Histories
Herodotus
Herodotus. Godley, Alfred Denis, translator. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann, Ltd., 1920-1925 (printing).
This is in the story of the Prowess of Diomedes, where the verses run as follows:
Hom. Il. 6.289-92
- There were the robes, all embroidered,
- The work of women of +Sidon [35.366,33.55] (inhabited place), Al-Janub, Lebanon, Asia Sidon, whom godlike Alexandrus himself
- Brought from +Sidon [35.366,33.55] (inhabited place), Al-Janub, Lebanon, Asia Sidon, crossing the broad sea,
- The same voyage on which he brought back Helen of noble descent.
[He mentions it in the Odyssey also:
Hom. Od. 4.227-30 ]
- The daughter of Zeus had such ingenious drugs,
- Good ones, which she had from Thon's wife, Polydamna, an Egyptian,
- Whose country's fertile plains bear the most drugs,
- Many mixed for good, many for harm:
and again Menelaus says to Telemachus:
Hom. Od. 4. 351-2
- I was eager to return here, but the gods still held me in Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt,
- Since I had not sacrificed entire hecatombs to them.
In these verses the poet shows that he knew of Alexander's wanderings to Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt; for +Syria [38,35] (nation), Asia Syria borders on Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt, and the Phoenicians, to whom +Sidon [35.366,33.55] (inhabited place), Al-Janub, Lebanon, Asia Sidon belongs, dwell in +Syria [38,35] (nation), Asia Syria.