Greek Texts & Translations

15. Themiscyra is a plain, partly washed by the sea, and distant about 60 stadia from the city (Amisus); and partly situated at the foot of a mountainous country, which is well wooded, and intersected with rivers, which have their source among the mountains. A river, named Thermodon, which receives the water of all these rivers traverses the plain.

Another river very similar to this, of the name of Iris, ^note flowing from a place called Phanaroea, ^note traverses the same plain. It has its sources in Pontus. Flowing westward through the city of Pontic Comana, ^note and through Dazimonitis, ^note a fertile plain, it then turns to the north beside Gaziura, ^note an ancient seat of the kings, but now deserted; it then again returns to the east, where, uniting with the Scylax ^note and other rivers, and taking its course beside the walls of my native place, Amaseia, ^note a very strongly fortified city, proceeds to Phanaroea. There when joined by the Lycus, ^note which rises in Armenia, it becomes the Iris. It then enters Themiscyra, and discharges itself into the Euxine. This plain, therefore, is well watered with dews, is constantly covered with herbage, and is capable of affording food to herds of cattle as well as to horses. The largest crops there consist of panic and millet, or rather they never fail, for the supply of water more than counteracts the effect of all drought; these people, therefore, never on any occasion experience a famine. The country at the foot of the mountains produces so large an autumnal crop of spontaneous-grown wild fruits, of the vine, the pear, the apple, and hazel, that, in all seasons of the year, persons who go into the woods to cut timber gather them in large quantities; the fruit is found either yet hanging upon the trees or lying beneath a deep covering of fallen leaves thickly strewed upon the ground. Wild animals of all kinds, which resort here on account of the abundance of food, are frequently hunted. 16

Next to Themiscyra is Sidene, a fertile plain, but not watered in the same manner by rivers as Themiscyra. It has strongholds on the sea-coast, as Side, ^note from which Sidene has