Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/77

B. vni. c. vii. 2. ACHAIA. 69 gan with the union of four cities, among which were Patroe and Dyme. 1 They then had an accession of the twelve cities, with the exception of Olenus and Helice ; the former refused to join the league ; the other was swallowed up by the waves. 2. For the sea was raised to a great height by an earth- quake, and overwhelmed both Helice and the temple of the Heliconian Neptune, whom the lonians still hold in great veneration, and offer sacrifices to his honour. They celebrate at that spot the Panionian festival. 2 According to the con- jecture of some persons, Homer refers to these sacrifices in these lines, " But he breathed out his soul, and bellowed, as a bull Bellows when he is dragged round the altar of the Heliconian king." 3 It is conjectured that the age 4 of the poet is later than the migration of the Ionian colony, because he mentions the Pani- onian sacrifices, which the lonians perform in honour of the Heliconian Neptune in the territory of Priene ; for the Pri- enians themselves are said to have come from Helice ; a young man also of Priene is appointed to preside as king at these sacrifices, and to superintend the celebration of the sacred rites. A still stronger proof is adduced from what is said by the poet respecting the bull, for the lonians suppose, that sacri- fice is performed with favourable omens, when the bull bel- lows at the instant that he is wounded at the altar. Others deny this, and transfer to Helice the proofs alleged of the bull and the sacrifice, asserting that these things were done there by established custom, and that the poet drew his comparison from the festival celebrated there. Heljce 5 was overwhelmed by the waves two years before the battle of 1 Patras and Paleocastro. 2 This festival, Panionium, or assembly of all the lonians, was cele- brated at Mycale, or at Priene at the base of Mount Mycale, opposite the island of Samos, in a place sacred to Neptune. The lonians had a temple also at Miletus and another at Teos, both consecrated to the Heliconian Neptune. Herod, i. 148. Pausanias, b. vii. c. 24. 3 II. xx. 403. 4 The birth of Homer was later than the establishment of the lonians in Asia Minor, according to the best authors. Aristotle makes him contem- porary with the Ionian migration, J40 years after the Trojan war. 5 JElian, De Natura Anim. b. ii. c. 19, and Pausanias, b. vii. c. 24, 25, give an account of this catastrophe, which was preceded by an earth- quake, and was equally destructive to the city Bura. B. c. 373.