διαβάντων δὲ Ἀλφειὸν χώρα τε καλουμένη Τραπεζουντία καὶ πόλεώς ἐστιν ἐρείπια Τραπεζοῦντος. καὶ αὖθις ἐπὶ τὸν Ἀλφειὸν ἐν ἀριστερᾷ καταβαίνοντι ἐκ Τραπεζοῦντος, οὐ πόρρω τοῦ ποταμοῦ Βάθος ἐστὶν ὀνομαζόμενον, ἔνθα ἄγουσι τελετὴν διὰ ἔτους τρίτου θεαῖς Μεγάλαις· καὶ πηγή τε αὐτόθι ἐστὶν Ὀλυμπιὰς καλουμένη, τὸν ἕτερον τῶν ἐν αὐτῶν οὐκ ἀπορρέουσα, καὶ πλησίον τῆς πηγῆς πῦρ ἄνεισι. λέγουσι δὲ οἱ Ἀρκάδες τὴν λεγομένην γιγάντων μάχην καὶ θεῶν ἐνταῦθα καὶ οὐκ ἐν τῇ Θρᾳκίᾳ γενέσθαι Παλλήνῃ, καὶ θύουσιν ἀστραπαῖς αὐτόθι καὶ θυέλλαις τε καὶ βρονταῖς.
γιγάντων δὲ ἐν μὲν Ἰλιάδι οὐδεμίαν ἐποιήσατο Ὅμηρος μνήμην· ἐν Ὀδυσσείᾳ δὲ ἔγραψε μὲν ὡς ταῖς Ὀδυσσέως ναυσὶ Λαιστρυγόνες ἐπέλθοιεν γίγασι καὶ οὐκ ἀνδράσιν εἰκασμένοι, ἐποίησε δὲ καὶ τὸν βασιλέα τῶν Φαιάκων λέγοντα εἶναι τοὺς Φαίακας θεῶν ἐγγὺς ὥσπερ Κύκλωπας καὶ τὸ γιγάντων ἔθνος. ἔν τε οὖν τούτοις δηλοῖ θνητοὺς ὄντας καὶ οὐ θεῖον γένος τοὺς γίγαντας καὶ σαφέστερον ἐν τῷδε ἔτι, ὅς ποθʼ ὑπερθύμοισι γιγάντεσσιν βασίλευεν· / ἀλλʼ ὁ μὲν ὤλεσε λαὸν ἀτάσθαλον, ὤλετο δʼ αὐτός. / ἐθέλουσι δʼ αὐτῷ λαὸς ἐν τοῖς ἔπεσιν ἀνθρώπων οἱ πολλοὶ καλεῖσθαι.
δράκοντας δὲ ἀντὶ ποδῶν τοῖς γίγασιν εἶναι, πολλαχῇ τε ὁ λόγος ἄλλῃ καὶ ἐν τῷδε ἐδείχθη μάλιστα ὡς ἔστιν εὐήθης. Ὀρόντην τὸν Σύρων ποταμὸν οὐ τὰ πάντα ἐν ἰσοπέδῳ μέχρι θαλάσσης ῥέοντα, ἀλλὰ ἐπὶ κρημνόν τε ἀπορρῶγα καὶ ἐς κάταντες ἀπʼ αὐτοῦ φερόμενον, ἠθέλησεν ὁ Ῥωμαίων βασιλεὺς ἀναπλεῖσθαι ναυσὶν ἐκ θαλάσσης ἐς Ἀντιόχειαν πόλιν· ἔλυτρον οὖν σὺν πόνῳ τε καὶ δαπάνῃ χρημάτων ὀρυξάμενος ἐπιτήδειον ἐς τὸν ἀνάπλουν, ἐξέτρεψεν ἐς τοῦτο τὸν ποταμόν.
