§1.2.18τοιαῦτα μὲν εἴρηκεν.
Such are his words.
ἔστι δὲ τἆλλα μὲν εὖ λεγόμενα· ὅταν δʼ ἀνασκευάζῃ τὸν ἐξωκεανιζόμενον καὶ πρὸς ἀκριβῆ μέτρα τὸν τῶν ἡμερῶν πλοῦν ἀνάγῃ καὶ διαστήματα, ὑπερβολὴν οὐκ ἀπολείπει τῆς ἀνομολογίας.
On other points, indeed, what he says is well said; but when he refutes the view of those who push Odysseus out into the Ocean, and reduces the voyage of days and the distances to exact measurements, he falls into the extreme of inconsistency.
ἅμα μὲν γὰρ παρατίθησι τὰ τοῦ ποιητοῦ ἔπη
ἔνθεν δʼ ἐννῆμαρ φερόμην ὀλοοῖς ἀνέμοισιν,
ἅμα δʼ ἐπικρύπτεται·
For at one and the same time he adduces the poet's verses: 'And thence for nine days I was carried by destructive winds,' and yet suppresses other passages.
καὶ γὰρ ταῦτα τοῦ ποιητοῦ
αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ ποταμοῖο λίπεν ῥόον ὠκεανοῖο νηῦς,
καὶ τὸ
νήσῳ ἐν Ὠγυγίῃ, ὅθι τʼ ὀμφαλός ἐστι θαλάσσης,
καὶ ὅτι ἐνταῦθα οἰκεῖ Ἄτλαντος θυγάτηρ, καὶ τὸ περὶ τῶν Φαιάκων
οἰκέομεν δʼ ἀπάνευθε πολυκλύστῳ ἐνὶ πόντῳ ἔσχατοι· οὐ δέ τις ἄμμι βροτῶν ἐπιμίσγεται ἄλλος. ταῦτα γὰρ πάντα φανερῶς ἐν τῷ Ἀτλαντικῷ πελάγει πλαττόμενα δηλοῦται.
For these also belong to the poet: 'But when the ship had left the stream of the River Oceanus,' and this: 'In the island of Ogygia, where is the navel of the sea,' and the statement that the daughter of Atlas dwells there, and this concerning the Phaeacians: 'We dwell far off, in the middle of the surging sea, the outermost of men; nor does any other mortal have dealings with us.' For all these passages clearly show that they were composed with the Atlantic Ocean as their scene.
ὁ δὲ ταῦτʼ ἐπικρυπτόμενος τὰ φανερῶς λεγόμενα ἀναιρεῖ. τοῦτο μὲν οὖν οὐκ εὖ·
But he, by suppressing these, negates what is clearly stated.
τὸ δὲ περὶ Σικελίαν καὶ Ἰταλίαν γεγονέναι τὴν πλάνην ὀρθῶς, ἐπεὶ τίς ἔπεισε ποιητὴς ἢ συγγραφεὺς Νεαπολίτας μὲν λέγειν μνῆμα Παρθενόπης τῆς Σειρῆνος, τοὺς δὲ ἐν Κύμῃ καὶ Δικαιαρχείᾳ καὶ Βεσβίῳ Πυριφλεγέθοντα καὶ Ἀχερουσίαν λίμνην καὶ νεκυομαντεῖον τὸ ἐν τῷ Ἀόρνῳ καὶ Βάιον καὶ Μισηνὸν τῶν Ὀδυσσέως ἑταίρων τινάς;
In this, then, he is not right; but his view that the wandering took place around Sicily and Italy is correct, since who persuaded the Neapolitans to speak of the tomb of Parthenope the Siren, and those in Cumae, Dicaearchia, and Vesuvius to speak of Pyriphlegethon, the Acherusian Lake, the oracle of the dead at Aornos, and Baius and Misenus, some of the companions of Odysseus?
οὕτω δὲ καὶ τὰ περὶ Σειρηνούσσας καὶ τὰ περὶ τὸν πορθμὸν καὶ Σκύλλαν καὶ Χάρυβδιν καὶ Αἰόλον· ἅπερ οὔτʼ ἀκριβῶς ἐξετάζειν δεῖ οὔτʼ ἄρριζα καὶ ἀνέστια ἐᾶν, ἀληθείας μηδὲν προσαπτόμενα μηδʼ ὠφελείας ἱστορικῆς.
