strong and large ram, which leads the sheep[1]. It is to be observed, that the geographical knowledge expressed in the Homeric poems extended as far as the promontory of Carambis on the south coast of the Euxine Sea, and included all Phrygia, Ionia, and the western half of Asia Minor.
The Greek mythology affords similar evidence. The well-known story of Paris, adjudging the golden apple, is founded on the pastoral scenes of Ida. Marsyas also was a shepherd on mount Ida[2]: the river Marsyas, famed for his contest with Apollo, was among the Phrygian mountains[3].
The historical evidence to which we now proceed, though referring to times much posterior to the mythological, is more exact as well as more entitled to absolute credit.
According to Strabo the branches of Mount Taurus in Pisidia were rich in pastures "for all kinds of cattle[4]." The chief town of this region was Selge, a very flourishing city, and hence Tertullian, in a passage, mentions "oves Selgicæ," Selgic sheep, among those of the greatest celebrity. The superior whiteness of the fleeces of Pamphylia is mentioned by Philostratus.
We have reason to believe, that the Lydians and Carians bestowed the greatest attention on sheep-breeding and on the woollen manufacture before the arrival of the Greek colonists among them. The new settlers adopted the employments of the ancient inhabitants, and made those employments subservient to a very extensive and lucrative trade. Pliny (viii. 73.
- ↑ See Bochart's Hierozoïcon, l. ii. cap. 44. De Gregum Pastoribus.
- ↑ Hyginus, Fab. 165.
- ↑ It appears not impossible, that, when Theocritus in Idyll. iii. 46, represents Adonis as "tending flocks upon the mountains," he may have referred to the mountains of Phrygia or of Ionia. For in another Idyll. (i. 105-110,) he seems to connect the love of Venus for Adonis with her love for Anchises, as if the scene of both were in the same region. Among the various accounts of Adonis, one makes him the offspring of Smyrna; and Cinyras, the father of Adonis, is said to have founded the city of Smyrna in Ionia, calling it by that name after his daughter. (Hyginus, Fab. 58 and 275.) This supposition accounts most satisfactorily for the production of the beautiful elegy on the death of Adonis by Bion, who was a native of Smyrna.
- ↑ Lib. xii. c. 7, § 3.