ἀναξηρανθέντος δὲ τοῦ ἀρχαίου ῥεύματος, κεραμεᾶ τε ἐν αὐτῷ σορὸς πλέον ἢ ἑνός τε καὶ δέκα εὑρέθη πηχῶν καὶ ὁ νεκρὸς μέγεθός τε ἦν κατὰ τὴν σορὸν καὶ ἄνθρωπος διὰ παντὸς τοῦ σώματος. τοῦτον τὸν νεκρὸν ὁ ἐν Κλάρῳ θεός, ἀφικομένων ἐπὶ τὸ χρηστήριον τῶν Σύρων, εἶπεν Ὀρόντην εἶναι, γένους δὲ αὐτὸν εἶναι τοῦ Ἰνδῶν. εἰ δὲ τὴν γῆν τὸ ἀρχαῖον οὖσαν ὑγρὰν ἔτι καὶ ἀνάπλεων νοτίδος θερμαίνων ὁ ἥλιος τοὺς πρώτους ἐποίησεν ἀνθρώπους, ποίαν εἰκός ἐστιν ἄλλην χώραν ἢ προτέραν τῆς Ἰνδῶν ἢ μείζονας ἀνεῖναι τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, ἥ γε καὶ ἐς ἡμᾶς ἔτι καὶ ὄψεως τῷ παραλόγῳ καὶ μεγέθει διάφορα ἐκτρέφει θηρία;
τοῦ δὲ χωρίου τοῦ ὀνομαζομένου Βάθους σταδίους ὡς δέκα ἀφέστηκεν ἡ καλουμένη Βασιλίς· ταύτης ἐγένετο οἰκιστὴς Κύψελος ὁ Κρεσφόντῃ τῷ Ἀριστομάχου τὴν θυγατέρα ἐκδούς· ἐπʼ ἐμοῦ δὲ ἐρείπια ἡ Βασιλὶς ἦν καὶ Δήμητρος ἱερὸν ἐν αὐτοῖς ἐλείπετο Ἐλευσινίας. ἐντεῦθεν δὲ προϊὼν τὸν Ἀλφειὸν αὖθις διαβήσῃ καὶ ἐπὶ Θωκνίαν ἀφίξῃ, τὸ ὄνομα ἀπὸ Θώκνου τοῦ Λυκάονος ἔχουσαν, ἐς ἅπαν δὲ ἐφʼ ἡμῶν ἔρημον· ἐλέγετο δὲ ὁ Θῶκνος ἐν τῷ λόφῳ κτίσαι τὴν πόλιν. ποταμὸς δὲ ὁ Ἀμίνιος ῥέων παρὰ τὸν λόφον ἐς τὸν Ἑλισσόντα ἐκδίδωσι, καὶ οὐ πολὺ ἄπωθεν ἐς τὸν Ἀλφειὸν ὁ Ἑλισσών.
Having crossed the Alpheus we come to what is called the Trapezuntian district, and to the ruins of a city Trapezus. Going down again to the left towards the Alpheus from Trapezus you come to a place named Bathos (‘depth’), not far from the river, where they celebrate mysteries every second year in honour of the Great Goddesses. There is here also a spring, called Olympias, which, every other year, does not flow, and near the spring fire rises up.
The Arcadians say that the legendary battle of the gods and the giants took place here, and not at Pallene, in Thrace, and they sacrifice here to lightnings, hurricanes, and thunders. In the Iliad Homer makes no mention of giants, but in the Odyssey he says that Ulysses’ ships were attacked by Laestrygones in the likeness, not of men, but of giants, and he represents the king of the Phaeacians as saying that the Phaeacians were near akin to the gods, like the Cyclopes and the race of the giants. Thus he indicates that the giants are mortals, and not a divine race, and he brings this out still more clearly in the following passage :— Who once reigned over the haughty giants ; But he destroyed the reckless folk and perished himself. Now, in the poems of Homer, ‘folk’ means the mass of people.
That the giants have serpents instead of feet is a silly story, as is shown by the following fact among many others. The Syrian river Orontes does not flow throughout its whole course to the sea on level ground, but tumbles over a precipitous ledge of rock. Wishing, then, that ships should sail up the river from the sea to the city of Antioch, the Roman Emperor had a navigable canal dug with much labour and at great expense, and into this canal he diverted the river. When the old bed was dried up an earthenware coffin more than eleven ells long was found in it: the size of the corpse was proportioned to the coffin, and the whole body was that of a man. This corpse, when the Syrians applied to the oracle at Clarus, was declared by the god to be Orontes, of the Indian race. Now, if it be true that the first men were produced by the sun warming the earth, which of old was still damp and full of moisture, what land is likely to have produced men earlier or bigger than India, which to this day rears beasts of extraordinary size and strange appearance? 4. About ten furlongs from Bathos is Basilis, of which the founder was Cypselus, who gave his daughter in marriage to Cresphontes, son of Aristomachus. In my time Basilis was in ruins, and amongst the ruins was left a sanctuary of Eleusinian Demeter. Going forward from Basilis you will cross the Alpheus again, and come to Thocnia, which was named after Thocnus, son of Lycaon, but in our time it is quite deserted. Thocnus was said to have built the city on the hill. The river Aminius flows past the hill and falls into the Helisson, and a little way on the Helisson falls into the Alpheus.
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