§1.3.17πολλῶν δὲ συναγωγὰς ποιησαμένων τοιαύτας, ἀρκέσει τὰ ὑπὸ τοῦ Σκηψίου Δημητρίου συνηγμένα οἰκείως παρατεθέντα.
Although many have made such collections, it will be sufficient to compare what has been gathered by Demetrius of Scepsis, as it has been appropriately presented.
μνησθεὶς γὰρ τῶν ἐπῶν τούτων
"κρουνὼ δʼ ἵκανον καλλιρρόω, ἔνθα τε πηγαὶ δοιαὶ ἀναΐσσουσι Σκαμάνδρου δινήεντος.
For having mentioned these verses— "And they came to the two fair-flowing springs, where two fountains of the eddying Scamander well up.
ἡ μὲν γάρ θʼ ὕδατι λιαρῷ, ἡ δʼ ἑτέρη θέρεϊ προρέει εἰκυῖα χαλάζῃ,"
οὐκ ἐᾷ θαυμάζειν, εἰ νῦν ἡ μὲν τοῦ ψυχροῦ ὕδατος μένει πηγή, ἡ δὲ τοῦ θερμοῦ οὐχ ὁρᾶται.
The one indeed flows with warm water, while the other in summer runs cold like hail"— he does not allow us to wonder if now the spring of cold water remains, but that of warm water is not seen.
δεῖν γάρ φησιν αἰτιᾶσθαι τὴν ἔκλειψιν τοῦ θερμοῦ ὕδατος.
For he says that we must assign the cause to the failure of the warm water.
μιμνήσκεται δὲ πρὸς ταῦτα τῶν ὑπὸ Δημοκλέους λεγομένων, σεισμούς τινας μεγάλους τοὺς μὲν πάλαι περὶ Λυδίαν γενομένους καὶ Ἰωνίαν μέχρι τῆς Τρωάδος ἱστοροῦντος, ὑφʼ ὧν καὶ κῶμαι κατεπόθησαν καὶ Σίπυλος κατεστράφη κατὰ τὴν Ταντάλου βασιλείαν καὶ ἐξ ἑλῶν λίμναι ἐγένοντο, τὴν δὲ Τροίαν ἐπέκλυσε κῦμα.
And in connection with this, he mentions what is said by Democles, who records some great earthquakes, some of which occurred of old about Lydia and Ionia as far as the Troad, by which even villages were swallowed up, and Sipylus was destroyed in the reign of Tantalus, and lakes were formed from marshes, and a wave flooded Troy.
ἡ δὲ Φάρος ἡ κατʼ Αἴγυπτον ἦν ποτε πελαγία, νῦν δὲ τρόπον τινὰ χερρόνησος γέγονεν· ὡς δʼ αὕτως καὶ Τύρος καὶ Κλαζομεναί.
And Pharos, near Egypt, was once an island in the open sea, but now it has become in a way a peninsula; and likewise Tyre and Clazomenae.
ἡμῶν δʼ ἐπιδημούντων ἐν Ἀλεξανδρείᾳ τῇ πρὸς Αἰγύπτῳ, περὶ Πηλούσιον καὶ τὸ Κάσιον ὄρος μετεωρισθὲν τὸ πέλαγος ἐπέκλυσε τὴν γῆν καὶ νῆσον ἐποίησε τὸ ὄρος, ὥστε πλωτὴν γενέσθαι τὴν παρὰ τὸ Κάσιον ὁδὸν τὴν ἐς Φοινίκην.
And when we were residing in Alexandria near Egypt, the sea, rising near Pelusium and Mount Casius, flooded the land and made the mountain an island, so that the road past Casius into Phoenicia became navigable.
