§13.2.4ἡ δὲ Πύρρα κατέστραπται, τὸ δὲ προάστειον οἰκεῖται καὶ ἔχει λιμένα, ὅθεν εἰς Μιτυλήνην ὑπέρβασις σταδίων ὀγδοήκοντα.
Pyrrha has been destroyed, but its suburb is inhabited and has a harbor, whence the passage overland to Mitylene is eighty stadia.
εἶτʼ Ἔρεσος ἔστι μετὰ τὴν Πύρραν· ἵδρυται δʼ ἐπὶ λόφου καθήκει τε ἐπὶ θάλατταν· εἶτʼ ἐπὶ τὸ Σίγριον ἐντεῦθεν στάδιοι εἰκοσιοκτώ·
Then, after Pyrrha, is Eresus; it is situated on a hill and extends down to the sea; thence to Sigrium is twenty-eight stadia.
ἐξ Ἐρέσου δʼ ἦσαν Θεόφραστός τε καὶ Φανίας οἱ ἐκ τῶν περιπάτων φιλόσοφοι, Ἀριστοτέλους γνώριμοι.
From Eresus came Theophrastus and Phanias, the Peripatetic philosophers, acquaintances of Aristotle.
Τύρταμος δʼ ἐκαλεῖτο ἔμπροσθεν ὁ Θεόφραστος, μετωνόμασε δʼ αὐτὸν Ἀριστοτέλης Θεόφραστον, ἅμα μὲν φεύγων τὴν τοῦ προτέρου ὀνόματος κακοφωνίαν, ἅμα δὲ τὸν τῆς φράσεως αὐτοῦ ζῆλον ἐπισημαινόμενος· ἅπαντας μὲν γὰρ λογίους ἐποίησε τοὺς μαθητὰς Ἀριστοτέλης, λογιώτατον δὲ Θεόφραστον.
Theophrastus was formerly called Tyrtamus, but Aristotle renamed him Theophrastus, partly to avoid the cacophony of his former name, and partly to signify the excellence of his style; for Aristotle made all his disciples eloquent, but Theophrastus the most eloquent.
Ἄντισσα δʼ ἐφεξῆς ἐστι τῷ Σιγρίῳ πόλις ἔχουσα λιμένα, ἔπειτα Μήθυμνα·
Antissa is a city next to Sigrium, having a harbor, and then Methymna.
ἐντεῦθεν δʼ ἦν Ἀρίων ὁ ἐπὶ τῷ δελφῖνι μυθευόμενος ὑπὸ τῶν περὶ Ἡρόδοτον εἰς Ταίναρον σωθῆναι, καταποντωθεὶς ὑπὸ τῶν λῃστῶν· οὗτος μὲν οὖν κιθαρῳδός.
From here came Arion, who is mythologically said by Herodotus and his followers to have been saved on the dolphin to Taenarum, after being cast into the sea by pirates; he, then, was a citharode.
καὶ Τέρπανδρον δὲ τῆς αὐτῆς μουσικῆς τεχνίτην γεγονέναι φασὶ καὶ τῆς αὐτῆς νήσου, τὸν πρῶτον ἀντὶ τῆς τετραχόρδου λύρας ἑπταχόρδῳ χρησάμενον, καθάπερ καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἀναφερομένοις ἔπεσιν εἰς αὐτὸν λέγεται
"
σοὶ δʼ ἡμεῖς τετράγηρυν ἀποστρέψαντες ἀοιδὴν,
ἑπτατόνῳ φόρμιγγι νέους κελαδήσομεν ὕμνους. "
καὶ Ἑλλάνικος δὲ Λέσβιος ὁ συγγραφεὺς καὶ Καλλίας ὁ τὴν Σαπφὼ καὶ τὸν Ἀλκαῖον ἐξηγησάμενος.
And they say that Terpander also was a practitioner of the same musical art and from the same island, who was the first to use the seven-stringed lyre instead of the four-stringed one, just as is also said in the verses attributed to him: "But we, turning away from the four-toned song, will sing new hymns to thee with the seven-toned phorminx." And Hellanicus the Lesbian, the historian, and Callias, who commented on Sappho and Alcaeus, were also from this island.
