|
This account of the Rhegians and the Tarentines is a digression from
the story which I was relating. To return - the Praesians say that
men of various nations now flocked to Crete, which was stript of its
inhabitants; but none came in such numbers as the Grecians. Three
generations after the death of Minos the Trojan war took place; and
the Cretans were not the least distinguished among the helpers of
Menelaus. But on this account, when they came back from Troy,
famine and pestilence fell upon them, and destroyed both the men and
the cattle. Crete was a second time stript of its inhabitants, a
remnant only being left; who form, together with fresh settlers, the
third "Cretan" people by whom the island has been inhabited. These
were the events of which the Pythoness now reminded the men of Crete;
and thereby she prevented them from giving the Greeks aid, though they
wished to have gone to their assistance.
|
|