herodotus

performed the appointed task, he impaled him, inflicting upon him thepenalty pronounced before. A eunuch belonging to this Sataspes ranaway to Samos as soon as he heard that his master was dead, carryingwith him large sums of money; and of this a man of Samos tookpossession, whose name I know, but I purposely pass it over withoutmention.44. Of Asia the greater part was explored by Dareios, who desiring toknow of the river Indus, which is a second river producing crocodilesof all the rivers in the world,--to know, I say, of this river whereit runs out into the sea, sent with ships, besides others whom hetrusted to speak the truth, Skylax also, a man of Caryanda. Thesestarting from the city of Caspatyros and the land of Pactyïke, saileddown the river towards the East and the sunrising to the sea; and thensailing over the sea Westwards they came in the thirtieth month tothat place from whence the king of the Egyptians had sent out thePhenicians of whom I spoke before, to sail round Libya. After thesehad made their voyage round the coast, Dareios both subdued theIndians and made use of this sea. Thus Asia also, excepting the partsof it which are towards the rising sun, has been found to besimilar[44] to Libya. 45. As to Europe, however, it is clearly notknown by any, either as regards the parts which are towards the risingsun or those towards the North, whether it be surrounded by sea: butin length it is known to stretch along by both the other divisions.And I am not able to understand for what reason it is that to theEarth, which is one, three different names are given derived fromwomen, and why there were set as boundaries to divide it the riverNile of Egypt and the Phasis in Colchis (or as some say the Maiotianriver Tanaïs and the Kimmerian ferry); nor can I learn who thosepersons were who made the boundaries, or for what reason they gave thenames. Libya indeed is said by most of the Hellenes to have its namefrom Libya a woman of that country, and Asia from the wife ofPrometheus: but this last name is claimed by the Lydians, who say thatAsia has been called after Asias the son of Cotys the son of Manes,and not from Asia the wife of Prometheus; and from him too they saythe Asian tribe in Sardis has its name. As to Europe however, it isneither known by any man whether it is surrounded by sea, nor does itappear whence it got this name or who he was who gave it, unless weshall say that the land received its name from Europa the Tyrian; andif so, it would appear that before this it was nameless like the rest.She however evidently belongs to Asia and did not come to this landwhich is now called by the Hellenes Europe, but only from Phenicia toCrete, and from Crete to Lykia. Let this suffice now which has beensaid about these matters; for we will adopt those which are commonlyaccepted of the accounts.