οὐκ ὗε. Some see in this drought a picturesque version of what really was a vera causa of Greek colonization, i. e. over-population; but this seems far-fetched. Justin (xiii. 7) substitutes a pestilence for the drought. For the visitation cf. Soph. O. T. 25 seq.
μετοίκων. ‘Metic’ occurs only here in H.; it clearly is not used in a technical sense (though some have thought it = ἀπέταιροι of the Gortyn inscription), but only = ‘strangers’, i. e. non-Cretans.
Κορώβιος. Busolt (i. 480) thinks Corobius is one of the ἅλιοι γέροντες, a sea-god of Itanus (cf. the representations on the fifthcentury coins of Itanus, Head, H. N. 469); as, however, he admits that the colonists must have touched at Crete, and ‘may well have employed Cretan guides’, it is a little hard to see why Corobius should not be a real person. At any rate the Cretans had an important share in the colony (161. 3).
Platea is Bomba, in the gulf of the same name, on the east of the modern Tripoli. Corobius was left to secure the site (cf. 157. 3), but it is difficult to see why an alien should be chosen for this, or why in fact any competition was to be expected.