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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1901. Excerpt: ... We have already (p. 58) referred to the discovery of objects which seem to show much intercourse between Crete and Egypt under the xnth Dynasty. The evidence of Homer demonstrates that in the Achean period constant raids were made on Egypt by the Cretans1. On the other hand the same passage of the Odyssey indicates that Crete was the intermediary between the rest of Greece and Libya, for Odysseus in the feigned story of his adventures says that the Phoenician shipman intended to carry him to Libya, and that they sailed by Crete". It was probably through Crete that the Greeks of the Homeric age knew of the fertility of Libya, " where lambs are horned from their birth" and where "the ewes yean thrice within the full circle of a year," where "neither lord nor shepherd lacketh ought of cheese or flesh or of sweet milk, but ever the flocks yield store of milk continually3." This is rendered almost certain by the story of the founding of Cyrene. Grinnus, the king of Thera, with a large retinue (in which was Battus), had gone to Delphi to consult the god, who in his response bade the Theraeans colonize Libya. But they heeded not the divine behest, and their island was so beset with drought that all the trees perished save one. Then at the end of seven years they sent again to Delphi to seek for succour. The Pythian reminded them of the former injunction which they had set at nought, and renewed it. As the Theraeans knew nothing about Libya they sent messengers to Crete to inquire about it, and these at last at Itanus fell in with one Corobius, a Phoenician dealer in purple, who gave them the desired information, which, as we shall see, led to the founding of Cyrene. Herodotus and Homer prepare us for the legend that in still earlier days there had been intercour...