Listed 6 sub titles with search on: The inhabitants for destination: "RHODES Island DODEKANISSOS".
Homer clearly testifies that, among these, Rhodes and Cos were already inhabited by Greeks before the Trojan War
It is also related of the Rhodians that they have been prosperous by sea, not merely since the time when they founded the present city, but that even many years before the establishment of the Olympian Games they used to sail far away from their homeland to insure the safety of their people. Since that time, also, they have sailed as far as Iberia; and there they founded Rhodes, of which the Massaliotes later took possession; among the Opici they founded Parthenope; and among the Daunians they, along with the Coans, founded Elpiae. Some say that the islands called the Gymnesiae were founded by them after their departure from Troy; and the larger of these, according to Timaeus, is the largest of all islands alter the seven--Sardinia, Sicily, Cypros, Crete, Euboea, Cyrnos, and Lesbos, but this is untrue, for there are others much larger. It is said that "gymnetes " are called "balearides" by the Phoenicians, and that on this account the Gymnesiae were called Balearides. Some of the Rhodians took up their abode round Sybaris in Chonia. The poet, too, seems to bear witness to the prosperity enjoyed by the Rhodians from ancient times, forthwith from the first founding of the three cities:
and there his people settled in three divisions by tribes, and were loved of Zeus, who is lord over gods and men; and upon them,wondrous wealth was shed by the son of Cronus.
Other writers refer these verses to a myth, and say that gold rained on the island at the time when Athena was born from the head of Zeus, as Pindar states.
This extract is from: The Geography of Strabo (ed. H. L. Jones, 1924), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Feb 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Dendritis, the goddess of the tree, occurs as a surname of Helen at Rhodes, and
the following story is related to account for it. After the death of Menelaus,
Helen was driven from her home by two natural sons of her husband. She fled to
Rhodes, and sought the protection of her friend Polyxo, the widow of Tlepolemus.
But Polyxo bore Helen a grudge, since her own husband Tlepolemus had fallen a
victim in the Trojan war. Accordingly, once while Helen was bathing, Polyxo sent
out her servants in the disters. guise of the Erinnyes, with the command to hang
Helen on a tree. For this reason the Rhodians afterwards built a sanctuary to
Helena Dendritis. (Paus. iii. 19.10.)
Halia. A sister of the Telchines in Rhodes, by whom Poseidon had six sons and one daughter, Rhodos or Rhode, from whom the island of Rhodes received its name. Halia, after leaping into the sea, received the name of Leucothea, and was worshipped as a divine being by the Rhodians. (Diod. v. 55)
Heliadae (Heliadai), a people said to have succeeded the Telchines
as inhabitants of the island of Rhodes, and to have been produced from the earth
by the agency of the solar heat, whence their name, from Helios. (Strab. xiv.
p. 654.) They are further said to have been skilled in all the arts, especially
in astronomy, to have advanced navigation, and to have divided the year into days
and hours. (Diod. Sic. v. 57.) In consequence of the Heliadae, the whole island
of Rhodes was sacred to the sun, who favoured it so much that not a day passed
in the whole course of a year during which the island was not warmed by his rays.
(Plin. ii. 62; comp.)
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