AXUS(Ἀξός: Axus), a city of Crete (Hdt. 4.154), which is identified with Ὄαξος (Steph. B. s. v.), situated on a river ( rapidum Cretae veniemus Oaxen,Verg. Ecl. 166), which, according to Vibius Sequester ( Flum. p. 15), gave its name to Axus. According to the Cyrenaean traditions, the Theraean Battus, their founder, was the son of a damsel named Phronimne, the daughter of Etearchus, king of this city (Herod. l. c.). Mr. Pashley ( Travels, vol. 1. p. 143, foll.) discovered the ancient city in the modern village of Axus, near Mt. Ida. The river of Axusflows past the village. Remains belonging to the so-called Cyclopean or Pelasgiewalls were found, and in the church a piece of white marble with a sepulchral inscription in the ancient Doric Greek of the island. On another inscription was a decree of a common assembly of the Cretans,an instance of the well known Syncretism, as it was called. The coins of Axus present types of Zeus and Apollo, as might be expected in a city situated on the slopes of Mt. Ida, and the foundation of which was, by one of the legends, ascribed to a son of Apollo. The situation answers to one of the etymologies of the name: it was called Axus because the place is precipitous, that word being used by the Cretans in the same sense that the other Greeks assigned to ἀγμός, a crag. (Hoeck, Kreta, vol. 1. p. 397.) COIN OF AXUS.
[E.B.J]