Histories

So, since there was no remedy for their ills, they sent messengers to +Crete [25,35.166] (region), Greece, Europe Crete to find any Cretan or traveller there who had travelled to Libya [17,25] (nation), AfricaLibya. In their travels about the island, these came to the town of Itanus, where they met a murex fisherman named Corobius, who told them that he had once been driven off course by winds to Libya [17,25] (nation), AfricaLibya, to an island there called Platea.[*](The island now called Bomba, east of Shahhat [21.866,32.833] (inhabited place), Al Jabal al Akhdar, Libya, AfricaCyrene.)

They hired this man to come with them to +Thera [25.433,36.4] (island), Cyclades, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Thera; from there, just a few men were sent aboard ship to spy out the land first; guided by Corobius to the aforesaid island Platea, these left him there with provision for some months, and themselves sailed back with all speed to +Thera [25.433,36.4] (island), Cyclades, Aegean Islands, Greece, Europe Thera to bring news of the island.

But after they had been away for longer than the agreed time, and Corobius had no provisions left, a Samian ship sailing for Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt, whose captain was Colaeus, was driven off her course to Platea, where the Samians heard the whole story from Corobius and left him provisions for a year;

they then put out to sea from the island and would have sailed to Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt, but an easterly wind drove them from their course, and did not abate until they had passed through the Pillars of Heracles and came providentially to Tartessus.

Now this was at that time an untapped[*](That is, as yet unvisited by Greeks. It was at or near the mouth of the Guadalquivir; cp. Hdt. 1.163.) market; hence, the Samians, of all the Greeks whom we know with certainty, brought back from it the greatest profit on their wares except Sostratus of +Aegina [23.433,37.75] (inhabited place), Aegina, Attica, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Aegina, son of Laodamas; no one could compete with him.

The Samians took six talents, a tenth of their profit, and made a bronze vessel with it, like an Argolic cauldron, with griffins' heads projecting from the rim all around; they set this up in their temple of Hera, supporting it with three colossal kneeling figures of bronze, each twelve feet high.