“above Ortygia is an island called Syria.”[871]
9. Myconus[872] is an island beneath which, according to the mythologists, lie the last of the giants, destroyed by Hercules; whence the proverb, “all under one Myconus,” applied to persons who collect under one title things that are disjoined by nature. Some also call bald persons Miconians, because baldness is frequent among the inhabitants of the island.[873]
10. Seriphos[874] is the island where is laid the scene of the fable of Dictys, who drew to land in his net the chest in which were enclosed Perseus and his mother Danaë, who were thrown into the sea by order of Acrisius, the father of Danaë. There it is said Perseus was brought up, and to this island he brought the head of the Gorgon; he exhibited it to the Seriphians, and turned them all into stone. This he did to avenge the wrongs of his mother, because their king Polydectes, with the assistance of his subjects, desired to make her his wife by force. Seriphus abounds so much with rocks, that they say in jest that it was the work of the Gorgon.
11. Tenos[875] has a small city, but there is, in a grove beyond it, a large temple of Neptune worthy of notice. It contains large banqueting rooms, a proof of the great multitudes that repair thither from the neighbouring places to celebrate a feast, and to perform a common sacrifice in honour of Neptune.
12. To the Sporades belongs Amorgos,[876] the birth-place of Simonides, the Iambic poet; Lebinthus[877] also, and Leria (Leros).[878] Phocylides refers to Leria in these lines;
“the Lerians are bad, not some, but all, except Procles; but Procles is a Lerian;”
for the Lerians are reputed to have bad dispositions.
13. Near these islands are Patmos,[879] and the Corassiæ[880] islands, situated to the west of Icaria,[881] as the latter is with respect to Samos.
Icaria has no inhabitants, but it has pastures, of which the Samians avail themselves. Notwithstanding its condition it is famous, and gives the name of Icarian to the sea in front of it, in which are situated Samos, Cos, and the islands just mentioned,[882] the Corassiæ, Patmos, and Leros[883] [in Samos is the mountain the Cerceteus, more celebrated than the Ampelus, which overhangs the city of the Samians].[884] Continuous to the Icarian sea, towards the south, is the Carpathian sea, and the Ægyptian sea to this; to the west are the Cretan and African seas.
14. In the Carpathian sea, between Cos, Rhodes, and Crete, are situated many of the Sporades, as Astypalæa,[885] Telos,[886] Chalcia,[887] and those mentioned by Homer in the Catalogue.