οὐδὲν οὖν θαυμαστὸν οὐδʼ εἴ ποτε διαστὰς ὁ ἰσθμὸς ἢ ἵζημα λαβὼν ὁ διείργων τὸ Αἰγύπτιον πέλαγος ἀπὸ τῆς Ἐρυθρᾶς θαλάττης ἀποφανεῖ πορθμὸν καὶ σύρρουν ποιήσει τὴν ἐκτὸς θάλατταν τῇ ἐντός, καθάπερ ἐπὶ τοῦ κατὰ τὰς Ἡρακλέους στήλας πορθμοῦ συνέβη.
It is nothing wonderful, then, even if the isthmus which parts the Egyptian Sea from the Red Sea, having split open or subsided at some time, shall reveal a strait and make the outer sea confluent with the inner, just as happened in the case of the strait at the Pillars of Heracles.
εἴρηται δὲ περὶ τῶν τοιούτων τινὰ καὶ ἐν ἀρχαῖς τῆς πραγματείας, ἃ δεῖ συμφέρειν εἰς ἓν καὶ τὴν πίστιν ἰσχυρὰν κατασκευάζειν τῶν τε τῆς φύσεως ἔργων καὶ τῶν ἄλλως γινομένων μεταβολῶν.
And some things of this kind have been said also at the beginning of this treatise, which we must bring together into one, and make strong our belief both in the works of nature and in the changes that take place otherwise.
§1.3.18τόν τε Πειραιᾶ νησιάζοντα πρότερον καὶ πέραν τῆς ἀκτῆς κείμενον οὕτως φασὶν ὀνομασθῆναι· ὑπεναντίως δʼ ἡ Λευκὰς Κορινθίων τὸν ἰσθμὸν διακοψάντων νῆσος γέγονεν, ἀκτὴ πρότερον οὖσα· περὶ ταύτης γάρ φασι λέγειν τὸν Λαέρτην
οἷος Νήριτον εἷλον ἐυκτίμενον πτολίεθρον, ἀκτὴν ἠπείροιο· ἐνταῦθα μὲν δὴ διακοπαὶ χειρότμητοι γεγόνασιν, ἀλλαχόθι δὲ προσχώσεις ἢ γεφυρώσεις, καθάπερ ἐπὶ τῆς πρὸς Συρακούσαις νήσου νῦν μὲν γέφυρά ἐστιν ἡ συνάπτουσα αὐτὴν πρὸς τὴν ἤπειρον, πρότερον δὲ χῶμα, ὥς φησιν Ἴβυκος, λογαίου λίθου, ὃν καλεῖ ἐκλεκτόν. Βοῦρα δὲ καὶ Ἑλίκη ἡ μὲν ὑπὸ χάσματος ἡ δʼ ὑπὸ κύματος ἠφανίσθη.
And they say that Piraeus, which was formerly an island and lay "beyond the shore" (peran), was named in this way; but on the contrary, Leucas became an island when the Corinthians cut through its isthmus, having been a peninsula before; for they say Laertes speaks of this: "As when I took Neritum, the well-built city, the shore of the continent." Here indeed there have been hand-cut trenches, but elsewhere there have been alluvial deposits or bridging, as in the case of the island near Syracuse: now indeed there is a bridge joining it to the continent, but formerly there was a causeway, as Ibycus says, of "logaios lithos," which he calls "selected stone." And Bura and Helice were destroyed, the one by a chasm, the other by a wave.
περὶ Μεθώνην δὲ τὴν ἐν τῷ Ἑρμιονικῷ κόλπῳ ὄρος ἑπταστάδιον τὸ ὕψος ἀνεβλήθη γενηθέντος ἀναφυσήματος φλογώδους, μεθʼ ἡμέραν μὲν ἀπρόσιτον ὑπὸ τοῦ θερμοῦ καὶ τῆς θειώδους ὀδμῆς, νύκτωρ δʼ ἐκλάμπον πόρρω καὶ θερμαῖνον ὥστε ζεῖν τὴν θάλατταν ἐπὶ σταδίους πέντε, θολερὰν δʼ εἶναι καὶ ἐπὶ εἴκοσι σταδίους, προσχωσθῆναι δὲ πέτραις ἀπορρῶξι πύργων οὐκ ἐλάττοσιν.
