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. (Strabo i. p. 53, xiv. p. 675.) 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. (Strab. xii. p. 536.) Its course, which to this point had been south, then turned to the southwest, and reached the sea st Mallus in Cilicia. The river was deep and rapid (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 440); its average breadth was 1 stadium (Xenoph. Anab. i. 4. § 1), 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. (Strab. l. c.; Eustath. ad Dionys, 867.)
[edit] References
(Comp. Scylax, p. 40; Ptol. v. 8. § 4; Plin. v. 22; Pomp. Mela, i. 13; Curtius, iii. 7; Arrian, Anab. ii. 5. § 8.)
Stephanus of Byzantium (s. v.) states that formerly this river had been called Leucosyrus.
This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography by William Smith (1857).
