CHAPTER III

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The Colophonians also regard the temple and oracle of Apollo at Claros as most ancient, for, while the Carians were still in possession of the country, they say that the first Greeks who came there were Cretans, a large force powerful both by land and sea under Rhacius, and the Carians remained still in possession of most of the country. But when the Argives and Thersander the son of Polynices took Thebes, several captives, and among others Manto were taken to Apollo at Delphi, but Tiresias died on the road not far from Haliartus.[3] And when the god sent them to form a colony they crossed over into Asia Minor, and when they got to Claros the Cretans attacked them and took them before Rhacius. And he, understanding from Manto who they were and their errand, married Manto and made her companions fellow-settlers with him. And Mopsus, the son of Rhacius and Manto, drove out all the Carians altogether. And the Ionians on mutual conditions became fellow-citizens upon equal terms with the Colophonian Greeks. And the kingdom over the Ionians was usurped by their leaders Damasichthon and Promethus the sons of Codrus. And Promethus afterwards slew his brother Damasichthon and fled to Naxos, and died there, and his body was taken home and buried by the sons of Damasichthon: his tomb is at a place called Polytichides. And how Colophon came to be dispeopled I have previously described in my account about Lysimachus: its inhabitants were the only colonists at Ephesus that fought against Lysimachus and the Macedonians. And the tombs of those from Colophon and Smyrna that fell in the battle are on the left of the road to Claros.

Lebedus also was dispeopled by Lysimachus simply to add to the population of Ephesus. It was a place in many respects favoured, and especially for its very numerous and agreeable warm baths near the sea. Originally it was inhabited by the Carians, till Andræmon, the son of Codrus, and the Ionians drove them out. Andræmon’s tomb is on the left of the road from Colophon, after you have crossed the river Calaon.

And Teos was colonized by the Minyæ from Orchomenus, who came with Athamas; he is said to have been a descendant of Athamas the son of Æolus. Here too the Carians were mixed up with the Greeks. And the Ionians were conducted to Teos by Apœcus, the great-great-grandson of Melanthus, who did no harm to either the Orchomenians or Teians. And not many years afterwards came men from Attica and Bœotia, the former under Damasus and Naoclus the sons of Codrus, the latter under the Bœotian Geres, and both these new-comers were hospitably received by Apœcus and the people of Teos.

The Erythræi also say that they came originally from Crete with Erythrus (the son of Rhadamanthys) who was the founder of their city, and when the Lycians Carians and Pamphylians occupied the city as well as the Cretans, (the Lycians being kinsfolk of the Cretans, having originally come from Crete when they fled from Sarpedon, and the Carians having an ancient friendship with Minos, and the Pamphylians also having Greek blood in their veins, for after the capture of Ilium they wandered about with Calchas), when all those that I have mentioned occupied Erythræ, Cleopus the son of Codrus gathered together from all the towns in Ionia various people, whom he formed into a colony at Erythræ.

And the people of Clazomenæ and Phocæa had no cities before the Ionians came to Asia Minor: but when the Ionians arrived a detachment of them, not knowing their way about the country, sent for one Parphorus a Colophonian as their guide, and having built a city under Mount Ida left it not long after, and returned to Ionia and built Scyppius in Colophonia. And migrating of their own accord from Colophonia, they occupied the territory which they now hold, and built on the mainland the town of Clazomenæ. But afterwards from fear of the Persians they crossed over into the island opposite. But in process of time Alexander the son of Philip was destined to convert Clazomenæ into a peninsula, by connecting the island with the mainland by an embankment. Most of the inhabitants of Clazomenæ were not Ionians, but were from Cleonæ and Phlius, and had left those cities when the Dorians returned to the Peloponnese. And the people of Phocæa were originally from the country under Mount Parnassus which is still to our day called Phocis, and crossed over into Asia Minor with the Athenians Philogenes and Damon. And they took territory not by war but on an understanding with the people of Cyme. And as the Ionians would not receive them into the Pan-Ionic confederacy unless they received kings from the descendants of Codrus, they accepted from Erythræ and Teos Deœtes and Periclus and Abartus.

[3] See Book ix. ch. 33.

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