The Lost Kingdom of Homer's Doulichion

          By Hettie Putman Cramer & Makis Metaxas

"Graecia Antiqua" Johannes Laurenmberg  Collection of Fotis Kremmydas.

It is well known that the epic poem of the ‘Odyssey’ and the special importance of the name Odysseus have triggered the search for the location of Homer’s Ithaca and for the palaces of the ‘anax’ (king) of the Kephallenes. This has always been an important issue at all levels of research. 

However, the identification of the position of Homeric Doulichion - the Mycenaean Kingdom at the border of the Kingdom of Odysseus from where as many as forty ships were sent to the Trojan War as well as the largest amount of suitors to claim the throne of Homer's Ithaca - was actually the biggest mystery of the Homeric topography since ancient times.

After reading carefully where and how Homer describes the location and geomorphology of Doulichion, it is very important to realize that from the 5th century B.C. the ancient Greek historians and geographers have

no clue as to the actual position of the lost Kingdom of  Doulichion. Strabo tells us that they disagree strongly between each other.

So, let's look closely at what Strabo tells us before handing over the baton to Homer. In our times Homer is generally regarded as a poet whithout sufficient knowledge concerning the topography of western Mycenaean Greece!

"Some, however, have not hesitated to identify Kephallenia with Doulichion, and others with Taphos, calling the Kephallenians Taphians, and likewise Teleboans.…

Neither is Hellanikos in accord with Homer when he identifies Kephallenia with Doulichion, for Homer makes Doulichion and the rest of the Echinades subject to Meges; and their inhabitants were Epeians, who had come there from Elis; and it is on this account that he calls Otos the Kyllenian ‘comrade of Phyleides and ruler of the proud-hearted Epeians’; but Odysseus led the proud-hearted Kephallenians.

According to Homer, therefore, neither is Kephallenia Doulichion nor is Doulichion a part of Kephallenia, as Andron says; for the Epeians held possession of Doulichion, whereas the Kephallenians held possession of the whole of Kephallenia and were subject to Odysseus, whereas the Epeians were subject to Meges. Neither is Paleis called Doulichion by the poet, as Pherekydes writes.

But any writer who identifies Kephallenia with Doulichion is most in opposition to Homer, if it be true that ‘fifty-two of the suitors were ‘from Doulichion’ and ‘twenty-four 'from Same’; for in that case would not Homer say that fifty-two came from the island as a whole and a half of that number less two from a single one of its four cities? However, if one grants this, I shall ask what Homer can mean by ‘Same’ in the passage ‘Doulichion and Same and woody Zakynthos’.…"    [i]

Strabo, C 456.14 ( 1th century B.C)     

Now let's listen to Homer.

The kingdom of Doulichion is mentioned in the ‘Catalogue of Ships’ in the 'Iliad', immediately after the kingdom of Elis and before the neighbouring kingdom of Ithaka. (Il. 2.625-630)

According to Homer, then, the king of Doulichion and the Echinades Islands at the time of the Trojan War was Meges, the son of Phyleus, an Epeian who had left Elis and gone to live in Doulichion after quarrelling with his father Augeias when the latter broke the promise he had made to Herakles. Apollodoros (Bibliotheke II.iv.7) informs us that Augeias’ father was Heleios, an Epeian from Helos in Elis, who was given the kingdom of Doulichion by Amphitryon, king of Mycenae, as a reward for his support in the victorious war against the Teleboans and Taphians.

Homer

Οἳ δ᾽ ἐκ Δουλιχίοιο Ἐχινάων θ᾽ ἱεράων

νήσων, αἳ ναίουσι πέρην ἁλὸς Ἤλιδος ἄντα,

τῶν αὖθ᾽ ἡγεμόνευε Μέγης ἀτάλαντος Ἄρηϊ

Φυλεΐδης, ὃν τίκτε Διῒ φίλος ἱππότα Φυλεύς,

ὅς ποτε Δουλίχιον δ᾽ ἀπενάσσατο πατρὶ χολωθείς·

τῷ δ᾽ ἅμα τεσσαράκοντα μέλαιναι νῆες ἕποντο.

