6.

That the common prize, proposed to be obtained by the conquerors, was the fertile country which I am describing, is confirmed by many circumstances which happened both before and after the Trojan times. When even the Amazons ventured to invade it, Priam and Bellerophon are said to have undertaken an expedition against these women. Anciently there were cities which bore the names of the Amazons. In the Ilian plain there is a hill

“which men call Batieia, but the immortals, the tomb of the bounding (πολυσκάρθμοιο) Myrina,”

who, according to historians, was one of the Amazons, and they found this conjecture on the epithet, for horses are said to be εὐσκάρθμοι on account of their speed; and she was called πολύσκαρθμος from the rapidity with which she drove the chariot. Myrina therefore, the place, was named after the Amazon. In the same manner the neighbouring islands were invaded on account of their fertility; among which were Rhodes and Cos. That they were inhabited before the Trojan times clearly appears from the testimony of Homer.1258