Agatharchides, On the Erythraean Sea (GGMip.111.)
Agatharchides of Cnidus, On the Erythraean Sea, translated by Stanley H. Burstein, copyright the Hakluyt Society (London, 1989), snippets only. This text has 170 tagged references to 77 ancient places.CTS URN: urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0067.tlg001; Wikidata ID: Q50918364; Trismegistos: authorwork/3 [Open Greek text in new tab]
§ 1.1 I read two books of Agatharchides ...
§ 1.2 He (Agatharchides) says that Ptolemy ...
§ 2 He says that the Erythraean Sea ...
§ 3 Such is the first, even if it is not the correct, ...
§ 4 Third is the Argive ...
§ 5 The fourth and true account, however, is one which he learned from a Persian ...
§ 6 This author does not consider sound the view that the Persians ...
§ 7.1 Although he vigorously endeavours to expose the falsehood of the Perseus ...
§ 7.3 Dead people leisurely carried on all sorts of silly conversations with Odysseus ...
§ 7.4 In addition to these stories there is the tale that Atlas ...
§ 8 He says that he has assigned to himself the responsibility of refuting those who would transfer the privilege of inventing myths to the treatment of historical fact. ...
§ 9 He says that India ...
§ 10 Four places surround Egypt ...
§ 11 This language is harsh but salutary. For it sets out its argument not to cause pain but to warn. ...
§ 12 It is difficult to preserve without effort property of even moderate value that belongs to a private person. ...
§ 13 Over a long period of time, he says, we have learned that immediate circumstances seal and dissolve the friendships of rulers, ...
§ 14 He who continuously tries to please in his speeches and exaggerates what is actually possible is mistaken on many issues. ...
§ 15 For, if one who is the possessor of such great advantage is superior to the desires of those who would overpower him, ...
§ 16 But the Aithiopians ...
§ 17 From the day Fortune appointed me guardian of your body — you were very young — and the whole kingdom, ...
§ 18 When a demagogue addresses a large number of people, ...
§ 19 In military actions the Aithiopians ...
§ 20 For the war against the Aithiopians ...
§ 21 Book V
Many politicians and poets have been at a loss as to how a person whose situation is free from danger ought properly to recount the extreme misfortunes that have befallen some men. ...
§ 22 THE NUBIAN GOLD MINES
Between the city of Memphis ...
§ 23 Near the Erythraean Sea ...
§ 24 As for those who have been overwhelmed by extreme misfortune, ...
§ 25 They pursue their task in the mountains where the gold is found. ...
§ 26 Young boys, who go down into the galleries excavated by these men and gather up laboriously the piles of rock that have been thrown down on the floor, ...
§ 27 From the women men called Selangei receive the crushed ore. ...
§ 28 After, thus, completely separating out the gold nuggets, ...
§ 29 The death of numerous men in the mines brings our exposition to the conclusion already stated, ...
§ 30 In the region south of Egypt ...
§ 31 This latter group possesses neither cities nor territories nor any trace of technical skills, ...
§ 32 All the areas of deep water near shore are hostile to their way of life as also are those lying along beaches. ...
§ 33 The other fish, as we said, are easily subdued; ...
§ 34 When they have caught some fish, however many these may happen to be, ...
§ 35 Against sudden storms which prevent them from catching fish, ...
§ 37 Their behaviour with regard to drink is far more remarkable. ...
§ 38 When they arrive at the nomads' water-holes, ...
§ 39 After they have returned, none of them eats fish or anything else on that day, ...
§ 40 The Fisheaters, ...
§ 41 He says that, in addition to what has already been stated, ...
§ 42 The people who live near the never thirsty Fisheaters ...
§ 43 f Some of the Fisheaters ...
§ 45 1 Those who die they do not consider worthy of special attention since their mind is insensitive to the feelings of pity which arise from opinion. ...
§ 46 Some of those who derive their sustenance from the sea, ...
§ 47 Beyond the straits which separate Arabia ...
§ 48 Not far from the aforementioned tribe are other people, ...
§ 49 While our way of life consists of both superfluities and necessities, ...
§ 50 The coastline of Babylonia ...
§ 51 After the Fisheaters ...
§ 52 Near the peoples just described are the tribes of the Fibre-Eaters {Hylophagi ...
§ 53 After the peoples just described are those the natives call Hunters. ...
