§10.3.21Ἀκουσίλαος δʼ ὁ Ἀργεῖος ἐκ Καβειροῦς καὶ Ἡφαίστου Κάμιλλον λέγει, τοῦ δὲ τρεῖς Καβείρους, ὧν νύμφας Καβειρίδας· Φερεκύδης δʼ ἐξ Ἀπόλλωνος καὶ Ῥητίας Κύρβαντας ἐννέα, οἰκῆσαι δʼ αὐτοὺς ἐν Σαμοθρᾴκῃ· ἐκ δὲ Καβειροῦς τῆς Πρωτέως καὶ Ἡφαίστου Καβείρους τρεῖς καὶ νύμφας τρεῖς Καβειρίδας, ἑκατέροις δʼ ἱερὰ γίνεσθαι.
And Acusilaus the Argive says that Camillus was born of Cabeiro and Hephaestus, and from him three Cabeiri, whose sisters are the nymphs called Cabeirides; and Pherecydes says that nine Corybantes were born of Apollo and Rhetia, and that they lived in Samothrace; and that of Cabeiro, the daughter of Proteus, and Hephaestus were born three Cabeiri and three nymphs called Cabeirides, and that sacred rites are performed for each of the two groups.
μάλιστα μὲν οὖν ἐν Ἴμβρῳ καὶ Λήμνῳ τοὺς Καβείρους τιμᾶσθαι συμβέβηκεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν Τροίᾳ κατὰ πόλεις· τὰ δʼ ὀνόματα αὐτῶν ἐστι μυστικά.
Now it has come to pass that the Cabeiri are honored especially in Imbros and Lemnos, but also in Troy, city by city; and their names are mystical.
Ἡρόδοτος δὲ καὶ ἐν Μέμφει λέγει τῶν Καβείρων ἱερὰ καθάπερ καὶ τοῦ Ἡφαίστου, διαφθεῖραι δʼ αὐτὰ Καμβύσην.
And Herodotus says that in Memphis also there are temples of the Cabeiri, just as of Hephaestus, and that Cambyses destroyed them.
ἔστι δʼ ἀοίκητα τὰ χωρία τῆς τῶν δαιμόνων τούτων τιμῆς, τό τε Κορυβαντεῖον τὸ ἐν τῇ Ἁμαξιτίᾳ τῆς νῦν Ἀλεξανδρέων χώρας ἐγγὺς τοῦ Σμινθίου, καὶ ἡ Κορύβισσα ἐν τῇ Σκηψίᾳ περὶ ποταμὸν Εὐρήεντα καὶ κώμην ὁμώνυμον καὶ ἔτι χείμαρρον Αἰθαλόεντα.
But the places dedicated to the worship of these daimons are now uninhabited: namely, the Corybanteium in Hamaxitia in what is now the territory of the Alexandrians, near the Smintheium, and Corybissa in Scepsia near the River Eureeis and the village of the same name and also the torrent Aithaloeis.
πιθανὸν δέ φησιν ὁ Σκήψιος, Κουρῆτας μὲν καὶ Κορύβαντας εἶναι τοὺς αὐτούς, οἳ περὶ τὰς τῆς μητρὸς τῶν θεῶν ἁγιστείας πρὸς ἐνόπλιον ὄρχησιν ᾔθεοι καὶ κόροι τυγχάνουσι παρειλημμένοι.
And the Scepsian says that it is plausible that the Curetes and the Corybantes are the same, being young men and boys who are received for the armed dance in connection with the sacred rites of the Mother of the Gods.
καὶ Κορύβαντες δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ κορύπτοντας βαίνειν ὀρχηστικῶς, οὓς καὶ βητάρμονας λέγει ὁ ποιητής
"
δεῦτʼ ἄγε Φαιήκων βητάρμονες, ὅσσοι ἄριστοι.
