distant from the shore and the river's mouth. This is the smaller of the two, and was densely covered with every kind of timber. In it was also a temple of Artemis, around which the inhabitants themselves spent their lives. The island was devoted to the use of wild goats and stags, which were allowed to range at large as being dedicated to Artemis. It was unlawful to chase them unless any one wished to offer sacrifice to the goddess; and for this purpose alone it was lawful to chase them. Aristobulus says that Alexander ordered this island to be called Icarus, after the island so named in the Aegean Sea,[1] on which, as the report goes, Icarus, son of Daedalus fell, when the wax, by which the wings had been fastened to him, melted. For he did not fly near the earth, according to his father's injunctions, but senselessly flying far aloft, he allowed the sun to soften and loosen the wax. Icarus left his name to the island and the sea, the former being called Icarus and the latter the Icarian. The other island was said to be distant from, the mouth of the Euphrates about a day and night's voyage for a ship running before the breeze. Its name was Tylus[2]; it was large and most of it neither rugged nor woody, but suitable for producing cultivated fruits and all things in due season. Some of this information was imparted to Alexander by Archias, who was sent with a triacontor to investigate the course of the coasting voyage to Arabia, and who went as far as the island of Tylus, but durst not pass beyond that point. Androsthenes[3] was despatched with another triacontor and sailed to a part of the peninsula of Arabia. Hieron of
- ↑ One of the Sporades, west of Samos, now called Nitaria. Cf. Horace (Carm., iv. 2, 2) and Ovid (Fasti, iv. 28).
- ↑ Called Tyrus by Strabo (xvi. 3). It is now called Bahrein, and is celebrated for pearl fisheries.
- ↑ A fragment of the work of Androsthenes descriptive of his voyage is preserved by Athenaeus (iii. p. 936).
