LYRNESSUS
LYRNESSUS (
Λυρνησσός: Eth.
Λυρνήσσιος or Eth.
Λυρναῖος, Aeschyl.
Pers. 324).
1.
A town often mentioned by Homer (
Hom. Il. 2.690,
19.60,
20.92,
191), and described by Stephanus B. (s. v.) as one of the eleven towns in Troas; and Strabo (
iii. p.612) mentions that it was situated in the territory of Thebe, but that afterwards it belonged to Adramyttium. Pliny (
5.32) places it on the river Evenus, near its sources.
It was, like Thebe, a deserted place as early as the time of Strabo. (Comp.
Strab. xiii. p.584;
Diod. 5.49.) About 4 miles from
Karaváren, Sir C. Fellows (
Journ. of an Exc. in Asia Minor, p. 39) found several columns and old walls of good masonry; which he is inclined to regard as remnants of the ancient Lyrnessus.
2.
A place on the coast of Pamphylia, which was reported to have been founded there by the Trojan Cilicians, who transferred the name of the Trojan Lyrnessus to this new settlement. (Strab. 14.676.)
The town is also mentioned by Pliny (
5.26), who places it on the Catarrhactes, and by Dionysius Periegetes (875). The Stadiasmus Maris Magni ( § 204) calls it Lyrnas, and, according to the French translators of Strabo (vol. iii. pt. 2. p. 363), its site is identical with the modern
Ernatia.
3.
An ancient name of the island of Tenedos. (
Plin. Nat. 5.39.) [
L.S]
