§10.4.11ἀλλὰ γὰρ ὁ μὲν περὶ τῆς Κνωσσοῦ λόγος τοιοῦτος.
However, such is the account of Cnossus.
μετὰ δὲ ταύτην δευτερεῦσαι δοκεῖ κατὰ τὴν δύναμιν ἡ τῶν Γορτυνίων πόλις.
After this city, the city of the Gortynians seems to hold the second place in power.
συμπράττουσαί τε γὰρ ἀλλήλαις ἅπαντας ὑπηκόους εἶχον αὗται τοὺς ἄλλους, στασιάσασαί τε διέστησαν τὰ κατὰ τὴν νῆσον· προσθήκη δʼ ἦν ἡ Κυδωνία μεγίστη ὁποτέροις προσγένοιτο.
For when they cooperated with each other, these two cities held all the other inhabitants in subjection, but when they dissented, they split the affairs of the island; and Cydonia was the greatest addition to whichever side it might attach itself.
κεῖται δʼ ἐν πεδίῳ καὶ ἡ τῶν Γορτυνίων πόλις, τὸ παλαιὸν μὲν ἴσως τετειχισμένη (καθάπερ καὶ Ὅμηρος εἴρηκε
"
Γόρτυνά τε τειχήεσσαν
"
), ὕστερον δʼ ἀποβαλοῦσα τὸ τεῖχος ἐκ θεμελίων καὶ πάντα τὸν χρόνον μείνασα ἀτείχιστος· καὶ γὰρ ὁ Φιλοπάτωρ Πτολεμαῖος ἀρξάμενος τειχίζειν ὅσον ἐπὶ ὀγδοήκοντα σταδίους παρῆλθε μόνον·
The city of the Gortynians also lies in a plain, in ancient times perhaps fortified with walls (just as Homer also said, "and walled Gortyn"), but later having lost its wall to the foundations, it remained unwalled for all time; for indeed Ptolemy Philopator, though he began to build a wall, advanced it only to about eighty stades.
ἀξιόλογον δʼ οὖν ἐξεπλήρου ποτὲ κύκλον ἡ οἴκησις ὅσον πεντήκοντα σταδίων·
At any rate, the inhabited site once filled a remarkable circuit of about fifty stades.
διέχει δὲ τῆς Λιβυκῆς θαλάττης κατὰ Λεβῆνα τὸ ἐμπόριον αὐτῆς ἐνενήκοντα· ἔχει δέ τι καὶ ἄλλο ἐπίνειον τὸ Μάταλον, διέχει δʼ αὐτῆς ἑκατὸν τριάκοντα.
It is ninety stades distant from the Libyan Sea at Lebena, its trading port; it has also another seaport, Matalum, and is a hundred and thirty stades distant from it.
διαρρεῖ δʼ αὐτὴν ὅλην ὁ Ληθαῖος ποταμός.
The Lethaeus River flows through the whole of it.
§10.4.12ἐκ δὲ Λεβῆνος ἦν Λευκοκόμας τε καὶ ὁ ἐραστὴς αὐτοῦ Εὐξύνθετος, οὓς ἱστορεῖ Θεόφραστος ἐν τῷ περὶ ἔρωτος λόγῳ, ἄθλων ὧν ὁ Λευκοκόμας τῷ Εὐξυνθέτῳ προσέταξεν ἕνα φήσας εἶναι τοῦτον, τὸν ἐν Πράσῳ κύνα ἀναγαγεῖν αὐτῷ·
From Lebena came Leucocomas and his lover Euxynthetus, of whom Theophrastus records in his treatise On Love, saying that this was one of the tasks which Leucocomas imposed on Euxynthetus, namely, to bring back to him the dog in Prasus.
ὅμοροι δʼ εἰσὶν αὐτοῖς οἱ Πράσιοι, τῆς μὲν θαλάττης ἑβδομήκοντα Γόρτυνος δὲ διέχοντες ἑκατὸν καὶ ὀγδοήκοντα.
The Prasians are neighbors to them, being seventy stades from the sea and a hundred and eighty from Gortyn.
εἴρηται δὲ ὅτι τῶν Ἐτεοκρήτων ὑπῆρχεν ἡ Πρᾶσος καὶ διότι ἐνταῦθα τὸ τοῦ Δικταίου Διὸς ἱερόν· καὶ γὰρ ἡ Δίκτη πλησίον, οὐχ ὡς Ἄρατος
ὄρεος σχεδὸν Ἰδαίοιο. καὶ γὰρ χιλίους ἡ Δίκτη τῆς Ἴδης ἀπέχει, πρὸς ἀνίσχοντα ἥλιον ἀπʼ αὐτῆς κειμένη, τοῦ δὲ Σαμωνίου ἑκατόν.
It has been said that Prasus belonged to the Eteocretans, and that the temple of Dictaean Zeus was there; for Mount Dicte is near, and not, as Aratus says, "near the Idaean mountain." For Dicte is a thousand stades distant from Ida, lying to the rising sun from it, and a hundred stades from Samonium.
μεταξὺ δὲ τοῦ Σαμωνίου καὶ τῆς Χερρονήσου ἡ Πρᾶσος ἵδρυτο ὑπὲρ τῆς θαλάττης ἑξήκοντα σταδίοις· κατέσκαψαν δʼ Ἱεραπύτνιοι.
Prasus was situated between Samonium and Cherronesus, sixty stades above the sea; but the Hierapytnians rased it to the ground.