And those from Doulichion and the Echinae, the holy islands across the sea from Elis, were led by Meges, the warrior son of Phyleus, a horseman dear to Zeus who had quarrelled with his father and moved to Doulichion. Meges brought forty black ships with him.      (Homer Il. 2.625-630)

Homer states that there was a racial connection between Doulichion and the Epeians of Elis. The ‘emigration’ of kings from Elis to Doulichion shows that Doulichion was in some sense an Eleian satellite kingdom; and indeed the same Epeians constituted the ruling class in both places. The last known king of Doulichion is named by Homer (Od. 14.336) as Akastos, who succeeded Meges on the throne. According to Aristotle, Meges was drowned in the Aegean on his way back from Troy.

Homer supplies a good deal of very interesting information about Doulichion:

1. It was very close to Ithaca, Same and Zakynthos:

In the Odyssey (9.22-24) Odysseus describes Doulichion as an ‘island’  extremely close to the ‘islands’ of Same and Zakynthos, 

ἀμφὶ δὲ νῆσοι

πολλαὶ ναιετάουσι μάλα σχεδὸν ἀλλήλῃσι,

Δουλίχιόν τε Σάμη τε καὶ ὑλήεσσα Ζάκυνθος.                            Od. 9.22-24

                                                                       

Round (to Ithaca) it lie many islands very close to one another: 

Doulichion and Same and wooded Zakynthos                         Od. 9.22-24

Telemachos also describes Doulichion as an ‘island’close to the ‘islands’ of Same and Zakynthos when he inveighs against the suitors (Od. 21.344-347, 1.245-248, 19.130-133, 16.122-125):

                                                                                                          

2. It was ‘rich in wheat and grass’ (πολυπύρου, ποιήεντος) – quite different from Ithaca, which was ‘rocky, rugged and mountainous’:

Hades and Persephone holding wheat

τοῖσιν δ᾽ Ἀμφίνομος ἀγορήσατο καὶ μετέειπε,   

Νίσου φαίδιμος υἱός, Ἀρητιάδαο ἄνακτος,

ὅς ῥ᾽ ἐκ Δουλιχίου πολυπύρου, ποιήεντος,

ἡγεῖτο μνηστῆρσι      (Οδ. π 394-397)  

                                                            

Then Amphinomos addressed their assembly and spoke among them. He was the glorious son of King Nisos, son of Aretias, and he led the suitors who came from Doulichion, rich in wheat and grass.   Od. 16.394-397

ἀλλ᾽ ἐμὲ πρὶν ἀπέπεμψε· τύχησε γὰρ ἐρχομένη νηῦς      
ἀνδρῶν Θεσπρωτῶν ἐς Δουλίχιον πολύπυρον.   
(Οδ.   ξ 334-335)

                                                                 

But he sent me off first, for a Thesprotian ship happened 
to be setting out for Doulichion, rich in wheat.    
Od. 14.334-335

3.  It had a large population, for it sent forty ships to Troy, and fifty-two of the suitors hoping to win the throne of Ithaka (out of a total of 104) came from Doulichion (Il. 2.625-630, Od. 16.245-251):

μνηστήρων δ᾽ οὔτ᾽ ἂρ δεκὰς ἀτρεκὲς οὔτε δύ᾽ οἶαι,

ἀλλὰ πολὺ πλέονες· τάχα δ᾽ εἴσεαι ἐνθάδ᾽ ἀριθμόν.

ἐκ μὲν Δουλιχίοιο δύω καὶ πεντήκοντα

κοῦροι κεκριμένοι, ἓξ δὲ δρηστῆρες ἕπονται·

ἐκ δὲ Σάμης πίσυρές τε καὶ εἴκοσι φῶτες ἔασιν,

ἐκ δὲ Ζακύνθου ἔασιν ἐείκοσι κοῦροι Ἀχαιῶν,

ἐκ δ᾽ αὐτῆς Ἰθάκης δυοκαίδεκα πάντες ἄριστοι,      ( οδ. π 245-251)

                                                               

It is not as if there were a mere ten or twenty suitors, but many times more than that. Let me tell you their exact number here and now. From Doulichion there are fifty-two, the pick of its young men, with six servants to attend them; from Same there are twenty-four, from Zakynthos twenty young Achaians, and from Ithaka itself twelve of its noblest men.   (od. 16.245-25)

