Note 452 — Chapter XVII · LYDIANS. — MEDES. — CIMMERIANS. — SCYTHIANS.
Reading edition
Alkæus, Fragm. 49, Bergk; Eustath. ad Dionys. Perieg. 306.—
Ἀχιλλεῦ, ὃ τᾶς (γᾶς, Schneid.) Σκυθικᾶς μέδεις.
Alkman, somewhat earlier, made mention of the Issêdones (Alkm. Frag. 129, Bergk; Steph. Byz. v. Ἰσσήδονες,—he called them Assêdones) and of the Rhipæan mountains (Fr. 80).
In the old epic of Arktinus, the deceased Achilles is transported to an elysium in the λευκὴ νῆσος (see the argument of the Æthiopis in Düntzer’s Collection of Epicc. Poet. Græc. p. 15), but it may well be doubted whether λευκὴ νῆσος in his poem was anything but a fancy,—not yet localized upon the little island off the mouth of the Danube.
For the early allusions to the Pontus Euxinus and its neighboring inhabitants, found in the Greek poets, see Ukert, Skythien, pp. 15-18, 78; though he puts the Ionian colonies in the Pontus nearly a century too early, in my judgment.