[23] Philip, who was brought up at Pella, formerly a small city, much improved it. In front of the city is a lake, out of which flows the river Ludias. The lake is supplied by a branch of the river Axius. Next follows the Axius, which separates the territory of Bottiæa and Amphaxitis, and after receiving the river Erigon, issues out between Chalestra and Therme. On the river Axius is a place which Homer calls Amydon, and says that the Pæones set out thence as auxiliaries to Troy: “ From afar, from Amydon, from Axius' wide stream.
” The Axius is a turbid river, but as a spring of clearest water rises in Amydon, and mingles with the Axius, some have altered the line “ ᾿αξιοῦ, οὔ κάλλισττον ὕδωοͅ ἐπικίδναται αἶαν,
Axius, whose fairest water o'erspreads Æa,
” to “ ᾿αξιοῦ, ᾧ κάλλιστον ὕοδωοͅ ἐπικίδναται αἴης.
Axius, o'er whom spreads Æa's fairest water.
” For it is not the ‘fairest water’ which is diffused over the spring, but the ‘fairest water’ of the spring which is diffused over the Axius.1 EPIT.
1 Kramer quotes the following passage from Eustathius: ‘In the passage ἐπίκιδναται αἴῃ, or αἶαν, (for there are two readings,) some have understood αἶαν not to mean the earth, but a spring, as is evident from the words of the geographer, where he says that the Amydon of Homer was afterwards called Abydos, but was razed. For there is a spring of clearest water near Amydon, called Æa, running into the Axius, which is itself turbid, in consequence of the numerous rivers which flow into it. There is, therefore, he says, an error in the quotation, ᾿αξίον κάλλισ- τον ὕδωοͅ ἐπικίδναται αἴῃ, as it is clearly not the Axius which diffuses its water over the spring, but the contrary. The geographer rather intemperately finds fault with the supposition of αἷαν meaning the earth, and seems anxious to reject altogether this reading in the Homeric poem.’
The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes, in three volumes. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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