§13.2.5κατὰ δὲ τὸν πορθμὸν τὸν μεταξὺ τῆς Ἀσίας καὶ τῆς Λέσβου νησία ἐστὶ περὶ εἴκοσιν, ὡς δὲ Τιμοσθένης φησί, τετταράκοντα·
In the strait between Asia and Lesbos there are about twenty small islands, but as Timosthenes says, forty.
καλοῦνται δʼ Ἑκατόννησοι συνθέτως, ὡς Πελοπόννησος, κατὰ ἔθος τι τοῦ ν γράμματος πλεονάζοντος ἐν τοῖς τοιούτοις, ὡς Μυόννησος καὶ Προκόννησος λέγεται καὶ Ἁλόννησος, ὥστε Ἑκατόννησοί εἰσιν, οἷον Ἀπολλωνόννησοι· Ἕκατος γὰρ ὁ Ἀπόλλων·
They are called Hecatonnesi in a compound word, like Peloponnesus, according to a certain custom of the letter 'n' being redundant in such names, as Myonnesus, Proconnesus, and Halonnesus are called; so that Hecatonnesi are, as it were, Apollononnesi; for Hecatus is Apollo.
παρὰ πᾶσαν γὰρ δὴ τὴν παραλίαν ταύτην ὁ Ἀπόλλων ἐκτετίμηται μέχρι Τενέδου, Σμινθεὺς ἢ Κιλλαῖος καλούμενος ἢ Γρυνεὺς ἤ τινα ἄλλην ἐπωνυμίαν ἔχων.
Indeed, along this whole coast as far as Tenedos, Apollo is highly honored, being called Smintheus, Cillaeus, or Gryneus, or having some other epithet.
πλησίον δὲ τούτων ἐστὶ καὶ ἡ Πορδοσελήνη, πόλιν ὁμώνυμον ἔχουσα ἐν αὐτῇ· καὶ πρὸ τῆς πόλεως ταύτης ἄλλη νῆσος μείζων αὐτῆς, καὶ πόλις ὁμώνυμος ἔρημος, ἱερὸν ἅγιον ἔχουσα Ἀπόλλωνος.
Near these is also Pordoselene, which has a city of the same name on it; and in front of this city lies another island, larger than it, and an uninhabited city of the same name, containing a holy temple of Apollo.
§13.2.6τὰς δὲ δυσφημίας τῶν ὀνομάτων φεύγοντές τινες ἐνταῦθα μὲν Ποροσελήνην δεῖν λέγειν φασί, τὸ δʼ Ἀσπορδηνὸν ὄρος τὸ περὶ Πέργαμον, τραχὺ καὶ λυπρὸν ὄν, Ἀσπορηνόν, καὶ τὸ ἱερὸν τὸ ἐνταῦθα τῆς μητρὸς τῶν θεῶν Ἀσπορηνῆς.
To avoid the ill-omened sound of the names, some say that here one should say Poroselene, and call Mount Aspordenum near Pergamum, which is rugged and barren, Asporenum, and the temple of the mother of the gods there, the temple of the Asporene mother.
τί οὖν φήσομεν τὴν πόρδαλιν καὶ τὸν σαπέρδην καὶ τὸν Περδίκκαν καὶ τὸ Σιμωνίδου
"
σὺν πορδακοῖσιν ἐκπεσόντες εἵμασιν
"
ἀντὶ τοῦ διαβρόχοις, καὶ ἐν τῇ ἀρχαίᾳ που κωμῳδίᾳ
"
πορδακὸν τὸ χωρίον
"
τὸ λιμνάζον;
What, then, shall we say of 'pordalis' (leopard), 'saperdes' (a kind of fish), 'Perdiccas,' and the verse of Simonides: "having escaped with wet garments" (using 'pordakoisi' instead of 'diabrochois'), and somewhere in ancient comedy: "the place is pordakon," meaning marshy?
διέχει δʼ ἡ Λέσβος τὸ ἴσον ἀπὸ τῆς Τενέδου καὶ Λήμνου καὶ Χίου σχεδόν τι τῶν πεντακοσίων ἐνδοτέρω σταδίων.
Lesbos is almost equally distant from Tenedos, Lemnos, and Chios, at a distance of somewhat less than five hundred stadia.