4.  It lay beyond Ithaka for travellers coming from the north. When Homer describes the voyage of the Thesprotians, sailing south towards Doulichion, he says that they came first to the coast of Ithaka, where they rested for a while, and then continued on their way to Doulichion:

ὤμοσε δὲ πρὸς ἔμ᾽ αὐτόν, ἀποσπένδων ἐνὶ οἴκῳ,

νῆα κατειρύσθαι καὶ ἐπαρτέας ἔμμεν ἑταίρους,

οἳ δή μιν πέμψουσι φίλην ἐς πατρίδα γαῖαν.

ἀλλ᾽ ἐμὲ πρὶν ἀπέπεμψε· τύχησε γὰρ ἐρχομένη νηῦς

ἀνδρῶν Θεσπρωτῶν ἐς Δουλίχιον πολύπυρον.

ἔνθ᾽ ὅ γέ μ᾽ ἠνώγει πέμψαι βασιλῆϊ Ἀκάστῳ    ( οδ. ξ 331-336 )

                                                                 

Moreover, he swore in my own presence, as he poured libations in his house, that the ship was launched and the crew ready to take Odysseus to his beloved native land. But he sent me off first, for a Thesprotian ship happened to be setting out for Doulichion, rich in wheat; and he told them to convey me there, with good care and attention, and take me to King Akastos.  (Od. 14.331-336)

Map on which the Mycenaean kingdoms of western Greece
 with their leaders are marked,
 exactly as recorded in Homer’s texts.
Il.Book 2. 591-644 [ii]

If we transfer on a map the exact Homeric descriptions[ii] concerning the position of Homeric Doulichion (we present this with the attached map), it is obvious that these descriptions lead us straight to the island which lies opposite of ancient Elis, just as defined by Homer's famous ‘Catalogue of Ships’.
Paradoxically however, this is the island of Zakynthos. At least from the 5th century B.C. its name has never been questioned! Zakyntos, as far as we know, has never been associated with Doulichion by any historian nor by any commentator of the historical period.

This automatically led every scholar of the Homeric texts to consider the current Zakynthos as one of the most powerful anchors of the Homeric topography. The position and name of each island in the Ionian area in the Homeric past may have been doubted, but the island of Zakynthos has, oddly, never been questioned historically.

If today ‘s Zakynthos would bear another name, foreign to the Homeric topography, like for example is the case with the islands of Lefkada and Kefalonia (two names of islands not mentioned by Homer), it might have led a number of scholars of the Homeric topography to recognize this island as the place of Homeric Doulichion. Besides, the current Zakynthos has all the specifications that fit perfectly with the location, the geology and the agricultural production profile that Homer’s Doulichion had. The reality though is that the name Zakynthos, already from the first historic years, was so strongly rooted in this position that historically it was completely impossible to doubt the Homeric origin. The results of this estimation are known. Since ancient times and until very recently, the historians and researchers- depending on the information available to them - have placed Doulichion in any place or island but never yet in the position occupied by the current Zakynthos!

The name  'Doulichion'  is derived from the word "Δόλιχος" [dolichos related to the Latin longus]. This is an adjective meaning long, or long and narrow: in other words, it describes the physical attributes of a long, narrow island or a peninsula whose length is considerably greater than its breadth. The name Dolichos (or an inflected form of it) was given to several peninsulas and islands in antiquity. One of those, the island of Dolicha (now called Makri) in the Echinades, led Strabo (C 458.19) to believe that it was Homer’s Doulichion because of the similarity of the name.

"To the east of Zakynthos and Kephallenia are situated the Echinades Islands, among which is Doulichion, now called Dolicha, and also what are called the Oxeiai, which the poet called Thoai. Dolicha lies opposite Oeniadai and the mouth of the Acheloös, at a distance of one hundred stadia from Araxos, the promontory of the Eleians; the rest of the Echinades (they are several in number, all poor-soiled and rugged) lie off the mouth of the Acheloös, the furthermost being fifteen stadia distant and the nearest five. In earlier times they lay out in the high sea, but the silt brought down by the Acheloös has already joined some of them to the mainland and will do the same to others."  [iii]
                                                                                                                          Strabo, C 458.19   
Of course, if Strabo had been to Western Greece and had seen it for himself, as Page memorably describes, he would certainly never have entertained such an idea and would not have identified it with the populous, wheat-growing, grassy Doulichion.

