DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4099#0139
MOUNT OETA. 127
where he was metamorphosed into a rock, which from that circum-
stance was denominated Lichades.
terque quaterque rotatum2
Mitlit in Euboicas, tormento fortius, undas :
Ille per aerias pendens induruit auras.
Nunc quoque in Euboico scopulus brevis emicat alte
Gurgite, et humana? servat vestigia forma;
Quem, quasi sensurum, nautas calcare verentur,
Appellantque Lichau."
It would appear that this story was merely a poetical description
of an eruption of stones from the crater of a volcano. The Lichades,
however, are too large to have been ejected from Oeta, but may
very possibly owe their origin to one of those submarine volcanoes
which have at all times been common in Greece; as we know by
the testimony of ancient authors,' as well as by the light of actual
observation. It is certain that Greece, at least the insular part of
it, was, at one period, not less subject to volcanos than Italy.
The islands of Crete, Hydrea, Calauria, Lemnos, Cythera, Melos,
1 Sophoc. Trachin. v. 793.
* Ovid. Metam. b. 9. v. 217.
He toss'd him o'er his head with airy course,
And hurl'd with more than with an engine's force;
Far o'er the Eubcean main aloof he flies,
And hardens by degrees amid the skies, &c.
--------------------------------transform'd to stone
In ancient days the craggy flint was known;
Still in the Eubcean waves his front he rears,
Still the small rock in human form appears,
And still the name of hapless Lichas bears.
J See Apollon. Rhod. b. 4. v. 1757, about the island of Kalliste or Thera : and about
earthquakes and volcanos in Greece, the appearance of new islands, and the disappearance
of old ones, see Livy, Strabo, Seneca, Pliny, Justin, Pausanias, Ammianus Marcellinus,
Cassiodorus, Nicephorus, Theophanes, and others.
where he was metamorphosed into a rock, which from that circum-
stance was denominated Lichades.
terque quaterque rotatum2
Mitlit in Euboicas, tormento fortius, undas :
Ille per aerias pendens induruit auras.
Nunc quoque in Euboico scopulus brevis emicat alte
Gurgite, et humana? servat vestigia forma;
Quem, quasi sensurum, nautas calcare verentur,
Appellantque Lichau."
It would appear that this story was merely a poetical description
of an eruption of stones from the crater of a volcano. The Lichades,
however, are too large to have been ejected from Oeta, but may
very possibly owe their origin to one of those submarine volcanoes
which have at all times been common in Greece; as we know by
the testimony of ancient authors,' as well as by the light of actual
observation. It is certain that Greece, at least the insular part of
it, was, at one period, not less subject to volcanos than Italy.
The islands of Crete, Hydrea, Calauria, Lemnos, Cythera, Melos,
1 Sophoc. Trachin. v. 793.
* Ovid. Metam. b. 9. v. 217.
He toss'd him o'er his head with airy course,
And hurl'd with more than with an engine's force;
Far o'er the Eubcean main aloof he flies,
And hardens by degrees amid the skies, &c.
--------------------------------transform'd to stone
In ancient days the craggy flint was known;
Still in the Eubcean waves his front he rears,
Still the small rock in human form appears,
And still the name of hapless Lichas bears.
J See Apollon. Rhod. b. 4. v. 1757, about the island of Kalliste or Thera : and about
earthquakes and volcanos in Greece, the appearance of new islands, and the disappearance
of old ones, see Livy, Strabo, Seneca, Pliny, Justin, Pausanias, Ammianus Marcellinus,
Cassiodorus, Nicephorus, Theophanes, and others.