THE EARLY AGE OF GREECE VOL.I by W.Ridgeway 1901

:
WHENCE CAME THE ACHEANS ? 363
that the reindeer had a long horn projecting from the middle of
its forehead probably was based on the brow antler, which is a
marked feature of this deer. Geologists affirm that the reindeer
still lingered in north Germany in Caesar's time, but none of
the later Roman writers allude to it\ though the elk and the
Arctic hare were amongst the animals exhibited in the Colosseum
in the time of Nero-.
Mr Frazer has pointed out to me a remarkable fact which
may be regarded as confirmatory of the view here put forward.
In the province of north-east Russia, where the people were
pagans down to 150 years ago, there is still an annual celebration
known as the ' Feast of the Golden-reindeer-horn.'
represented
It is possible that some faint echo of such a festival had
reached Greece from the land of the Hyperboreans.
According to the legends of the post-Homeric age, which
told of the chequered fortunes of those who warred against
Troy, Diomede the son of Tydeus, who in Homer is
as dwelling in Argos, on his return was compelled to seek a
new home, and settled at the very head of the Adriatic, just
where the Timavus pours
its waters into the sea. Here,' says
'
Strabo, "is the temenos and temple consecrated to Diomede
worthy of note. For it contains a harbour and a fine grove
with seven springs of fresh water, which fall into the sea in
a broad, deep
riv(n' I'hat Diomede did hold sovereignty over
the country ai-ouiid this sea is l)()th ])r()Vf(l by the Islands of
Diomede [which lay
off the Italian coast] and the traditions
concerning the ]3aunii and ArgDs Hippiun."
With this region were clos(,'ly
connected all the earliest
stories relating to the amber ti-ade, to which 1 have refei'red
above (p.
'
3')!)).
According to the ])oets
('/'.
IvidKcwiiy,
amber was the indurated teai's o{
"Tlu' lliiid with the (4()lilcn Horns."' .IriKlcmi/. IS'.IJ (Nov.
17), ]>.
lOl; Anii-ririni .Joininil at' .i rclitK'nlniii/ (IS'.)l), p. 'iTl .v,/.
-
Ciilpuniiiis, i'.i-hiij.
vn. T)? '.
(irdiiic (jiiid I'cfViiUii ? nidi ^^enns
oinni' fcrarnni :
364 WHENCE CAME THE ACHEANS ?
the Heliades, who were turned into alder trees on the banks of
the Eridanus. There was likewise a belief that a group of
islands called Electi-ides (Amber isles) lay opposite the mouths
of the Po. Strabo indeed discredits this story, but it has been
reasonably maintained that certain islands which were known
in ancient times, had by his day been united to the mainland
by the immense alluvial deposits of the Po. The early traders
may well have bartered for amber with the natives on these
islands l)efore they had become part of the mainland. For
we know" from the excavations in Terramare that the ancient
inhabitants of the plains of the Po were acquainted with
the Baltic amber. Theophrastus writing in 315 B.C. speaks
of amber as coming to the Greeks from Ligystike. By this
name he probably meant not merely Liguria, but ail northern
Italy \
In Pliny's day^ the women of Transpadana wore necklaces
of amber, chieHy for ornament, but also as a preventive against
goitre, a malady very prevalent in the Alpine regions. He
avers that the ambei- was produced in the islands of the
Northern Ocean (where the Germans named it glaesutn, our
word glass),
and that it was bronght by the Germans chiefly
to
Pannonia, whence the Veneti (called Heneti by the Greeks) were
the first to make it known, as they both bordei'ed on Pannonia
and dwelt on the Adriatic. This of course refers to the route
from Segestica to Trieste.
The result of the evidence just stated is that from the
earliest mythical period down to the end of the fourth century
B.C. the (ireeks derived their sup]ly of ambei- tluough the
peo])lc
who dwelt at the head of the Adriatic, eithei' by way of
Trieste and Laybach,
oi' over the Alpine If the ])asses.
supply
had at any time befoi'e the fonrth century !'..('. come by any
routo fui'thci' cast, across Jlussia down to ()n)ia on the Black
tSea, wc should jirobably have heai'd of it from some ancient
writer. But Hei-odotus wi-iting in the fifth cenlnry
not know of aii\ auibei- trade between Olbia and the amber
is.c. does
hie niucos lc])iirrs.
rt, non siui' coinihns aprds,
inuntirhciriini. siinis ctiiiin i(uil)ns cilitui' alci'ii
uidiiiins. cftt.
' Di' Lap. 1(J : Tr]i> XiyvdnKriv ottov Kal to !j\fKTpoi'. kt\.
-
N. 11. XXXVII. {>.