§10.3.1τοὺς δὲ Κουρῆτας τῶν μὲν Ἀκαρνᾶσι τῶν δʼ Αἰτωλοῖς προσνεμόντων, καὶ τῶν μὲν ἐκ Κρήτης τῶν δʼ ἐξ Εὐβοίας τὸ γένος εἶναι φασκόντων, ἐπειδὴ καὶ Ὅμηρος αὐτῶν μέμνηται, τὰ παρʼ ἐκείνου πρῶτον ἐπισκεπτέον.
Since some assign the Curetes to the Acarnanians and others to the Aetolians, and some say that their race is from Crete and others from Euboea, and since Homer also mentions them, we must first examine his testimony.
οἴονται δʼ αὐτὸν λέγειν Αἰτωλοὺς μᾶλλον ἢ Ἀκαρνᾶνας, εἴπερ οἱ Πορθαονίδαι ἦσαν
"
ἄγριος ἠδὲ Μέλας, τρίτατος δʼ ἦν ἱππότα Οἰνεύς· ᾤκεον δʼ ἐν Πλευρῶνι καὶ αἰπεινῇ Καλυδῶνι. "
αὗται δʼ εἰσὶν Αἰτωλικαὶ πόλεις ἀμφότεραι καὶ φέρονται ἐν τῷ Αἰτωλικῷ καταλόγῳ ὥστε, ἐπεὶ τὴν Πλευρῶνα οἰκοῦντες φαίνονται καὶ κατʼ αὐτὸν οἱ Κουρῆτες, Αἰτωλοὶ ἂν εἶεν.
And people think that he speaks of them as Aetolians rather than Acarnanians, if indeed the sons of Porthaon were: "Agrius and Melas, and the third was Oeneus the horseman; and they dwelt in Pleuron and steep Calydon." These are both Aetolian cities and are listed in the Aetolian catalogue, so that, since the Curetes also appear, according to him, to inhabit Pleuron, they would be Aetolians.
οἱ δʼ ἀντιλέγοντες τῷ τρόπῳ τῆς φράσεως παράγονται ὅταν φῇ
"
Κουρῆτές τʼ ἐμάχοντο καὶ Αἰτωλοὶ μενεχάρμαι
ἀμφὶ πόλιν Καλυδῶνα. "
οὐδὲ γὰρ ἂν κυρίως εἶπεν οὕτως
ἐμάχοντο Βοιωτοὶ καὶ Θηβαῖοι πρὸς ἀλλήλους
οὐδʼ
Ἀργεῖοι καὶ Πελοποννήσιοι. ἐδείχθη δʼ ἐν τοῖς ἔμπροσθεν ὅτι ἐστὶ καὶ ὁμηρικὸν τὸ ἔθος τοῦτο τῆς φράσεως καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν ἄλλων ποιητῶν τετριμμένον·
Those who object are misled by the mode of expression when he says: "And the Curetes fought, and the Aetolians steadfast in battle, around the city of Calydon." For he would not properly have spoken in this way: "The Boeotians and Thebans fought against one other," nor: "The Argives and Peloponnesians." But it has been shown in the preceding parts of our work that this habit of expression is both Homeric and commonly used by other poets; this point, then, is easily defended.
τοῦτο μὲν οὖν εὐαπολόγητον. ἐκεῖνοι δὲ λεγέτωσαν πῶς ἂν μὴ ὁμοεθνεῖς ὄντας μηδʼ Αἰτωλοὺς τοὺς Πλευρωνίους ἐν τοῖς Αἰτωλοῖς κατέλεγεν.
But let those objectors say how he could have catalogued the Pleuronians among the Aetolians if they were not of the same nation, nor even Aetolians.
