Ceyhan River
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Pyramos or Pyramus (Greek: Πύραμος), formerly the Leucosyrus, was one of the great rivers of ancient Asia Minor. It is the modern Ceyhan River (formerly written Seihun or Jechun).
[edit] Course of the river
The Pyramus had its sources in Cataonia near the town of Arabissus.[1] For a time it passed under ground, but then came forward again as a navigable river, and forced its way through a glen of Mount Taurus, which in some parts was so narrow that Strabo claims a god can leap across it.[2] Its course, which to this point had been south, then turned to the southwest, and reached the sea at Mallus in Cilicia. The river was deep and rapid [3]; its average breadth was 1 stadium[4], but it carried with it such a quantity of mud, that, according to an ancient oracle, its deposits would one day reach the island of Cyprus, and thus unite it with the mainland.[5]
Stephanus of Byzantium (s. v.) states that formerly this river had been called Leucosyrus.
[edit] References
(Comp. Scylax, p. 40; Ptol. v.8.4; Plin. v.22; Mela, i.13; Curtius iii.7; Arrian, Anab. ii.5.8.)
[edit] Notes
- ^ Strabo i. p. 53, xiv. p. 675.
- ^ Strab. xii. p. 536.
- ^ Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 440.
- ^ Xenoph. Anab. i.4.1.
- ^ Strab. l. c.; Eustath. ad Dionys., 867.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography by William Smith (1856).
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