Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Various locations for destination: "SYRTIKE Ancient area LIBYA".
Triton (ho Triton potamos, Ptol. iv. 3. § 19, &c.), a river of Libya,
forming, according to Ptolemy, the boundary of the Regio Syrtica towards the W.
It rose in Mount Vasalaetus, and, flowing in a northerly direction, passed through
three lakes, the Libya Palus, the lake Pallas, and the lake Tritonitis (he Tritonitis
limne, Ib.); after which it fell into the sea in the innermost part of the Syrtis
Minor between Macmada and Tacape, but nearer to the latter.
The lake Tritonitis of Ptolemy is called, however, by other writers Tritonis
(he Tritonis limne, Herod. iv. 179). Herodotus seems to confound it with the Lesser
Syrtis itself; but Scylax (p. 49), who gives it a circumference of 1000 stadia,
describes it as connected with the Syrtis by a narrow opening, and as surrounding
a small island,--that called by Herodotus (Ib. 178) Phla (Phlha), which is also
mentioned by Strabo (xvii. p. 836), as containing a temple of Aphrodite, and by
Dionysius. (Perieg. 267.) This lake Tritonis is undoubtedly the. present Schibkah-el-Lovdjah,
of which, according to Shaw (Travels, i. p. 237), the other two lakes are merely
parts; whilst the river Triton is the present El-Hammah. This river, indeed, is
no longer connected with the lake (Shaw, Ib.); a circumstance, however, which
affords no essential ground for doubting the identity of the two streams; since
in those regions even larger rivers are sometimes compelled by the quicksands
to alter their course. (Cf. Ritter, Erdkunde, i. p. 1017). Scylax (l. c.) mentions
also.another island called Tritonos (Tritonos) in the Syrtis Minor, which last
itself is, according to him, only part of a large Sinus Tritonites (Tritonites
kolpos).
Some writers confound the lake Tritonis with the lake of the Hesperides,
and seek it in other districts of Libya; sometimes in Mauretania, in the neighbourhood
of Mount Atlas and the Atlantic Ocean, sometimes in Cyrenaica near Berenice and
the river Lathon or Lethon. The latter hypothesis is adopted by Lucan (ix. 346,
seq.), the former by Diodorus Siculus (iii. 53), who also attributes to it an
island inhabited by the Amazons.. But Strabo (l. c.) especially distinguishes
the lake of the Hesperides from the lake Tritonis.
With this lake is connected the question of the epithet Tritogeneia, applied
to Pallas as early as the days of Homer and Hesiod. But though the Libyan river
and lake were much renowned in ancient times (cf. Aeschyl. Eum. 293; Eurip. Ion,
872, seq.; Pind. Pyth. iv.. 36, &c.), and the application of the name of Pallas
to the lake connected with the Tritonis seems to point to these African waters
as having given origin to the epithet, it is nevertheless most probable that the
brook Triton near Alalcomenae in Boeotia has the best pretensions to that distinction.
(Cf. Pausan. ix. 33. § 5; Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 109,. iv. 1315; Muller,
Orchomenos, p. 355; Leake, Northern Greece vol. ii. p. 136, seq.; Kruse, Hellas,
vol. ii. pt. 1 p. 475.
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
Trierum (Trieron or Trieron akron, Ptol. iv. 3. § 13), a headland of the Regio
Syrtica in Africa, Propria. Ritter (Erdk. i. p. 928) identifies it with the promontory
of Cephalae mentioned by Strabo p. 836), the present Cape Cefalo or Mesurata.
Ptolemy indeed mentions this as a separate and adjoining promontory; but as Cefalo
still exhibits three points, it is possible that the ancient names may be connected,
and refer only to this one cape. (See Blaquiere, Letters from the Mediterranean,
i. p. 18; Della Cella, Viaggio, p. 61.)
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