§10.3.2Ἔφορος δὲ τοὺς Αἰτωλοὺς εἰπὼν ἔθνος εἶναι μηδεπώποτε γεγενημένον ὑφʼ ἑτέροις, ἀλλὰ πάντα τὸν μνημονευόμενον χρόνον μεμενηκὸς ἀπόρθητον διά τε τὰς δυσχωρίας τῶν τόπων καὶ διὰ τὴν περὶ τὸν πόλεμον ἄσκησιν, ἐξ ἀρχῆς μέν φησιν ἅπασαν τὴν χώραν Κουρῆτας κατασχεῖν, ἀφικομένου δʼ ἐξ Ἤλιδος Αἰτωλοῦ τοῦ Ἐνδυμίωνος καὶ τοῖς πολέμοις κρατοῦντος αὐτῶν, τοὺς μὲν Κουρῆτας εἰς τὴν νῦν καλουμένην Ἀκαρνανίαν ὑποχωρῆσαι, τοὺς δʼ Αἰτωλοὺς συγκατελθόντας Ἐπειοῖς τὰς ἀρχαιοτάτας κτίσαι τῶν ἐν Αἰτωλίᾳ πόλεων, δεκάτῃ δʼ ὕστερον γενεᾷ τὴν Ἦλιν ὑπὸ Ὀξύλου τοῦ Αἵμονος συνοικισθῆναι περαιωθέντος ἐκ τῆς Αἰτωλίας.
Ephorus, however, having said that the Aetolians were a nation that had never been subject to others, but had remained unconquered through all remembered time, both because of the ruggedness of their country and because of their training in war, says that in the beginning the Curetes occupied the whole country, but when Aetolus, the son of Endymion, arrived from Elis and overcame them in wars, the Curetes withdrew into what is now called Acarnania, while the Aetolians, having gone down together with the Epeians, founded the oldest of the cities in Aetolia, and ten generations later Elis was settled by Oxylus, the son of Haemon, who had crossed over from Aetolia.
παρατίθησι δὲ τούτων μαρτύρια τὰ ἐπιγράμματα, τὸ μὲν ἐν Θέρμοις τῆς Αἰτωλίας, ὅπου τὰς ἀρχαιρεσίας ποιεῖσθαι πάτριον αὐτοῖς ἐστιν, ἐγκεχαραγμένον τῇ βάσει τῆς Αἰτωλοῦ εἰκόνος
"
χώρης οἰκιστῆρα, παρʼ Ἀλφειοῦ ποτε δίναις
θρεφθέντα, σταδίων γείτονʼ Ὀλυμπιάδος,
Ἐνδυμίωνος παῖδʼ Αἰτωλὸν τόνδʼ ἀνέθηκαν
Αἰτωλοί, σφετέρας μνῆμʼ ἀρετῆς ἐσορᾶν. "
τὸ δʼ ἐν τῇ ἀγορᾷ τῶν Ἠλείων ἐπὶ τῷ Ὀξύλου ἀνδριάντι
"
Αἰτωλός ποτε τόνδε λιπὼν αὐτόχθονα δῆμον
κτήσατο Κουρῆτιν γῆν δορὶ πολλὰ καμών· τῆς δʼ αὐτῆς γενεᾶς δεκατόσπορος Αἵμονος υἱός
Ὄξυλος ἀρχαίην ἔκτισε τήνδε πόλιν. " §10.3.3τὴν μὲν οὖν συγγένειαν τὴν πρὸς ἀλλήλους τῶν τε Ἠλείων καὶ τῶν Αἰτωλῶν ὀρθῶς ἐπισημαίνεται διὰ τῶν ἐπιγραμμάτων, ἐξομολογουμένων ἀμφοῖν οὐ τὴν συγγένειαν μόνον ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ ἀρχηγέτας ἀλλήλων εἶναι· διʼ οὗ καλῶς ἐξελέγχει ψευδομένους τοὺς φάσκοντας τῶν μὲν Αἰτωλῶν ἀποίκους εἶναι τοὺς Ἠλείους, μὴ μέντοι τῶν Ἠλείων τοὺς Αἰτωλούς.