And so it is also with the Sirenussae, the strait, Scylla, Charybdis, and Aeolus; which things we ought neither to examine too minutely nor yet to leave rootless and homeless, as if they touched upon nothing of truth or historical utility.
§1.2.19καὶ αὐτὸς δὲ ὑπονοήσας τοῦτο ὁ Ἐρατοσθένης, ὑπολάβοι τις ἄν, φησί, τὸν ποιητὴν βούλεσθαι μὲν ἐν τοῖς προσεσπερίοις τόποις τὴν πλάνην τῷ Ὀδυσσεῖ ποιεῖν, ἀποστῆναι δʼ ἀπὸ τῶν ὑποκειμένων, τὰ μὲν οὐκ ἀκριβῶς πεπυσμένον, τὰ δὲ οὐδὲ προελόμενον οὕτως, ἀλλʼ ἐπὶ τὸ δεινότερον καὶ τὸ τερατωδέστερον ἕκαστα ἐξάγειν. τοῦτο μὲν αὐτὸ εὖ, τὸ δʼ οὗ χάριν τοῦτʼ ἐποίει κακῶς δεξάμενος· οὐ γὰρ φλυαρίας, ἀλλʼ ὠφελείας χάριν.
And Eratosthenes himself, having some suspicion of this, says: 'One might suppose that the poet wished to make Odysseus' wandering take place in the western regions, but departed from the actual facts, partly because he was not accurately informed, and partly because he did not even choose to speak in that way, but rather led each thing on to the more terrible and the more monstrous.' This statement itself is well made, but his conception of the purpose for which the poet did this is bad; for it was not for the sake of empty nonsense, but for the sake of utility.
ὥστε δίκαιός ἐστιν ὑπέχειν λόγον καὶ περὶ τούτου καὶ διότι φησὶ τὰ πόρρω τερατολογεῖσθαι μᾶλλον διὰ τὸ εὐκατάψευστον.
Therefore, he is right to render an account both concerning this and because he says that far-off things are told in more monstrous terms because they are easy to lie about.
πολλοστὸν γὰρ μέρος ἐστὶ τὰ πόρρω τερατολογούμενα τῶν ἐν τῇ Ἑλλάδι καὶ ἐγγὺς τῆς Ἑλλάδος· οἷα δὴ τὰ κατὰ τοὺς Ἡρακλέους ἄθλους καὶ Θησέως καὶ τὰ ἐν Κρήτῃ καὶ Σικελίᾳ μυθευόμενα καὶ ταῖς ἄλλαις νήσοις, καὶ τὰ περὶ τὸν Κιθαιρῶνα καὶ Ἑλικῶνα καὶ Παρνασσὸν καὶ Πήλιον καὶ τὴν Ἀττικὴν ὅλην καὶ Πελοπόννησον· οὐδείς τε ἐκ τῶν μύθων ἄγνοιαν αἰτιᾶται τῶν μυθοποιῶν.
For the monstrous tales told of far-off places are but a very small fraction of those told about places in Greece and near Greece—such as the myths concerning the labors of Heracles and Theseus, and those told of Crete, Sicily, and the other islands, and those concerning Cithaeron, Helicon, Parnassus, Pelion, and the whole of Attica and the Peloponnese; and no one, because of these myths, charges the myth-makers with ignorance.
ἔτι δὲ ἐπεὶ οὐ πάντα μυθεύουσιν, ἀλλὰ πλείω προσμυθεύουσι, καὶ μάλιστα Ὅμηρος, ὁ ζητῶν τί οἱ παλαιοὶ προσμυθεύουσιν οὐ ζητεῖ, εἰ τὰ προσμυθευόμενα ὑπῆρξεν ἢ ἐστίν, ἀλλὰ καὶ μᾶλλον οἷς προσμυθεύεται τόποις ἢ προσώποις, περὶ ἐκείνων ζητεῖ τἀληθές, οἷον τὴν Ὀδυσσέως πλάνην, εἰ γέγονε καὶ ποῦ.
Furthermore, since they do not mythologize in everything but rather add myths to facts, and Homer especially does so, he who inquires into what the ancients added as myth does not ask whether the added myths actually existed or exist, but rather inquires into the truth concerning those places or persons to which the myths were added, as, for example, whether the wandering of Odysseus took place, and where.