In his efforts to make sense of what had been written about Doulichion by earlier historians and commentators on Homer’s epics, Strabo (C 456.14) does at least tell us of the opinions held by Andron, Pherekydes, Hellanikos and ‘some others’:

1.  Andron thought that Doulichion was part of Kephallenia.

2.  Pherekydes thought that Doulichion was Pale on Kephallenia.

3.  Hellanikos thought that Doulichion was Kephallenia.

4.  Pausanias (vi.15.7), presumably drawing on the work of earlier geographers, writes: ‘The Palaians used to be called Doulichians in former times’ (ούτοι δέ οι Παλείς εκαλούντο Δουλιχιείς τα αρχαιότερα), quite plainly implying that the Homeric Doulichion was the Pale peninsula on Kephallenia.

5.  Stephanos of Byzantium agrees with Strabo when he refers to ‘Doulichion, one of the Echinades, also called Dolicha’ (Δουλίχιο μια των Εχινάδων η και Δολίχα καλουμένη).

6.  Hesychios thought that Doulichion was a city on Kephallenia.

7.  Pomponius Mela (ii.7.10) thought it was an island or place in the Ionian Sea, like Asteria, Kephallenia, Neriton, Same and Zakynthos.

8.  Pliny (iv.19.12) mentions Doulichion together with Ithaca, Same and Krokyleia.

9.  The lexicon called Souda (‘Suidas’) refers to Doulichion as an island.

The Roman poets Virgil (Aeneid iii.270-275) and Ovid (Metamorphoses xiii.712) and the Roman geographers and historians Pliny the Elder (Hist. Nat. iv.19) and Pomponius Mela (ii.7.10) also mention Doulichion in terms which imply that it is an island.

From this summary of the views of early Greek and Roman historians and geographers, it is quite clear that most of them considered the ‘island’ of Doulichion to have been merely one part of an island (namely the Pale peninsula in the west of Kephallenia) rather than a whole island in the proper sense of the word.

Since the beginning of the Renaissance, many commentators on Homer and Homeric geography (e.g. Kieperd, Eugen, Oberhumer, Burr) have attempted to reconcile the views of Strabo (C 458.19) – who says that Doulichion was one of the Echinades Islands – with the reality of the fact that those islands are barren and arid, by postulating that Doulichion was a low-lying island near the Akarnanian coast which has since been joined to the mainland by silt brought down by the Acheloös.

Others have suggested that Doulichion was an island in the area specified by Strabo (somewhere off Cape Araxos) which has since been submerged. Their researches have concentrated on the area near south-eastern Kephallenia, which includes the Kakkava reef (Dodwell) and the Oxiés Islands (Bursian).

Ameis and G. Biedermann concur with the view of earlier geographers, historians and travellers that Doulichion was actually the westernmost part of Kephallenia, namely the Pale peninsula, now called Paliki. Since then many different opinions have been put forward by modern commentators on Homer: depending on their points of view, they have identified Homeric Doulichion with Kalamos, Meganisi, Kephallenia, Lefkada, Corfu, Zakynthos, Ithaka, Kakkava reef, the Erissos peninsula and – the most prevalent hypothesis – an island near the mouth of the Acheloös that has been joined to the mainland.

Originally we had the same estimation of the likely position of Homeric Doulichion in the peninsula of Paliki until the time that a book, part of a comprehensive study on the Homeric topography, of our good friend and colleague Dr. Vangelis Pantazis entitled  'Η ΟΜΗΡΙΚΗ ΖΑΚΥΝΘΟΣ. Οι 'ιερές' Εχίνες και το μυστήριο του χαμένου Δουλιχίου.' Εκδόσεις Περίπλους, 2002. ('HOMER'S ZAKYNTHOS, Echinae the holy islands and the mystery of the lost Doulichion') was released.

