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Strabo, Geography 1.3.17 ἵζημα λαβὼν

Posted: October 14th, 2015, 1:31 am
by Stephen Hughes
Strabo, Geography 1.3.17[/url]/[url=http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/1C*.html]Transl. Horace Leonard Jones 1919 wrote:οὐδὲν οὖν θαυμαστὸν οὐδ᾽ εἴ ποτε διαστὰς ὁ ἰσθμὸς ἢ ἵζημα λαβὼν ὁ διείργων τὸ Αἰγύπτιον πέλαγος ἀπὸ τῆς Ἐρυθρᾶς θαλάττης ἀποφανεῖ πορθμὸν καὶ σύρρουν ποιήσει τὴν ἐκτὸς θάλατταν τῇ ἐντός, καθάπερ ἐπὶ τοῦ κατὰ τὰς Ἡρακλέους στήλας πορθμοῦ συνέβη.
Hence it is nothing to marvel at even if, at some time, the isthmus should be parted asunder or else undergo a settling process — I mean the isthmus that separates the Egyptian Sea from the Red Sea — and thus disclose a strait and make the outer sea confluent with the inner,149 just as happened in the case of the strait at the Pillars of Heracles.
Is he talking about sedimentation or a downward movement of the earth's surface when he says ἵζημα λαβὼν?