And he adduces as evidence of these things the inscriptions, one in Thermum of Aetolia, where it is an ancestral custom for them to hold their elections, engraved on the pedestal of the statue of Aetolus: "This founder of the land, who was once reared by the eddies of Alpheus, neighbor to the race-courses of Olympia, the son of Endymion, Aetolus, did the Aetolians dedicate, a monument of their own virtue to look upon." and the other in the marketplace of the Eleans upon the statue of Oxylus: "Aetolus once, leaving this autochthonous people, acquired the Curetis land, after much toil with the spear; and Oxylus, the son of Haemon, of the tenth generation from the same stock, founded this ancient city." Now the relationship of the Eleans and the Aetolians to one another he correctly points out through the inscriptions, since both acknowledge not only their relationship but also that they are the founders of one another; by which he excellently refutes as liars those who claim that the Eleans were colonists of the Aetolians, but not the Aetolians of the Eleans.
τὴν δʼ ἀνομολογίαν τῆς γραφῆς καὶ τῆς ἀποφάσεως φαίνεται τὴν αὐτὴν ἐπιδεδειγμένος κἀνταῦθα ἥνπερ ἐπὶ τοῦ μαντείου τοῦ ἐν Δελφοῖς παρεστήσαμεν.
But in the inconsistency of his writing and his statement, he appears to have demonstrated here the same fault which we pointed out in the case of the oracle at Delphi.
εἰπὼν γὰρ ἀπόρθητον ἐκ τοῦ μνημονευομένου χρόνου παντὸς τὴν Αἰτωλίαν, εἰπὼν δὲ καὶ ἐξ ἀρχῆς τὴν χώραν ταύτην τοὺς Κουρῆτας κατασχεῖν ὤφειλε μὲν τοῖς εἰρημένοις ἀκόλουθον τοῦτο φέρειν, ὅτι οἱ Κουρῆτες διέμειναν ἕως εἰς αὐτὸν κατέχοντες τὴν Αἰτωλίαν γῆν·
For having said that Aetolia was unconquered through all remembered time, and also having said that in the beginning the Curetes occupied this country, he ought, consistently with what he had said, to have brought forward this conclusion: that the Curetes remained in possession of the Aetolian land until his own time; for only thus would it have been correctly said to be unconquered and never to have been subject to others.
οὕτω γὰρ ἔμελλεν ἀπόρθητός τε καὶ οὐδέποτε ὑπʼ ἄλλοις γεγονυῖα ὀρθῶς λεχθήσεσθαι· ὁ δʼ ἐκλαθόμενος τῆς ὑποσχέσεως οὐ τοῦτʼ ἐπιφέρει ἀλλὰ τοὐναντίον, ὡς ἀφικομένου ἐξ Ἤλιδος Αἰτωλοῦ καὶ τοῖς πολέμοις κρατοῦντος αὐτῶν οἱ Κουρῆτες ἀπῆλθον εἰς τὴν Ἀκαρνανίαν·
But he, forgetting his premise, does not bring forward this conclusion, but the opposite: that when Aetolus arrived from Elis and overcame them in wars, the Curetes departed into Acarnania.
τί οὖν ἄλλο πορθήσεως ἴδιον ἢ τῷ πολέμῳ κρατηθῆναι καὶ τὴν χώραν ἐκλιπεῖν;
What other property of being conquered is there, then, than to be overcome in war and to abandon one's country?
τοῦτο δὲ καὶ τὸ ἐπίγραμμα μαρτυρεῖ τὸ παρὰ τοῖς Ἠλείοις· ὁ γὰρ Αἰτωλός φησί
"
κτήσατο Κουρῆτιν γῆν δορὶ πολλὰ καμών. "
And this is also testified by the inscription among the Eleans; for Aetolus says: "acquired the Curetis land, after much toil with the spear."