§ 54 After the peoples just mentioned, but located at a considerable distance from them and more towards the west, ...
§ 55 Such are the people who hunt elephants with the greatest danger. ...
§ 56 Third is the tribe of Elephant-Eaters. When the elephants, ...
§ 58 Towards the west of these hunters, whom the nomads are accustomed to call 'Unclean', ...
§ 59 Not far from the peoples just described are the Locust Eaters (Acridophagi). ...
§ 60 The region adjacent to the Locust-Easters, ...
§ 61 The last of the populations living towards the south, ...
§ 62 The facts concerning the Trogodytes ...
§ 63 The author, although he is an atticist, employs the word καμάρα. ...
§ 64 He says that the Trogodytes ...
§ 65 The inhabited portion of the earth as a whole is circumscribed in four directions, ...
§ 66 But we have spoken sufficiently about the Trogodytes ...
§ 67 No great distance divides and sets apart the most disparate human life styles. ...
§ 68 Since we have recorded the principal facts concerning the tribes and their ways of life that seemed to be extraordinary, ...
§ 70 As for the lions called 'ants', ...
§ 71 The leopards are unlike those found in Caria ...
§ 72 The rhinoceros is not inferior to the elephant, ...
§ 73 In the country of the Trogodytes ...
§ 74 Sphinxes, dogheads and cepi are sent to Alexandria ...
§ 75 The doghead has the body of an ugly man with the face of a dog ...
§ 76 The cepus has a face like that of a lion ...
§ 77 Of all the beasts that people mention, however, ...
§ 78 The animal found in Aithiopia ...
§ 79 Agatharchides says that pigs ...
§ 80 He says that snakes of remarkable size and amazing character are reported to live in these regions, ...
§ 81 Now that we have examined in sufficient detail Aithiopia ...
§ 82 Since there are many places that are remarkable and situated far off the beaten track, ...
§ 83 Near the lake, in the midst of a broad plain is a red mountain which is distinguished by no other peculiarity except that it reflects this colour so strongly from the topmost point of its peak that the eyes of those who stare at it intently are generally harmed. ...
§ 84 Near these places is a gulf which people call Foul Bay. ...
§ 85 After these places the sea is so shallow that it measures not more than two fathoms. ...
§ 86 The places as far as the Tauri and Ptolemais ...
§ 87 But we shall take up the remaining portion, ...
§ 88 The portion of the interior that is visible from the Palm-Grove is filled with rocky peaks of various heights, ...
§ 89 Adjacent to the coast just mentioned is a region people have named Duck Country because of the abundance of these creatures. ...
§ 90 In former times the Maranitae occupied the next section of the coast but later the Garindanes, ...
§ 91 After what is called the Laeanites Gulf, around which Arabs ...
§ 92 Next after this section of the coast is a bay which extends into the interior of the country for a distance of not less than five hundred stades. ...
§ 93 Off shore from the territory just mentioned lie three islands which create numerous harbours. ...
§ 94 After these offshore islands one can see a rocky and long stretch of coast. ...
§ 95 A mountain range with sheer and frighteningly high rocks on its summits runs along this coast. ...
§ 96 After this segment of coast, not, however, ...
§ 97 The Debae inhabit the region that borders on the mountainous district. ...
§ 99 The Carbae occupy the region immediately after these people. ...
§ 100 In the forests of incense trees, however, ...
§ 101 The fragrance of the incense is strongest in the country of the Sabaeans ...
§ 102 The city of the Sabaeans ...
§ 103 Those of the men who devote their lives to lead a life little more valorous than that of women since they are rendered effeminate by constant idleness. ...
§ 104 No nation seems to be more prosperous than the Sabaeans ...
§ 105 The sea near this country is white in appearance and similar to a river, ...
§ 106 In their country the heavenly bodies also behave remarkably. ...
§ 107 As for the appearance of the sun, people say that it is peculiar and different in the regions beyond Ptolemais ...
§ 108 Of the winds the north and west and also the northwest and the east blow just as in other countries, ...
§ 109 In discussing the tides the author adduces various explanations and rejects all of them as in no way true. ...
§ 110 In the strait just mentioned, he says, a strange thing occurs with regard to olive trees. ...
§ 111 Many other kinds of fish, he says, also are born in the previously mentioned places which are unusual in character. ...
§ 112 We have carefully recorded in five books the situation concerning the tribes located in the south as they were in our time. ...