And he says that the Corybantes are so called from their "stepping butt-headedly" in a dancing manner, whom the Poet also calls "dancers": "Come, step forth, as many of you dancers of the Phaeacians as are best.
"
τῶν δὲ Κορυβάντων ὀρχηστικῶν καὶ ἐνθουσιαστικῶν ὄντων καὶ τοὺς μανικῶς κινουμένους κορυβαντιᾶν φαμεν. §10.3.22δακτύλους δʼ Ἰδαίους φασί τινες κεκλῆσθαι τοὺς πρώτους οἰκήτορας τῆς κατὰ τὴν Ἴδην ὑπωρείας· πόδας μὲν γὰρ λέγεσθαι τὰς ὑπωρείας, κορυφὰς δὲ τὰ ἄκρα τῶν ὀρῶν·
"And since the Corybantes are dancing and full of enthusiasm, we say that those who move in a frenzied manner are "corybantiating." And some say that the first inhabitants of the foothills of Ida were called Idaean Dactyls; for the foothills are called "feet," and the peaks of the mountains "heads"; and therefore the individual extremities around Ida, which are all sacred to the Mother of the Gods, (were likened to fingers).
αἱ οὖν κατὰ μέρος ἐσχατιαὶ καὶ πᾶσαι τῆς μητρὸς τῶν θεῶν ἱεραὶ περὶ τὴν Ἴδην Σοφοκλῆς δὲ οἴεται πέντε τοὺς πρώτους ἄρσενας γενέσθαι, οἳ σίδηρόν τε ἐξεῦρον καὶ εἰργάσαντο πρῶτοι καὶ ἄλλα πολλὰ τῶν πρὸς τὸν βίον χρησίμων, πέντε δὲ καὶ ἀδελφὰς τούτων, ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ δακτύλους κληθῆναι.
But Sophocles thinks that the first males born were five in number, who first discovered and worked iron and did many other things useful for life, and that they had five sisters also, and were called Dactyls after their number.
ἄλλοι δʼ ἄλλως μυθεύουσιν ἀπόροις ἄπορα συνάπτοντες, διαφόροις δὲ καὶ τοῖς ὀνόμασι καὶ τοῖς ἀριθμοῖς χρῶνται, ὧν Κέλμιν ὀνομάζουσί τινα καὶ Δαμναμενέα καὶ Ἡρακλέα καὶ Ἄκμονα·
Others mythologize in other ways, joining difficulties to difficulties, and use different names and numbers, among whom they name a certain Celmis, and Damnameneus, and Heracles, and Acmon.
καὶ οἱ μὲν ἐπιχωρίους τῆς Ἴδης οἱ δὲ ἐποίκους, πάντες δὲ σίδηρον εἰργάσθαι ὑπὸ τούτων ἐν Ἴδῃ πρῶτόν φασι, πάντες δὲ καὶ γόητας ὑπειλήφασι καὶ περὶ τὴν μητέρα τῶν θεῶν καὶ ἐν Φρυγίᾳ ᾠκηκότας περὶ τὴν Ἴδην, Φρυγίαν τὴν Τρῳάδα καλοῦντες διὰ τὸ τοὺς Φρύγας ἐπικρατῆσαι πλησιοχώρους ὄντας τῆς Τροίας ἐκπεπορθημένης.
And some call them natives of Ida, others settlers, but all agree that iron was first worked by them on Ida, and all have assumed them to be wizards, attendants of the Mother of the Gods, and inhabitants of the region about Ida in Phrygia—calling the Troad Phrygia because the Phrygians, being neighbors, got the upper hand after Troy was sacked.
ὑπονοοῦσι δὲ τῶν Ἰδαίων δακτύλων ἐκγόνους εἶναι τούς τε Κουρῆτας καὶ τοὺς Κορύβαντας· τοὺς γοῦν πρώτους γεννηθέντας ἐν Κρήτῃ ἑκατὸν ἄνδρας Ἰδαίους δακτύλους κληθῆναι, τούτων δʼ ἀπογόνους φασὶ Κουρῆτας ἐννέα γενέσθαι, τούτων δʼ ἕκαστον δέκα παῖδας τεκνῶσαι τοὺς Ἰδαίους καλουμένους δακτύλους.
