Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/54

46 STRABO. CASAUB. 367. whether it denotes " large," which is most probable. Some understand Kaurattrffa to signify, " abounding with calamin- thus ; " others suppose, as the fissures occasioned by earth- quakes are called Creed, that this is the origin of the epithet. Hence Cseietas also, the name of the prison among the Lace- daemonians, which is a sort of cave. Some however say, that such kind of hollows are rather called Coi, whence the ex- pression of Homer, 1 applied to wild beasts, ^Tjpo-tv opecrKuotaiv, which live in mountain caves. Laconia however is subject to earthquakes, and some writers relate, that certain peaks of Taygetum have been broken off by the shocks. 2 Laconia contains also quarries of valuable marble. Those of the Taenarian marble in Taenarum 3 are ancient, and certain persons, assisted by the wealth of the Romans, lately opened a large quarry in Taygetum. 8. It appears from Homer, that both the country and the city had the name of Lacedaemon ; I mean the country to- gether with Messenia. When he speaks of the bow and quiver of Ulysses, he says, " A present from Iphitus Eury tides, a stranger, who met him in Lace- daemon," * and adds, " They met at Messene in the house of Ortilochus." He means the country which was a part of Messenia. 5 There was then no difference whether he said " A stranger, whom he met at Lacedaemon, gave him," or, "they met at Messene;" for it is evident that Pheras was the home of Ortilochus : " they arrived at Pherae, and went to the house of Diocles the son of Or- tilochus," 6 namely, Telemachus and Pisistratus. Now Pherae 7 belongs to Messenia. But after saying, that Telemachus and his friend set out from Pherae, and were driving their two horses the whole day, he adds, 1 II. i. 268. 2 This may have taken place a little before the third Messenian war, B. c. 464, when an earthquake destroyed all the houses in Sparta, with the exception of five. Diod. Sic. b. xv. c. 66 ; Pliny, b. ii. c. 79. 3 Pliny, b. xxxvi. c. 18, speaks of the black marble of Taenarus. Od. xxi. 13. 5 Eustathius informs us that, according to some writers, Sparta and La- cedsemon were the names of the two. principal quarters of the city ; and adds that the comic poet, Cratinus, gave the name of Sparta to the whole of Laconia. 6 Od. iii. 488. 7 Cheramidi.