In this study Dr. Vangelis Pantazis defined the actual location of Homeric Doulichion and the Echinades islands, placing for the first time in the scientific literature Homeric Doulichion in the position of the current island of Zakynthos and Homeric Zakynthos in the position of the current Lefkada. At the same time a second still unpublished study of the archaeologist Odysseas Metaxas entitled ‘The Biography of the Odyssey' repositions the time of writing of the epic poem the ‘Odyssey’ and interprets with scientific data the correctness of the Homeric topography. Mr. Metaxas provides new data concerning the position of Zakynthos -Lefkada and Asteris. Unfortunately we cannot go into this in detail, because we cannot disclose unpublished material given to us within the partnerships that we have on these issues.

'Meges' Kingdom'  Doulichion & Echinae  the holy islands,  according to the study by Dr. Vangelis Pantazis

According to Apollodorus (B IV 5), Apollonius Rhodius (D1228-1231) and Callimachus (Hymn to Delos 155) the oldest name of all islands situated in western Greece and the Ionian Sea, was Echinades. In historical times, only a group of islands west of Acarnania carried this name.

The geographical position of Homeric Doulichion in the current location of the island with the name Zakynthos is confirmed by a series of events:

1. If Zakynthos is Homeric Doulichion, is it  big enough to have supplied the large numbers of suitors and ships mentioned by Homer? Have archaeologists found any remains dating from the Late Bronze Age (1550-1050 b.c.) confirming that the area was inhabited in the Mycenaean period?


According to Mr Andreas Sotiriou Ephor of  Prehistorical and Calssical Antiquities of  Kephalonia  Ithaka & Zakynthos, the Late Bronze Age, or otherwise the Mycenaean period (1550-1050 BC), is represented by the remains of two houses in 'Kalogeros', and several burial finds. Mycenaean built tholos tombs have been discovered in 'Triodhi' Gerakas and on the hill of 'Klapsias', near Keri, while in Kambi, at a locality named 'Vigla', a small cemetery of deep rock cut tombs.
Since 2005 the Dutch Archaeological Institute in Athens with director Dr Christiane Tytgat does a survey in Zakynthos in collaboration with  the Ephorate of Prehistorical and Calssical Antiquities (responsible for Kefalonia, Zakynthos and Ithaki). The Dutch archaeologist Gert Jan van Wijngaarden conducts this survey. The current survey area includes parts of southern Zakynthos and aims to identify prehistoric and Mycenaean locations.
According to the archaeologist Andreas Sotiriou the results of this survey are beginning to unveil a new image of the island of which only few aspects were known before.  Stone carving, pottery, cemeteries, quarries and other archaeological data supplement slowly but surely the gaps in the island's inhabitation and enrich our knowledge about the island.

Mycenaean  tombs from Zakynthos

2. If Zakynthos is Homeric Doulichion is it in the right position to have been the destination of a ship from Thesprotia, bound for Doulichion, which called at Ithaka on the way? (Od. 14.335-345)

• The island of Zakynthos, being the last in a series of islands with direction from north to south, covers fully the information gives us by Homer in this text.                                                                      

  

  the voyage of the Thesprotians, sailing south towards Doulichion. According to Homer they came first to the coast of Ithaka, where they rested for a while, and then continued on their way to Doulichion:

3. If Zakynthos is Homeric Doulichion is it poihen and polupuron, that is to say ‘rich in wheat and grass’, as described by Homer?

•  Indeed Zakynthos has the most low-lying areas and curators from all the Ionian islands!!!.

4. If Zakynthos is Homeric Doulichion is it across the sea from Elis (the region around ancient Olympia and Kyllini), as described by Homer?

• Indeed, the site of today's Zakynthos Island is just off the coast of Elis exactly as mentioned in the ‘Catalogue of Ships’. (See satellite images)

5. If Zakynthos is Homeric Doulichion is it a long island whose length is considerably greater than its breadth?

• Here goes what's called 'A picture speaks a thousand words.' If anyone is found on the opposite coast of Peloponnese or Kefalonia he will see the figure of an oblong strip of land. This image is also responsible for the name  "Doulichio"  [Δουλίχιο < Δόλιχος > Lat. longus = a long, narrow island ]   that was given to this island in the prehistoric period. 