And they suspect that the Curetes and the Corybantes are descendants of the Idaean Dactyls; at all events, they say that the first hundred men born in Crete were called Idaean Dactyls, and that as descendants of these, nine Curetes were born, and that each of these begot ten children who were called Idaean Dactyls.
§10.3.23προήχθημεν δὲ διὰ πλειόνων εἰπεῖν περὶ τούτων καίπερ ἥκιστα φιλομυθοῦντες, ὅτι τοῦ θεολογικοῦ γένους ἐφάπτεται τὰ πράγματα ταῦτα.
And we have been led to speak at greater length about these things, although we are least fond of mythologizing, because these matters touch upon the theological class of inquiries.
πᾶς δὲ ὁ περὶ τῶν θεῶν λόγος ἀρχαίας ἐξετάζει δόξας καὶ μύθους, αἰνιττομένων τῶν παλαιῶν ἃς εἶχον ἐννοίας φυσικὰς περὶ τῶν πραγμάτων καὶ προστιθέντων ἀεὶ τοῖς λόγοις τὸν μῦθον.
And every discussion concerning the gods examines ancient opinions and myths, since the ancients expressed in riddles the physical conceptions they had about things and always added myth to their discussions.
ἅπαντα μὲν οὖν τὰ αἰνίγματα λύειν ἐπʼ ἀκριβὲς οὐ ῥᾴδιον, τοῦ δὲ πλήθους τῶν μυθευομένων ἐκτεθέντος εἰς τὸ μέσον, τῶν μὲν ὁμολογούντων ἀλλήλοις τῶν δʼ ἐναντιουμένων, εὐπορώτερον ἄν τις δύναιτο εἰκάζειν ἐξ αὐτῶν τἀληθές·
Therefore, it is not easy to solve all these riddles with accuracy, but if the multitude of mythologized accounts is set forth in public, some agreeing with one another and others contradicting, one might be able to conjecture the truth more easily from them.
οἷον τὰς ὀρειβασίας τῶν περὶ τὸ θεῖον σπουδαζόντων καὶ αὐτῶν τῶν θεῶν καὶ τοὺς ἐνθουσιασμοὺς εἰκότως μυθεύουσι κατὰ τὴν αὐτὴν αἰτίαν καθʼ ἣν καὶ οὐρανίους νομίζουσι τοὺς θεοὺς καὶ προνοητικοὺς τῶν τε ἄλλων καὶ τῶν προσημασιῶν·
For example, they naturally mythologize the mountain-roamings of those who are zealous about the divine and of the gods themselves, and their enthusiasms, for the same reason that they also believe the gods to be heavenly and provident of other things and of signs.
τῇ μὲν οὖν ὀρειβασίᾳ τὸ μεταλλευτικὸν καὶ τὸ θηρευτικὸν ζητητικὸν τῶν πρὸς τὸν βίον χρησίμων ἐφάνη συγγενές, τῶν δʼ ἐνθουσιασμῶν καὶ θρησκείας καὶ μαντικῆς τὸ ἀγυρτικὸν καὶ γοητεία ἐγγύς.
For while the metal-working and hunting arts, being search-oriented for the things useful for life, seemed akin to mountain-roaming, the begging arts and wizardry are close to enthusiasms, ritual worship, and divination.
τοιοῦτον δὲ καὶ τὸ φιλότεχνον μάλιστα τὸ περὶ τὰς Διονυσιακὰς τέχνας καὶ τὰς Ὀρφικάς.
And such also is the love of art, especially that concerning the Dionysiac and the Orphic arts.
ἀλλʼ ἀπόχρη περὶ αὐτῶν.
But let this suffice concerning them.