3.

The Lydians also, and the Mæones, whom Homer calls Meones, are in some way confounded with these people and with one another; some authors say that they are the same, others that they are different, nations. Add to this that some writers regard the Mysians as Thracians, others as Lydians, according to an ancient tradition, which has been preserved by Xanthus the Lydian, and by Menecrates of Elæa, who assign as the origin of the name Mysians, that the Lydians call the beech-tree (Oxya) Mysos, which grows in great abundance near Olympus, where it is said decimated persons1253 were exposed, whose descendants are the later Mysians, and received their appellation from the Mysos, or beech-tree growing in that country. The language also is an evidence of this. It is a mixture of Lydian and Phrygian words, for they lived some time in the neighbourhood of Olympus. But when the Phrygians passed over from Thrace, and put to death the chief of Troy and of the country near it, they settled here, but the Mysians established themselves above the sources of the Caïcus near Lydia.

4.

The confusion which has existed among the nations in this district, and even the fertility of the country within the Halys, particularly near the sea, have contributed to the invention of fables of this sort. The richness of the country provoked attacks, from various quarters, and at all times, of tribes who came from the opposite coast, or neighbouring people contended with one another for the possession of it. Inroads and migrations took place chiefly about the period of the Trojan war, and subsequently to that time, Barbarians as well as Greeks showing an eagerness to get possession of the territory of other nations. This disposition, however, showed itself before the time of the Trojan war; for there existed then tribes of Pelasgi, Caucones, and Leleges, who are said to have wandered, anciently, over various parts of Europe. The poet represents them as assisting the Trojans, but not as coming from the opposite coast. The accounts respecting the Phrygians and the Mysians are more ancient than the Trojan times.

Two tribes bearing the name of Lycians, lead us to suppose that they are the same race; either the Trojan Lycians sent colonies to the Carians, or the Carian Lycians to the Trojans. Perhaps the same may be the case with the Cilicians, for they also are divided into two tribes; but we have not the same evidence that the present Cilicians existed before the Trojan times. Telephus may be supposed to have come with his mother from Arcadia; by her marriage with Teuthras, (who had received them as his guests,) Telephus was admitted into the [Pg 328]

[CAS. 572] family of Teuthras, was reputed to be his son, and succeeded to the kingdom of the Mysians.