Casthanaea

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography

CASTHANAEA(Κασθαναία, Strab.; Κασταναία, Lycophr., Steph. B., Mel., et alii: Eth. Κασθαναῖος), a town of Magnesia in Thessaly, at the foot of Mt. Pelium, with a temple of Aphrodite Casthanitis. It is mentioned by Herodotus in his account of the terrible storm which the fleet of Xerxes experienced off this part of the coast. Leake places it at some ruins, near a small port named Tamúkhari. It was from this town that the chesnut tree, which still abounds on the eastern side of Mt. Pelium, derived its name in Greek and the modern languages of Europe. (Hdt. 7.183, 184; Strab. ix. pp.438, 443; Plin. Nat. 4.9. s. 16; Pomp. Mel. 2.3; Lycophr. 907; Nicandr. Alexiph. 271; Etym. M. s. v. Leake, Northern Greece, vol. 4. p. 383.)