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Dionysius of Halicarnassus · Roman Antiquities §1.50.1-1.50.4

Voyage Through Greek Islands and Aphrodite's Shrines

Passage 50 of 962 · Greek

Summary

The narrative describes the Trojans' voyage through Delos, Cythera, Zacynthus, Leucas, and Actium to Ambracia, highlighting the temples of Aphrodite and other monuments established at each site, as well as their ancestral connections with the locals.

§1.50.1ἐκ δὲ τῆς Παλλήνης ἄραντες οἱ Τρῶες εἰς Δῆλον ἀφικνοῦνται βασιλεύοντος αὐτῆς Ἀνίου· καὶ ἦν πολλὰ σημεῖα ἐν Δήλῳ τῆς Αἰνείου τε καὶ Τρώων παρουσίας, ἕως ἤνθει τε καὶ ᾤκισθʼ ἡ νῆσος.
Setting sail from Pallene, the Trojans arrived at Delos while Anius was ruling over it; and there were many tokens in Delos of the presence of Aeneas and the Trojans, as long as the island flourished and was inhabited.
ἔπειτα εἰς Κύθηρα νῆσον ἑτέραν, ἣ πρόκειται Πελοποννήσου, §1.50.2παραγενόμενοι ἱερὸν Ἀφροδίτης ἱδρύονται.
Then, having come to another island, Cythera, which lies off the Peloponnese, they founded a temple of Aphrodite.
ἀπὸ δὲ Κυθήρων ποιούμενοι τὸν πλοῦν οὐ πρόσω τῆς Πελοποννήσου τελευτήσαντα τῶν ἑταίρων τινὰ τῶν Αἰνείου Κίναιθον ἐπὶ τῶν ἀκρωτηρίων τινὸς θάπτουσιν, ὃ νῦν ἀπʼ ἐκείνου Κιναίθιον καλεῖται·
Making their voyage from Cythera, they buried one of Aeneas' companions, Cynaethus, who had died not far from the Peloponnese, on one of the promontories, which is now called Cynaethium after him.
καὶ τὴν πρὸς Ἀρκάδας συγγένειαν ἀνανεωσάμενοι, περὶ ἧς ἐν ὑστέρῳ λόγῳ διηγήσομαι, χρόνον τε ὀλίγον περὶ ταῦτα τὰ χωρία διατρίψαντες καὶ ὑπολιπόμενοί τινας σφῶν αὐτῶν εἰς Ζάκυνθον ἀφικνοῦνται.
And having renewed their kinship with the Arcadians, about which I shall relate in a later account, and having spent a short time in these places and left behind some of their own number, they arrived at Zacynthus.
§1.50.3δεξαμένων δʼ αὐτοὺς καὶ τῶν Ζακυνθίων πρὸς φιλίαν διὰ τὸ συγγενές· Δαρδάνῳ γὰρ τῷ Διὸς καὶ Ἠλέκτρας τῆς Ἀτλαντίδος δύο γενέσθαι φασὶν ἐκ Βατείας παῖδας, Ζάκυνθόν τε καὶ Ἐριχθόνιον, ὧν ὁ μὲν Αἰνείου πρόγονος ἦν, Ζάκυνθος δὲ τῆς νήσου κτίστης·
The Zacynthians also received them in friendship because of their kinship; for they say that to Dardanus, the son of Zeus and Electra the daughter of Atlas, two sons were born by Bateia, Zacynthus and Erichthonius, of whom one was the ancestor of Aeneas, and Zacynthus was the founder of the island.
ταύτης τε δὴ τῆς συγγενείας ἀναμνήσει καὶ φιλοφροσύνῃ τῶν ἐπιχωρίων διατρίβοντες αὐτόθι καὶ ἅμα ἀπλοίᾳ κατειργόμενοι θύουσιν Ἀφροδίτῃ πρὸς τῷ κατασκευασθέντι ἱερῷ θυσίαν, ἣν εἰς τόδε χρόνου συντελοῦσι κοινῇ Ζακύνθιοι, καὶ ἀγῶνα ποιοῦσιν ἐφήβοις τῶν τε ἄλλων ἀγωνισμάτων καὶ δρόμου·
Being detained there by the recollection of this kinship and the kindness of the inhabitants, and at the same time being held back by the impossibility of sailing, they offered a sacrifice to Aphrodite at the temple they had constructed, which the Zacynthians still perform in common to this day; and they hold games for the young men, consisting of other contests and a foot-race.
τὸ δὲ νικητήριον ὁ πρῶτος ἐλθὼν εἰς τὸν νεὼν λαμβάνει· λέγεται δὲ Αἰνείου καὶ Ἀφροδίτης ὁ δρόμος, καὶ §1.50.4ξόανα τούτων ἕστηκεν ἀμφοτέρων.
