186 TERPSICHORE.

enables me to say that they were Phoenicians, and of
those who accompanied Cadmus into the region noir
called Boeotia, where they settled, having the district
of Tanagria assigned them by lot. The Cadmeans were
expelled by the Argives-, the Boeotians afterwards
drove out the Gephyreans, who took refuge at Athens.
The Athenians enrolled them among their citizens,
Under certain restrictions of trifling importances ' .

LVIII. The Phoenicians who came with Cadmus,
and of whom the Gephyreans were a part, introduced
during their residence in Greece the knowledge of va­
rious articles of science, and among other tilings let­
ters, with which, as I conceive, the Greeks were before
unacquainted. These were at first such as the Phoeni­
cians themselves indiscriminately use; in process of
time, however, they were changed both in sound and
form. At that time the Greeks most contiguous to this
people were the Ionians, who learned these letters of
the Phoenicians, and, with some trifling variations, re­
ceived them into common use. As the Phoenicians first
made them known in Greece, they called them, as jus­
tice required, Phoenician letters. By a very ancient
custom, the Ionians call their books diphterm or skins,.
because at a time when the plant of the biblos was
scarce, they used instead of it the skins of goats and
sheep. Many of the Barbarians have used these
skins for this purpose within my recollection.

LIX. I myself have seen, in the temple of the Isme-
nian Apollo, at Thebes, of Boeotia, these Cadmean
letters inscribed upon some tripods, and having a near
resemblance to those used by the Ionians. One of the
tripods has this inscription:—

Amphytrion's present from Teleboan spoils.
This must have been about the age of Laius, son of
Labdacus, whose father was Polydore, the son of
Cadmus.

LX. Upon the second tripod, are these hexameter
verses:—

Scaus, victorious pugilist, bestow'd
Me, a fair offering, on the Delpbic god.

This Serous was the son of Hippocoon, if indeed it