Listed 5 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "THEMISKYRA Ancient city TURKEY".
Total results on 6/6/2001: 22 for Themiscyra, 7 for Themiskyra.
A minor city in Amisene territory, in the district also called Themiskyra, ca. 60 km E of Samsun (Amisos). The district, traditionally associated with the Amazons, comprised the delta of the Yesil Irmak (Iris fl.), an alluvial plain projecting more than 15 km out into the Black Sea (Pontos Euxeinos). At the E margin of this delta is a second river, the Terme Cayi (Thermodon fl.), on which the city lay. Themiskyra was besieged (perhaps destroyed) by Lucullus (71 B.C.) and must have had walls of some strength. No trace of these is known, but the site is presumed to lie beneath modern Terme, some 5 km from the river mouth. The Thermodon was navigable in antiquity up to the city, which lay on both sides of the river.
D. R. Wilson, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
A plain on the coast of Pontus, extending east of the river Iris, beyond the Thermodon, celebrated from very ancient times as the country of the Amazons.
Themiscyra (Themiskura), a plain in the north of Pontus, about the
mouths of the rivers Iris and Thermodon, was a rich and beautiful district, ever
verdant, and supplying food for numberless herds of oxen and horses. It also produced
great abundance of grain, especially pannick and millet; and the southern parts
near the mountains furnished a variety of fruits, such as grapes, apples, pears,
and nuts in such quantities that they were suffered to waste on the trees. (Strab.
ii. p. 126, xii. p. 547, foll.; Aeschyl. Prom. 722; comp. Apollod. ii. 5; Apollon.
Rhod. ii. 370; Plin. vi. 3, xxiv. 102.) Mythology describes this plain as the
native country of the Amazons.
A Greek town of the name of Themiscyra, at a little distance from
the coast and near the mouth of the Thermodon, is mentioned as early as the time
of Herodotus (iv. 86; comp. Scylax, p. 33; Paus. i. 2. § 1). Ptolemy (v. 6 § 3)
is undoubtedly mistaken in placing it further west, midway between the Iris and
Cape Heraclium. Scylax calls it a Greek town; but Diodorus (ii. 44) states that
it was built by the founder of the kingdom of the Amazons. After the retreat of
Mithridates from Cyzicus, Themiscyra was besieged by Lucullus. The inhabitants
on that occasion defended themselves with great valour; and when their walls were
undermined, they sent bears and other wild beasts, and even swarms of bees, against
the workmen of Lucullus (Appian, Mithrid. 78). But notwithstanding their gallant
defence, the town seems to have perished on that occasion, for Mela speaks of
it as no longer existing (i. 19), and Strabo does not mention it at all. (Comp.
Anon. Peripl. P. E. p. 11; Steph. B. s. v. Chadisia.) Some suppose that the town
of Thermeh, at the mouth of the Thermodon, marks the site of ancient Themiscyra;
but Hamilton (Researches, i. p. 283) justly observes that it must have been situated
a little further inland. Ruins of the place do not appear to exist, for those
which. Texier regards as indicating the site of Themiscyra, at a distance of two
days' journey from the Halys, on the borders of Galatia, cannot possibly have
belonged to it, but are in all probability the remains of Tavium.
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
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