[11] Since a tribe of Caucones is mentioned in Triphylia near Messenia, and as Dyme is called by some writers Cauconis, and since between Dyme and Tritæa in the Dymæan district there is also a river called Caucon, a question arises respecting the Caucones, whether there are two nations of this name, one situate about Triphylia, and another about Dyme, Elis, and Caucon. This river empties itself into another which is called Teutheas, in the masculine gender, and is the name of a small town that was one of those that composed Dyme; except that the town is of the feminine gender, and is pronounced Teuthea, without the s, and the last syllable is long. There is a temple of Diana Nemydia (Nemeæma?). The Teutheas discharges itself into the Achelous, which runs by Dyme, and has the same name as that in Acarnania, and the name also of Peirus. In the lines of Hesiod, “ he lived near the Olenian rock on the banks of the broad Peirus,
” some change the last word πείοͅοιο to πώοͅοιο but improperly. 1[But it is the opinion of some writers, who make the Caucones a subject of inquiry, that when Minerva in the Odyssey, who has assumed the form of Mentor, says to Nestor; “‘At sun-rise I go to the magnanimous Caucones, where a debt neither of a late date nor of small amount is owing to me.2 When Telemachus comes to thy house send him with thy son, thy chariot, and thy horses;’” a certain district in the territory of the Epeii appears to be designated, which the Caucones, a different nation from that in Triphylia, possessed, and who perhaps extended even as far as the Dymean territory.] But it was not proper to omit, whence Dyme had the name Cauconitis, nor why the river was called Caucon, because the question is, who the Caucones3 were, to whom Minerva says, she is going to recover a debt. For if we understand the poet to mean those in Triphylia about Lepreum, I know not how this is probable; whence some persons even write the passage, “ where a large debt is owing to me in the sacred Elis.
” This will appear more clearly, when we describe the Pisatis, and after it Triphylia as far as the confines of Messenia.
The Geography of Strabo. Literally translated, with notes, in three volumes. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903.
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