The idea that the sins of fathers were visited upon their descendants, even to the third and fourth generation, had great currency in the ancient world.
[486] Diodor. xiii. 62. See Vol. X. Ch. lxxxi. p 413 of this History.
[487] Pliny, H. N. vi. 16. In the Meteorologica of Aristotle (i. 13, 15-18) we read that the rivers Bahtrus, Choaspes, and Araxes flowed from the lofty mountain Parnasus (Paropamisus?) in Asia; and that the Araxes bifurcated, one branch forming the Tanais, which fell into the Palus Mæotis. For this fact he refers to the γῆς περιόδοι current in his time. It seems plain that by the Araxes Aristotle must mean the Jaxartes. We see, therefore, that Alexander and his companions, in identifying the Jaxartes with the Tanais, only followed the geographical descriptions and ideas current in their time. Humboldt remarks several cases in which the Greek geographers were fond of supposing bifurcation of rivers (Asie Centrale, vol. ii. p. 291).
[488] Arrian, iv. 1, 5.
[489] Arrian, iii. 30, 17.
[490] Arrian, iv. 1, 3
[491] Arrian, iv. 3, 17; Curtius, vii. 6, 25.
[492] Arrian. iv. 5, 6; Curtius, vii. 9.
[493] Arrian, iv. 6, 11; Curtius, vii. 9, 22. The river, called by the Macedonians Polytimetus (Strabo, xi. p. 518), now bears the name of Kohik or Zurufshan. It rises in the mountains east of Samarkand, and flowing westward on the north of that city and of Bokhara. It does not reach so far as the Oxus; during the full time of the year, it falls into a lake called Karakul; during the dry months, it is lost in the sands, as Arrian states (Burnes’s Travels, vol. ii. ch. xi. p. 299. ed. 2nd.).
[494] Arrian, iv. 7, 1; Curtius, vii. 10, 12.