Hydrea (Hudrea: Eth. Hudreates: Hydra), a small island off the coast of Hermionis and Troezenia. It originally belonged to the inhabitants of Hermione, who gave the island to the Samian exiles instead of money, and the latter pawned it to the Troezenians. (Hecat ap. Steph. B. s. v.; Herod. iii. 59; Pans. ii. 34. § 9.) Hydrea, which is rarely mentioned in antiquity, became in modern times the head-quarters of Grecian commerce and the cradle of modern Grecian freedom. Although Hydra is only a few miles in circumference, so rocky as scarcely to yield the common vegetables, and with no water except what is collected in cisterns, it attained by its commerce an extraordinary degree of prosperity. Before the Greek revolution it had a wealthy population of more than 25,000 souls, and upwards of 300 trading vessels. But the losses which the Hydriotes experienced gave a blow to their prosperity from which they have never recovered. (Holland, Travels, vol. ii. p. 202, 2nd ed.; Boblaye, Recherches, &c. p. 63; Leake, Peloponnesiaca, p. 284, seq.; Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. ii. p. 456.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
1782 - 1858
1769 - 1852
1769 - 1835
1785 - 1821
1784 - 1831
1782 - 1829
1774 - 1825
1789 - 1864
1783 - 1841
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!