Photo from the west coast of the Peloponnese. On the horizon is recorded in an impressive way the elongated (Δόλιχος>Δουλίχιον> Doulichion)  figure of Zakynthos island

 Photo from the south Kefalonia . On the horizon is recorded in an impressive way the elongated (Δόλιχος>Δουλίχιον> Doulichion)  figure of Zakynthos island

The Lost Kingdom of Doulichion seems to occupy the obvious place exactly as described by Homer.
Why this assumption has never been examined or has been subject to debate or even a working exercise by someone not taking into account the names that the Ionian Islands carry today, and putting the Homeric names just like Homer describes them on a map, is a big question mark. It is precisely this collective inability we have to understand Homer (correct reading of the time of creation of the Homeric epics), that makes it clear why for so many years we were looking for the location of Homer's Ithaca and unluckily never found it. And what’s more, in the Homeric texts we can read any possible description of Ithaca!

Homer was regarded blind by the generations following the so-called Heroic Age of the Greeks. Blindness is what we have to look for in ourselves and in the tremendous gap that seems to divide the Homeric texts from the so-called historical era. What happened, why it happened, what lies behind this blindness of the generations of the historical times, is an issue that cannot be analyzed in publications of this type. For these issues hopefully the relevant studies will be released soon.

We started together an unorthodox - in terms of its order of publications- travel to Homer's Ithaca. This should not surprise you because it has its own unorthodox logic that will be revealed at the end of these very compact and popularized publications.
                                   

"Zakynthos"  Benedetto Bordone 1528

  [i] Strabo, C 456.14
οὐδ' Ἑλλάνικος ὁμηρικὸς Δουλίχιον τὴν Κεφαλληνίαν λέγων. τὸ μὲν γὰρ ὑπὸ Μέγητι εἴρηται καὶ αἱ λοιπαὶ Ἐχινάδες, οἵ τε ἐνοικοῦντες Ἐπειοὶ ἐξ Ἤλιδος ἀφιγμένοι: διόπερ καὶ τὸν Ὦτον τὸν Κυλλήνιον 

Φυλείδεω ἕταρον μεγαθύμων ἀρχὸν Ἐπειῶν28 
καλεῖ. 
αὐτὰρ Ὀδυσσεὺς ἦγε Κεφαλλῆνας μεγαθύμους.29 
οὔτ' οὖν Δουλίχιον ἡ Κεφαλληνία καθ' Ὅμηρον οὔτε τῆς Κεφαλληνίας τὸ Δουλίχιον, ὡς Ἄνδρων φησί: τὸ μὲν γὰρ Ἐπειοὶ κατεῖχον, τὴν δὲ Κεφαλληνίαν ὅλην Κεφαλλῆνες ὑπὸ Ὀδυσσεῖ, οἱ δ' ὑπὸ Μέγητι. οὐδὲ Παλεῖς Δουλίχιον ὑφ' Ὁμήρου λέγονται, ὡς γράφει Φερεκύδης. μάλιστα δ' ἐναντιοῦται Ὁμήρῳ ὁ τὴν Κεφαλληνίαν τὴν αὐτὴν τῷ Δουλιχίῳ λέγων, εἴπερ τῶν μνηστήρων ἐκ μὲν Δουλιχίοιο δύω καὶ πεντήκοντα ἦσαν, ἐκ δὲ Σάμης πίσυρές τε καὶ εἴκοσιν. οὐ γὰρ τοῦτ' ἂν εἴη λέγων, ἐξ ὅλης μὲν τόσους ἐκ δὲ μιᾶς τῶν τεττάρων παρὰ δύο τοὺς ἡμίσεις. εἰ δ' ἄρα τοῦτο δώσει τις, ἐρησόμεθα τίς ἂν εἴη ἡ Σάμη, ὅταν οὕτω φῇ 
Δουλίχιόν τε Σάμην τ' ἠδ' ὑλήεντα Ζάκυνθον.30 

[ii]   Homer  Il. Book 2.