The prize of victory is received by the one who first reaches the temple; and the foot-race is called 'the race of Aeneas and Aphrodite', and wooden images of both of them stand there.
ἐκεῖθεν δὲ πελάγιον ποιησάμενοι τὸν πλοῦν εἰς Λευκάδα κατάγονται, κατεχόντων ἔτι τὸ χωρίον Ἀκαρνάνων.
Sailing from there across the open sea, they landed at Leucas, while the Acarnanians still held the place.
κἀν ταύτῃ πάλιν ἱερὸν Ἀφροδίτης ἱδρύονται τοῦτο, ὃ νῦν ἐστιν ἐν τῇ νησῖδι τῇ μεταξὺ τοῦ Διορύκτου τε καὶ τῆς πόλεως, καλεῖται δὲ Ἀφροδίτης Αἰνειάδος.
In this place too, they founded again a temple of Aphrodite, the one which is now on the islet between the canal and the city, and is called the temple of Aphrodite Aeneias.
ἄραντες δὲ αὐτόθεν ἐπί τε Ἄκτιον ἐλθόντες ὁρμίζονται τοῦ Ἀμβρακικοῦ κόλπου πρὸς τὸ ἀκρωτήριον.
Setting sail from there and coming to Actium, they anchored at the promontory of the Ambracian Gulf.
κἀκεῖθεν εἰς Ἀμβρακίαν ἀφικνοῦνται πόλιν, ἧς ἐβασίλευεν Ἄμβραξ ὁ Δεξαμενοῦ τοῦ Ἡρακλέους, καὶ ὑπολείπονται ἑκατέρωθι μνημεῖα τῆς ἀφίξεως· ἐν Ἀκτίῳ μὲν Ἀφροδίτης Αἰνειάδος ἱερὸν καὶ πλησίον αὐτοῦ θεῶν μεγάλων, ἃ καὶ εἰς ἐμὲ ἦν· ἐν δὲ Ἀμβρακίᾳ ἱερόν τε τῆς αὐτῆς θεοῦ καὶ ἡρῶον Αἰνείου πλησίον τοῦ μικροῦ θεάτρου, ἐν ᾧ καὶ ξόανον μικρὸν ἀρχαϊκὸν Αἰνείου λεγόμενον, καὶ αὐτὸ θυσίαις ἐγέραιρον αἱ καλούμεναι παρʼ αὐτοῖς ἀμφίπολοι.
And from there they arrived at the city of Ambracia, of which Ambrax, the son of Dexameneus the son of Heracles, was king, and they left behind memorials of their arrival in both places: at Actium, a temple of Aphrodite Aeneias and near it a temple of the Great Gods, which existed down to my time; and in Ambracia, a temple of the same goddess and a hero-shrine of Aeneas near the small theatre, in which there was also a small archaic wooden image said to be of Aeneas, which the women called among them 'amphipoloi' used to honor with sacrifices.

Notes

  1. §1.50.1ἄραντες — The participle ἄραντες is an idiomatic nautical expression meaning "setting sail" or "weighing anchor" (with the ellipsis of τὰς ἀγκύρας or τὰς ναῦς), here used intransitively to mean "having departed."
  2. §1.50.2οὐ πρόσω τῆς Πελοποννήσου — The adverb of place οὐ πρόσω ("not far from") governs the genitive case τῆς Πελοποννήσου. Syntactically, it either modifies the preceding sailing action or the participle τελευτήσαντα ("having died not far from the Peloponnese").
  3. §1.50.3δεξαμένων δʼ αὐτοὺς — This is a genitive absolute construction indicating the cause or background (the friendly reception) for the main verb θύουσιν. It is linked by the conjunction δέ to the preceding narrative of their journey, creating a complex sentence structure.
  4. §1.50.4κατεχόντων ἔτι τὸ χωρίον Ἀκαρνάνων — A genitive absolute construction with the noun Ἀκαρνάνων as the subject and the present participle κατεχόντων, describing the historical circumstance ("while the Acarnanians were still holding the place") at the time of the Trojans' arrival.

Cite this passage

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities §1.50.1-1.50.4. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0081.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:1.50.1-1.50.4

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