οὐκ εὖ δὲ οὐδὲ τὸν Καλλίμαχον λέγειν φασίν, ὡς ἡ Βριτόμαρτις φεύγουσα τὴν Μίνω βίαν ἀπὸ τῆς Δίκτης ἅλοιτο εἰς ἁλιέων δίκτυα, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο αὐτὴ μὲν Δίκτυννα ὑπὸ τῶν Κυδωνιατῶν προσαγορευθείη, Δίκτη δὲ τὸ ὄρος· οὐδὲ γὰρ ὅλως ἐκ γειτόνων ἐστὶ τοῖς τόποις τούτοις ἡ Κυδωνία, πρὸς δὲ τοῖς ἑσπερίοις κεῖται τῆς νήσου πέρασι.
They say that Callimachus also is not correct in saying that Britomartis, fleeing the violence of Minos, leaped from Dicte into fishermen's nets, and that because of this she herself was called Dictynna by the Cydoniatans, and the mountain Dicte; for Cydonia is not at all in the neighborhood of these places, but lies near the western limits of the island.
τῆς μέντοι Κυδωνίας ὄρος ἐστὶ Τίτυρος, ἐν ᾧ ἱερόν ἐστιν οὐ Δικταῖον ἀλλὰ Δικτύνναιον.
However, there is a mountain in Cydonia, Tityrus, on which is a temple, not Dictaean, but Dictynnaean.
§10.4.13Κυδωνία δʼ ἐπὶ θαλάττῃ μὲν ἵδρυται βλέπουσα πρὸς τὴν Λακωνικήν, διέχει δʼ ἑκατέρας τὸ ἴσον τῆς τε Κνωσσοῦ καὶ τῆς Γόρτυνος οἷον ὀκτακοσίους σταδίους, Ἀπτέρας δὲ ὀγδοήκοντα, τῆς ταύτῃ δὲ θαλάττης τετταράκοντα.
Cydonia is situated on the sea, looking towards the Laconian territory, and is equidistant from both Cnossus and Gortyn, namely, about eight hundred stades, and is eighty stades from Aptera, and forty stades from the sea there.
Ἀπτέρας δʼ ἐπίνειόν ἐστι Κίσαμος·
The seaport of Aptera is Cisamus.
πρὸς ἑσπέραν δʼ ὅμοροι τοῖς Κυδωνιάταις Πολυρρήνιοι, παρʼ οἷς ἐστι τὸ τῆς Δικτύννης ἱερόν· ἀπέχουσι δὲ τῆς θαλάττης ὡς τριάκοντα σταδίους, Φαλασάρνης δὲ ἑξήκοντα.
Towards the west, the Polyrrhenians are neighbors to the Cydoniatans, and in their territory is the temple of Dictynna; they are about thirty stades distant from the sea, and sixty from Phalasarna.
κωμηδὸν δʼ ᾤκουν πρότερον· εἶτʼ Ἀχαιοὶ καὶ Λάκωνες συνῴκησαν τειχίσαντες ἐρυμνὸν χωρίον βλέπον πρὸς μεσημβρίαν.
They formerly lived in villages; then Achaeans and Laconians settled together, fortifying a strong place looking towards the south.
§10.4.14τῶν δʼ ὑπὸ Μίνω συνῳκισμένων τριῶν τὴν λοιπὴν (Φαιστὸς δʼ ἦν αὕτη) κατέσκαψαν Γορτύνιοι, τῆς μὲν Γόρτυνος διέχουσαν ἑξήκοντα, τῆς δὲ θαλάττης εἴκοσι, τοῦ δὲ Ματάλου τοῦ ἐπινείου τετταράκοντα· τὴν δὲ χώραν ἔχουσιν οἱ κατασκάψαντες.
Of the three cities that were founded as joint settlements by Minos, the remaining one (this was Phaestus) was rased to the ground by the Gortynians, being sixty stades distant from Gortyn, twenty from the sea, and forty from its seaport Matalum; and those who rased it possess its territory.
Γορτυνίων δʼ ἐστὶ καὶ τὸ Ῥύτιον σὺν τῇ Φαιστῷ
"
Φαιστόν τε Ῥύτιόν τε. "
ἐκ δὲ τῆς Φαιστοῦ τὸν τοὺς καθαρμοὺς ποιήσαντα διὰ τῶν ἐπῶν Ἐπιμενίδην φασὶν εἶναι.
Rhytium also belongs to the Gortynians along with Phaestus: "Phaestus and Rhytium." And from Phaestus came Epimenides, who, they say, performed the purifications by means of his hexameters.
καὶ ὁ Λισσὴν δὲ τῆς Φαιστίας.
Lissen also belongs to the territory of Phaestus.
Λύττου δέ, ἧς ἐμνήσθημεν καὶ πρότερον, ἐπίνειόν ἐστιν ἡ λεγομένη Χερρόνησος, ἐν ᾗ τὸ τῆς Βριτομάρτεως ἱερόν· αἱ δὲ συγκαταλεχθεῖσαι πόλεις οὐκέτʼ εἰσὶ Μίλητός τε καὶ Λύκαστος, τὴν δὲ χώραν τὴν μὲν ἐνείμαντο Λύττιοι τὴν δὲ Κνώσσιοι κατασκάψαντες τὴν πόλιν.
Of Lyttus, which we mentioned before, the seaport is the so-called Cherronesus, in which is the temple of Britomartis; but the cities that were catalogued together with them, Miletus and Lycastus, no longer exist, and the Lyttians partitioned the territory of the one, and the Cnossians that of the other, after rasing the city.