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The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous ... - Cd3wd.com

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234 SHEEP BREEDING AND<br />

strong <strong>and</strong> large ram, which leads the sheep*. It is to be ob-<br />

served, that the geographical knowledge expressed in the Ho-<br />

meric poems extended as far as the promontory <strong>of</strong> Carambia<br />

on the south coast <strong>of</strong> the Euxme Sea, <strong>and</strong> included all Phrygia,<br />

Ionia, <strong>and</strong> the western half <strong>of</strong> Asia Minor.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Greek mythology affords similar evidence. <strong>The</strong> wellknown<br />

story <strong>of</strong> Paris, adjudging the golden apple, is founded on<br />

the pastoral scenes <strong>of</strong> Ida. Blarsyas also was a shepherd on<br />

mount Idat: the river Marsyas, famed for his contest with<br />

Apollo, was among the Phrygian mountainst<br />

<strong>The</strong> historical evidence to which we now proceed, though re-<br />

ferring to times much posterior to the mythological, is more ex-<br />

act as well as more entitled to absolute credit.<br />

According to Strabo the branches <strong>of</strong> Mount Taurus in<br />

Pisidia were rich in pastures "for all kinds <strong>of</strong> cattle§." <strong>The</strong><br />

chief town <strong>of</strong> this region was Selge, a very flourishing city,<br />

<strong>and</strong> hence Tertidlian, in a passage, mentions " oves Selgicse,"<br />

Selgic sheep, among those <strong>of</strong> the greatest celebrity. <strong>The</strong> su-<br />

perior whiteness <strong>of</strong> the fleeces <strong>of</strong> Pamphylia is mentioned by<br />

Philostratus.<br />

We have reason to believe, that the Lydians <strong>and</strong> Carians<br />

bestowed the greatest attention on sheep-breeding <strong>and</strong> on the<br />

wooUen manufacture before the arrival <strong>of</strong> the Greek colonists<br />

among them. <strong>The</strong> new settlers adopted the employments <strong>of</strong><br />

tlie ancient inhabitants, <strong>and</strong> made those emplopnents subser-<br />

vient to a very extensive <strong>and</strong> lucrative trade. Pliny (viii. 73.<br />

* See Bochart's Hierozoicon, I. ii. cap. 44. De Gregum Pastoribus.<br />

+ Hyginus, Fab. 165.<br />

X It appears not impossible, that, when <strong>The</strong>ocritus in Idyll, iii. 4G, represents<br />

Adonis as " tending flocks upon the mountains," ho may have referred to the<br />

mountains <strong>of</strong> Phrygia or <strong>of</strong> Ionia. For in an<strong>other</strong> Idyll, (i. 105-110,) he seems<br />

to connect the love <strong>of</strong> Venus for Adonis with her love for Anchiscs, as if the<br />

scene <strong>of</strong> both were in the same region. Among the various accounts <strong>of</strong> Adonis,<br />

one makes him the <strong>of</strong>fspring <strong>of</strong> SmjTna; <strong>and</strong> Cinyras, the father <strong>of</strong> Adonis, ia<br />

said to have founded the city <strong>of</strong> Smyrna in Ionia, calling it by that name af-<br />

ter his daughter. (Hyginus, Fab. 58 <strong>and</strong> 275.) This supposition accounts most<br />

Batisfactorily for the production <strong>of</strong> the beautiful elegy on the death <strong>of</strong> Adonis by<br />

Bion, who was a native <strong>of</strong> Smyrna.<br />

§ Lib. xii. c. 7, § 3.

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