And near Methone in the Hermionic gulf, a mountain seven stadia in height was cast up, a fiery eruption having occurred, which by day indeed was inaccessible because of the heat and the sulfurous smell, but at night shone far and wide and was so hot that the sea boiled for five stadia and was turbid even for twenty stadia, and it was banked up with rugged rocks no smaller than towers.
ὑπὸ δὲ τῆς Κωπαΐδος λίμνης ἥ τε Ἄρνη κατεπόθη καὶ Μίδεια, ἃς ὠνόμακεν ὁ ποιητὴς ἐν τῷ καταλόγῳ
οἵ τε πολυστάφυλον Ἄρνην ἔχον, οἵ τε Μίδειαν. καὶ ὑπὸ τῆς Βιστονίδος δὲ καὶ τῆς νῦν Ἀφνίτιδος λίμνης ἐοίκασι κατακεκλύσθαι πόλεις τινὲς Θρᾳκῶν, οἱ δὲ καὶ Τρηρῶν, ὡς συνοίκων τοῖς Θρᾳξὶν ὄντων.
And by the Copaic lake both Arne and Midea were swallowed up, which the poet has named in the catalogue: "And those who held Arne rich in vines, and Midea." And also by Lake Bistonis and what is now Lake Aphnitis, some cities of the Thracians seem to have ¦p.78 been flooded, and some say also of the Treres, as being co-dwellers with the Thracians.
καὶ ἡ πρότερον δὲ Ἀρτεμίτα λεγομένη μία τῶν Ἐχινάδων νήσων ἤπειρος γέγονε· καὶ ἄλλας δὲ τῶν περὶ τὸν Ἀχελῶον νησίδων τὸ αὐτὸ πάθος φασὶ παθεῖν ἐκ τῆς ὑπὸ τοῦ ποταμοῦ προχώσεως τοῦ πελάγους, συγχοῦνται δὲ καὶ αἱ λοιπαί, ὡς Ἡρόδοτός φησι.
And that which was formerly called Artemita, one of the Echinades islands, has become continent; and they say that others of the islets about the Achelous have suffered the same thing from the silting up of the sea by the river, and the rest are also being silted up, as Herodotus says.
καὶ Αἰτωλικαὶ δέ τινες ἄκραι εἰσὶ νησίζουσαι πρότερον· καὶ ἡ Ἀστερία ἤλλακται, ἣν Ἀστερίδα φησὶν ὁ ποιητής
"ἔστι δέ τις νῆσος μέσσῃ ἁλὶ πετρήεσσα, Ἀστερίς, οὐ μεγάλη, λιμένες δʼ ἐνὶ ναύλοχοι αὐτῇ ἀμφίδυμοι· "
νυνὶ δὲ οὐδʼ ἀγκυροβόλιον εὐφυὲς ἔχει.
And there are some Aetolian capes which were formerly islands; and Asteria has changed, which the poet calls Asteris: "And there is a certain rocky island in the midst of the sea, Asteris, not large, and in it are double harbors fit for mooring." But now it does not even have a good anchorage.
ἔν τε τῇ Ἰθάκῃ οὐδέν ἐστιν ἄντρον τοιοῦτον οὐδὲ νυμφαῖον, οἷόν φησιν Ὅμηρος· βέλτιον δὲ αἰτιᾶσθαι μεταβολὴν ἢ ἄγνοιαν ἢ κατάψευσιν τῶν τόπων κατὰ τὸ μυθῶδες.
And in Ithaca there is no such cave, nor a temple of the nymphs, such as Homer says; but it is better to blame change rather than ignorance or false representation of the places according to the mythical character.
τοῦτο μὲν δὴ ἀσαφὲς ὃν ἐν κοινῷ σκοπεῖν.
Let this, then, being obscure, be a matter for common investigation.