 [591] And they that dwelt in Pylos and lovely Arene and Thryum, the ford of Alpheius, and fair-founded Aepy, and that had their abodes in Cyparisseïs and Amphigeneia and Pteleos and Helus and Dorium, where the Muses met Thamyris the Thracian and made an end of his singing, even as he was journeying from Oechalia, from the house of Eurytus the Oechalian: for he vaunted with boasting that he would conquer, were the Muses themselves to sing against him, the daughters of Zeus that beareth the aegis; but they in their wrath maimed him, and took from him his wondrous song, and made him forget his minstrelsy;--all these folk again had as leader the horseman, Nestor of Gerenia. And with him were ranged ninety hollow ships.

[603] And they that held Arcadia beneath the steep mountain of Cyllene, beside the tomb of Aepytus, where are warriors that fight in close combat; and they that dwelt in Pheneos and Orchomenus, rich in flocks, and Rhipe and Stratia and wind-swept Enispe; and that held Tegea and lovely Mantineia; and that held Stymphalus and dwelt in Parrhasia,—all these were led by the son of Ancaeus, Lord Agapenor, with sixty ships; and on each ship embarked full many Arcadian warriors well-skilled in fight. For of himself had the king of men, Agamemnon, given them benched ships wherewith to cross over the wine-dark sea, even the son of Atreus, for with matters of seafaring had they naught to do.

[615] And they that dwelt in Buprasium and goodly Elis, all that part thereof that Hyrmine and Myrsinus on the seaboard and the rock of Olen and Alesium enclose between them—these again had four leaders, and ten swift ships followed each one, and many Epeians embarked thereon. Of these some were led by Amphimachus and Thalpius, of the blood of Actor, sons, the one of Cteatus and the other of Eurytus; and of some was the son of Amarynceus captain, even mighty Diores; and of the fourth company godlike Polyxeinus was captain, son of king Agasthenes, Augeias' son.

[625] And those from Dulichium and the Echinae, the holy isles, that lie across the sea, over against Elis, these again had as leader Meges, the peer of Ares, even the son of Phyleus, whom the horseman Phyleus, dear to Zeus, begat—he that of old had gone to dwell in Dulichium in wrath against his father. And with Meges there followed forty black ships.

[631] And Odysseus led the great-souled Cephallenians that held Ithaca and Neritum, covered with waving forests, and that dwelt in Crocyleia and rugged Aegilips; and them that held Zacynthus, and that dwelt about Samos, and held the mainland and dwelt on the shores over against the isles. Of these was Odysseus captain, the peer of Zeus in counsel. And with him there followed twelve ships with vermilion prows.

[638] And the Aetolians were led by Thoas, Andraemon's son, even they that dwelt in Pleuron and Olenus and Pylene and Chalcis, hard by the sea, and rocky Calydon. For the sons of great-hearted Oeneus were no more, neither did he himself still live, and fair-haired Meleager was dead, to whom had commands been given that he should bear full sway among the Aetolians. And with Thoas there followed forty black ships.

[iii]  Strabo, C 458.19   
 καὶ ταύτης δὲ καὶ τῆς Κεφαλληνίας πρὸς ἕω τὰς Ἐχινάδας ἱδρῦσθαι νήσους συμβέβηκεν, ὧν τό τε Δουλίχιόν ἐστι (καλοῦσι δὲ νῦν Δολίχαν ) καὶ αἱ Ὀξεῖαι καλούμεναι, ἃς Θοὰς ὁ ποιητὴς εἶπε: καὶ ἡ μὲν Δολίχα κεῖται κατὰ Οἰνιάδας καὶ τὴν ἐκβολὴν τοῦ Ἀχελώου, διέχουσα Ἀράξου τῆς τῶν Ἠλείων ἄκρας ἑκατόν, αἱ λοιπαὶ δ' Ἐχινάδες (πλείους δ' εἰσί, πᾶσαι λυπραὶ καὶ τραχεῖαι ) πρὸ τῆς ἐκβολῆς τοῦ Ἀχελώου, πεντεκαίδεκα σταδίους ἀφεστῶσα ἡ ἀπωτάτω, ἡ δ' ἐγγυτάτω πέντε, πελαγίζουσαι πρότερον, ἀλλ' ἡ χοῦς τὰς μὲν ἐξηπείρωκεν αὐτῶν ἤδη, τὰς δὲ μέλλει πολλὴ καταφερομένη