DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9841#0058
40 haghios gheokghios the site of methymna. [chap.
The fort, for such it must have been, may, as far as the
style of building is concerned, have been a work either
of the Greeks or Saracens in the ninth century, of a
later period of the Byzantine empire, or of the Genoese
at the beginning of the thirteenth28.
The remains existing at the chapel of Haghios
Ghedrghios, though slight, are yet sufficient to indi-
cate the existence of an ancient city on the spot. Now
we shall see by and by that there was a city Rhokka,
where Artemis Rhokkaea was worshipped, a little in-
land, to the south of this place; and a curious story
told by Aelian20, respecting a remedy for hydrophobia30
discovered by a Cretan fisherman, shews plainly that
there was a village called Methymna on the shore, and
2" Pococke's account of these places is singularly indistinct: he says,
" Over this river, on an advanced rock, there are ruins of a house and chapel
called Nopeia; about them are the remains of a strong-built wall, five feet
thick, as if it had been part of a fortified castle," (p. 245.) I suppose him
not to have seen the ruins at the chapel of Haghios Ghedrghios, although
he contrives to speak of all three, of the village of Nopia, of a chapel, and
of these walls.
29 Aelian, N. A. xiv. 20. His account is that the old fisherman had
caught many hippocampuses, and his sons were bitten by a mad dog. 01 fxiv
ovv, he proceeds, ckcivto Hi)6£/u>qc tijs KpiiTtK^s irpos -reels yoatv — etyrt
ot avTtj Kwfiif, oil tpaaiv— oi oe Qeuifxevoi avvi'i'kyovv rm irdQet—oi oe ee
Trjs 'PoKKalat oiira Ka.\oviicvt)s 'ApTe/unos ayav, (irposi-rcirrov,) Kai
aWclv lcmtw irupd -njs Beov.
30 Mad dogs used to be common in Crete in ancient time: Caelius
Aurelianus, de morb. acut. m. 15. "Haec insula (Creta) aliorum
venenosorum animalium difiicilis, atque pene libera, sola canum rabie vex-
atur frequentissime." Several instances of canine madness occurred during
my recent residence at Khania; and the Council, (To ^v/j.f3ov\wv,) or, in
other words, its President Raftet-eff'e'ndi, has at length given an order, in
compliance with the requests of the European Consuls, that all dogs found
running about the streets be destroyed. The prejudices of some of the
Mohammedans of the old school were very difficult to overcome. The pecu-
liar tenderness of Mohammedanism, towards all the inferior tribes of animals,
is too well known to require any observation. Nothing can be more unfounded
than Sonnini's assertion, Tom. i. p. 429. " La race (des chiens de Candie)
est abatardie, sur-tout depuis que les Turcs, (/rands ennemis des chiens, se
sont empare's de cette belle contre'e." On the Cretan breed of dogs, see
Vol. i. p. 33. What I have said there, on the dogs of Molossis and Chaonia,
throws light on a passage of Aristophanes, Thesm. 416.
Kai irpostVi MoXottikous
TflCCpoVtTl, /inpnokilKCLU TOIS juoix0"', KUVttS.
The fort, for such it must have been, may, as far as the
style of building is concerned, have been a work either
of the Greeks or Saracens in the ninth century, of a
later period of the Byzantine empire, or of the Genoese
at the beginning of the thirteenth28.
The remains existing at the chapel of Haghios
Ghedrghios, though slight, are yet sufficient to indi-
cate the existence of an ancient city on the spot. Now
we shall see by and by that there was a city Rhokka,
where Artemis Rhokkaea was worshipped, a little in-
land, to the south of this place; and a curious story
told by Aelian20, respecting a remedy for hydrophobia30
discovered by a Cretan fisherman, shews plainly that
there was a village called Methymna on the shore, and
2" Pococke's account of these places is singularly indistinct: he says,
" Over this river, on an advanced rock, there are ruins of a house and chapel
called Nopeia; about them are the remains of a strong-built wall, five feet
thick, as if it had been part of a fortified castle," (p. 245.) I suppose him
not to have seen the ruins at the chapel of Haghios Ghedrghios, although
he contrives to speak of all three, of the village of Nopia, of a chapel, and
of these walls.
29 Aelian, N. A. xiv. 20. His account is that the old fisherman had
caught many hippocampuses, and his sons were bitten by a mad dog. 01 fxiv
ovv, he proceeds, ckcivto Hi)6£/u>qc tijs KpiiTtK^s irpos -reels yoatv — etyrt
ot avTtj Kwfiif, oil tpaaiv— oi oe Qeuifxevoi avvi'i'kyovv rm irdQet—oi oe ee
Trjs 'PoKKalat oiira Ka.\oviicvt)s 'ApTe/unos ayav, (irposi-rcirrov,) Kai
aWclv lcmtw irupd -njs Beov.
30 Mad dogs used to be common in Crete in ancient time: Caelius
Aurelianus, de morb. acut. m. 15. "Haec insula (Creta) aliorum
venenosorum animalium difiicilis, atque pene libera, sola canum rabie vex-
atur frequentissime." Several instances of canine madness occurred during
my recent residence at Khania; and the Council, (To ^v/j.f3ov\wv,) or, in
other words, its President Raftet-eff'e'ndi, has at length given an order, in
compliance with the requests of the European Consuls, that all dogs found
running about the streets be destroyed. The prejudices of some of the
Mohammedans of the old school were very difficult to overcome. The pecu-
liar tenderness of Mohammedanism, towards all the inferior tribes of animals,
is too well known to require any observation. Nothing can be more unfounded
than Sonnini's assertion, Tom. i. p. 429. " La race (des chiens de Candie)
est abatardie, sur-tout depuis que les Turcs, (/rands ennemis des chiens, se
sont empare's de cette belle contre'e." On the Cretan breed of dogs, see
Vol. i. p. 33. What I have said there, on the dogs of Molossis and Chaonia,
throws light on a passage of Aristophanes, Thesm. 416.
Kai irpostVi MoXottikous
TflCCpoVtTl, /inpnokilKCLU TOIS juoix0"', KUVttS.