Listed 5 sub titles with search on: History for wider area of: "LYDIA Ancient country TURKEY" .
LYDIA (Ancient country) TURKEY
In the reign of Atys son of Manes there was great scarcity of food
in all Lydia. For a while the Lydians bore this with what patience they could;
presently, when the famine did not abate, they looked for remedies, and different
plans were devised by different men. Then it was that they invented the games
of dice and knuckle-bones and ball and all other forms of game except dice, which
the Lydians do not claim to have discovered. Then, using their discovery to lighten
the famine, every other day they would play for the whole day, so that they would
not have to look for food, and the next day they quit their play and ate. This
was their way of life for eighteen years. But the famine did not cease to trouble
them, and instead afflicted them even more. At last their king divided the people
into two groups, and made them draw lots, so that the one group should remain
and the other leave the country; he himself was to be the head of those who drew
the lot to remain there, and his son, whose name was Tyrrhenus, of those who departed.
Then the one group, having drawn the lot, left the country and came down to Smyrna
and built ships, in which they loaded all their goods that could be transported
aboard ship, and sailed away to seek a livelihood and a country; until at last,
after sojourning with one people after another, they came to the Ombrici,1 where
they founded cities and have lived ever since. They no longer called themselves
Lydians, but Tyrrhenians, after the name of the king's son who had led them there.
This extract is from: Herodotus. The Histories (ed. A. D. Godley, 1920), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Tyrrhenus (Turrenos or Tursenos). The son of the Lydian king Atys and Callithea, and brother of Lydus. He is said to have led a Pelasgian colony from Lydia into Italy, into the country of the Umbrians, and to have given to the colonists his name. Others call Tyrrhenus a son of Heracles by Omphale, or of Telephus and Hiera, and a [p. 1624] brother of Tarchon ( Dionys.i. 28). The name Tarchon is perhaps only another form of Tyrrhenus.
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