Strymon

STRYMON(Στρυμών, Ptol. 3.13.18), the largest river of Macedonia, after the Axius, and, before the time of Philip, the ancient boundary of that country towards the E. It rises in Mount Scomius near Pantalia (the present Gustendil) (Thuc. 2.96), and, taking first an E. and then a SE. course, flows through the whole of Macedonia. It then enters the lake of Prasias, or Cercinitis, and shortly after its exit from it, near the town of Amphipolis, falls into the Strymonic gulf. Pliny, with less correctness, places its sources in the Haemus (4.10. s. 12). The importance of the Strymon is rather magnified in the ancient accounts of it, from the circumstance of Amphipolis being seated near its mouth; and it is navigable only a few miles from that town. Apollodorus (Apollod. 2.5. 10) has a legend that Hercules rendered the upper course of the river shallow by casting stones into it, it having been previously navigable much farther. Its banks were much frequented by cranes (Juven. 13.167; Verg. A. 10.269; Mart. 9.308). The Strymon is frequently alluded to in the classics. (Comp. Hesiod. Theog. 339; Aesch. Suppl. 258, Agam.192; Hdt. 7.75; Thuc. 1.200; Strab. 7. p. 323; Mela. 2.2; Liv. 44.44. &c. Its present name is Struma, but the Turks call it Karasu. (Comp. Leake, North. Gr. iii. pp. 225, 465, &c.)
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