198 (Nauck) And this assumption even now still persists among the Greeks; for we regard the Scythians the most straightforward of men and the least prone to mischief, as also far more frugal and independent of others than we are. And yet our mode of life has spread its change for the worse to almost all peoples, introducing amongst them luxury and sensual pleasures and, to satisfy these vices, base artifices that lead to innumerable acts of greed. So then, much wickedness of this sort has fallen on the barbarian peoples also, on the Nomads as well as the rest; for as the result of taking up a seafaring life they not only have become morally worse, indulging in the practice of piracy and of slaying strangers, but also, because of their intercourse with many peoples, have partaken of the luxury and the peddling habits of those peoples. But though these things seem to conduce strongly to gentleness of manner, they corrupt morals and introduce cunning instead of the straightforwardness which I just now mentioned.