CO´RYCUS
CO´RYCUS (
Κώρυκος: Eth.
Κωρύκιος, Eth.
Κωρυκιώτης).
1.
In Lycia, is mentioned in the Stadiasmus, which places it betwen Olympus (
Deliktash) and Phaselis.
This agrees with Strabo, who speaks of the
Κώρυκος αἰγιαλός, on the coast of Lycia (p. 666). The Turks call this coast north of Olympus,
Tchiraly. (Beaufort,
Karamania, p. 47.)
2.
The name of a promontory on the coast of Cilicia Tracheia. (Strab. p. 670.) Cape Corycus is now
Korghoz, plainly a corruption of the ancient name.
After mentioning the Calycadnus, Strabo--whose description proceeds from west to east--mentions a rock called Poecile; then Anemurium, a promontory of the same name as the other [
ANEMURIUM]; then the island Crambusa, and the promontory Corycus, 20 stadia above which--that is, 20 stadia inland--is the Corycian cave. Beaufort found it difficult to select a point which should correspond to this Anemurium. North of the mouth of the Calycadnus he found “two decayed and uninhabited fortresses, called
Korghos Kalaler (castles); the one standing on the mainland, and connected with the ruins of an ancient town; and the other covering the whole of a small island close to the shore.” He thinks that the little fortified island may be Strabo's Crambusa, and that Cape Corycus is perhaps a small point of land towards which the ruins of the city extend. (
Karamania, p. 240, &c.) Leake supposes the island to be what Strabo calls the promontory; and the castle on the shore to stand on the site of Corycus, a town which Strabo has not noticed.
But a town Corycus is mentioned by Livy (
33.20), and by Pliny (
5.27), and Mela (1.13), and Stephanus (s. v.
Κώρυκος).
The walls of the castle on the mainland contain many pieces of columns; and “a mole of great unhewn rocks projects from one angle of the fortress about a hundred yards across the bay.” (Beaufort.)
The walls of the ancient city may still be traced, and there appear to be sufficient remains to invite a careful examination of the spot.
There are coins of Corycus.
In the Corycian cave, says Strabo, the best crocus (saffron) grows.
He describes this cave as a great hollow, of a circular form, surrounded by a margin of rock, on all sides of a considerable height; on descending into this cavity, the ground is found to be uneven and generally rocky, and it is filled with
[p. 1.694]shrubs, both evergreen and cultivated; in some parts the saffron is cultivated: there is also a cave here which contains a large source, which pours forth a river of pure, pellucid water, but it immediately sinks into the earth, and flowing underground enters the sea: they call it the Bitter Water. Mela has a long description of the same place apparently from the description of the same place, apparently from the same authority that Strabo followed, but more embellished.
This place is probably on the top of the mountain above Corycus, but it does not appear to have been examined by any modern traveller. If Mela saw the place himself, he has more imagination than most geographers.
This place is famed in mythical story.
It is the Cilician cave of Pindar (
Pind. P. 1.31), and of Aeschylus (
Prom. Vinct. 350), and the bed of the giant Typhon or Typhoeus. (Mela, 1.13.)
 |
| COIN OF CORYCUS IN CILTCTA. |
3.
In Lydia (
Thuc. 8.14,
33,
34;
Liv. 36.44,) a lofty mountain (Strab. p. 644) in the peninsula on which Erythrae is situated. Casystes, a port, was at the base of Corycus, which is now
Koraka or
Kurko. This bold headland, called the Coryceon Promontorium (
Plin. Nat. 5.29), looks towards Samos, and forms the western point of the bay on which Teos is situated.
This appears to be the place which Thucydides calls Corycus, in the territory of Erythrae; and this supposition agrees with the movements of the fleet described in 8.34.
It is also clearly indicated in Livy's account of the movements of the Romans and Eumenes, though Livy calls it a promontory of the Teii.
This rugged coast was once inhabited by a piratical people, called Corycaei, who carried on their trade in a systematic manner, by keeping spies in the various ports, to find out what the traders had in their ships, and where they were bound to, and so attacked them on the sea and robbed them. Hence came the proverb which Strabo mentions (p. 644; comp.
Steph. B. sub voce s. v.
Κώρυκος, who quotes the
Asia of Hecataeus, and cites the passage of Strabo). [
CASYSTES]
4.
In Pamphylia near Attaleia. [
ATTALEIA p. 321a.] [
G.L]
