Description of Greece

​The Ionian cities on the islands are Samos, which is above Mycale, and Chios, which is opposite Mimas. Asius, the son of Amphiptolemus, a Samian, wrote in his epic poetry that Astypalaea and Europa were born to Phoenix by Perimede, the daughter of Oeneus, and that Ancaeus was the son of Poseidon and Astypalaea, and ruled over those called Leleges; and that to Ancaeus, who took Samia, the daughter of the river Maeander, as wife, were born Perilaus, Enudus, Samos, Alitherses, and besides them a daughter Parthenope, and that Lycomedes was born to Parthenope, the daughter of Ancaeus, and Apollo.

​Asius revealed so much in his poetry; but at that time those who inhabited the island received the Ionians as fellow-settlers more by necessity than by goodwill. The leader of the Ionians was Procles, the son of Pityreus, himself an Epidaurian and bringing mostly Epidaurians, who had been expelled from Epidauria by Deiphontes and the Argives; this Procles was of the race of Ion, the son of Xuthus. But Androclus and the Ephesians made an expedition against Leogorus, the son of Procles, who was ruling in Samos after his father, and having defeated him in battle, they expelled the Samians from the island; they brought the charge against them that they, together with the Carians, were plotting against the Ionians.

​Of the exiled Samians, some settled on the island off Thrace, and because of their settling there, people call the island Samothrace instead of Dardania; others, along with Leogorus, built a wall around Anaia on the mainland opposite, and crossing over ten years later into Samos, they expelled the Ephesians and recovered the island.

​As for the sanctuary of Hera in Samos, there are some who say that those sailing in the Argo founded it, and that they brought the image from Argos; but the Samians themselves believe that the goddess was born on the island by the river Imbrasus and under the agnus-castus tree which is still growing in the Heraion even in my day. That this sanctuary is indeed among the most ancient, one might infer not least of all from the image; for it is indeed the work of an Aeginetan man, Smilis, the son of Euclides. This Smilis was contemporary with Daedalus in age, but did not arrive at equal fame;

​for Daedalus had the fortune to be of the royal family in Athens, of those called Metionidae, and became more famous among all men both because of his art and because of his wanderings and his misfortunes. Having killed his sister’s son and knowing the laws at home, he fled voluntarily to Crete to Minos, and made images both for Minos and for the daughters of Minos, just as Homer also revealed in the Iliad;

​but having been condemned for wrongdoing by Minos and thrown into prison together with his son, he escaped from Crete and arrived at Inycus, a Sicilian city, to Cocalus, and provided the Sicilians with a cause for war against the Cretans, because Cocalus would not give him up when Minos demanded him; and he was so highly regarded by the daughters of Cocalus for his art that the women even plotted death for Minos to favor Daedalus.

​It is clear that the name of Daedalus reached all over Sicily, and to the greatest part of Italy as well. But Smilis is not apparent to have traveled to any others, except to the Samians and to Elis; but he did go to these, and he is the one who made the image of Hera in Samos.

​In the writing of Ion, the tragic poet, there are things said of this kind: that Poseidon came to the island when it was deserted, and there united with a nymph, and that during the labor pains of the nymph, snow fell from heaven to the earth, and because of this Poseidon gave his son the name Chios; and that he also united with another nymph, and sons Agelus and Melas were born to him; and in course of time Oenopion also put in at Chios with ships from Crete, and his sons Talus, Evanthes, Melas, Salagus, and Athamas followed him.

​Carians also came to the island during the reign of Oenopion, and Abantes from Euboea. After Oenopion and his sons, Amphiclus took the rule; Amphiclus came from Histiaea in Euboea according to an oracle from Delphi. Hector, in the fourth generation from Amphiclus — for he too held the kingship — made war against those of the Abantes and Carians who inhabited the island, and some he killed in the battles, and others he forced to depart under treaty.

​When release from war came to the Chians, it then occurred to Hector as a thought that they also ought to sacrifice together with the Ionians at the Panionium; and Ion says that he received a tripod as a prize for manliness from the common assembly of the Ionians. I found Ion having said this much about the Chians; however, he has not said for what reason the Chians are counted among the Ionians.