Eryx
（
Ἔρυξ). A mountain of Sicily, at the western extremity of
the island, and near the city of Drepanum. It was fabled to have received its name from Eryx,
who was buried there. On its summit stood a famous temple of Aphrodité Erycina, and
on the western declivity was situated the town of Eryx, the approach to which from the plain
was rocky and difficult. At the distance of thirty stadia stood the harbour of the same name
(Polyb. i. 55;
Diod.xxiv. 1;
in Ver. ii. 8). The
Phœnicians were most probably the founders of the place and also of the temple, and
the Erycinian Aphrodité appears to be identified with the Astarté of the
latter people. The native inhabitants in this quarter were called Elymi, and Eryx is said by
some to have been their king. Vergil makes Aeneas to have founded the temple. The town
was destroyed by the Carthaginians in the time of Pyrrhus, who a short time previous had taken
it by storm, and the inhabitants were removed to Drepanum (
Diod.xxii.
14;
Diod. xxiii. 9). It soon, however, revived, owing to
the celebrity of the adjacent temple. In the First Punic War it fell into the hands of the
Romans, but was surprised by Barcas, the Carthaginian commander, and the inhabitants who
escaped the slaughter were again removed to Drepanum (
Diod. xxiv.
2). The place never recovered from this blow; the sanctity of the temple drew, indeed,
new inhabitants around, but the city was never rebuilt. No traces of the temple remain at the
present day.
