DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9840#0289
XIV.] ARRIVAL AT SARKO. 235
stowed his name, not only on a village in Cornwall, but
also on Eynesbury, in Huntingdonshire, which place
became possessed of the venerated body of the saint,
about a hundred years after his death10.
A story told in Aelian seems only explicable on the
supposition that there were two cities of the same name
Rhaucos in Crete11. The existence of two places so
called in the island, would naturally give rise, among
the ancient Greeks, to some such legend as that which
he mentions. We have other pairs of cities known by
one single name in Crete, as, for instance, the two called
Kisamos, the two called Minoa, and the two called
Khersonesos. I therefore think it probable, that this
spot was one of the sites called Rhaucos. If so, its
proximity to Mount Ida should perhaps induce us to
consider it as the more ancient city of the two mentioned
in the legendary account of Aelian.
On leaving Haghio Myro we begin to descend, and
in eighteen minutes reach Pyrgo, a village of twenty-
five houses, having passed no less than three fountains
by the road-side between the two places. From Pyrgo
we go on descending for fifteen minutes more, and then
cross a stream near a water-mill. This is the river
which was visible from the Rhdka, and which, as we
have above seen, is, in all probability, the Triton of the
ancients. After an ascent of a quarter of an hour we
reach the summit of the ridge, and soon see below vis,
a little to our left, the village of Sarko embowered among
olive-trees. It is so quiet, retired and beautiful a spot,
that one would fain believe that it must have been ex-
empted from the horrors and devastation of the war : but,
in a few minutes, the black ruins of half its former houses
are discerned, and sufficiently prove that it has shared
the common lot of every other village in the island.
10 Gorham, History and Antiquities of Eynesbury and St Neot's,
pp. 47'—53. On the names of towns derived from local saints, see above,
pp. 180-181.
11 Aelian, N. A. xvn. 35. and Jacobs, Vol. u. p. 585,
stowed his name, not only on a village in Cornwall, but
also on Eynesbury, in Huntingdonshire, which place
became possessed of the venerated body of the saint,
about a hundred years after his death10.
A story told in Aelian seems only explicable on the
supposition that there were two cities of the same name
Rhaucos in Crete11. The existence of two places so
called in the island, would naturally give rise, among
the ancient Greeks, to some such legend as that which
he mentions. We have other pairs of cities known by
one single name in Crete, as, for instance, the two called
Kisamos, the two called Minoa, and the two called
Khersonesos. I therefore think it probable, that this
spot was one of the sites called Rhaucos. If so, its
proximity to Mount Ida should perhaps induce us to
consider it as the more ancient city of the two mentioned
in the legendary account of Aelian.
On leaving Haghio Myro we begin to descend, and
in eighteen minutes reach Pyrgo, a village of twenty-
five houses, having passed no less than three fountains
by the road-side between the two places. From Pyrgo
we go on descending for fifteen minutes more, and then
cross a stream near a water-mill. This is the river
which was visible from the Rhdka, and which, as we
have above seen, is, in all probability, the Triton of the
ancients. After an ascent of a quarter of an hour we
reach the summit of the ridge, and soon see below vis,
a little to our left, the village of Sarko embowered among
olive-trees. It is so quiet, retired and beautiful a spot,
that one would fain believe that it must have been ex-
empted from the horrors and devastation of the war : but,
in a few minutes, the black ruins of half its former houses
are discerned, and sufficiently prove that it has shared
the common lot of every other village in the island.
10 Gorham, History and Antiquities of Eynesbury and St Neot's,
pp. 47'—53. On the names of towns derived from local saints, see above,
pp. 180-181.
11 Aelian, N. A. xvn. 35. and Jacobs, Vol. u. p. 585,