EDO´NES
Eth.
EDO´NES (Eth.
Ἤδωνες,
Strab. x. p.470, xv. p. 687) or EDO´NI (Eth.
Ἤδωνοι, Steph. B. sub voce Plin. Nat. 4.11 Eth.
Ἠδωνοί,), a Thracian people, whose, name was often used by the Greek and Latin poets to express the whole of the nation of which they formed a part.. (
Aesch. Pers. 493;
Soph. Ant. 955;
Eur. Hec. 1153;
Ov. Met. 11.69,
Trist. 4.1. 42; Propert 1.3.5;
Hor. Carm. 2.7.27.)
It appears from Thucydides (
2.99) that this Thracian clan once held possession of the right bank of the Strymon, as far as Mygdonia, but were driven from this by the Temenid princes of Macedonia.
Afterwards they, are found occupying, on the left bank of the Strymon, the district called
EDONIS (
Ἠδωνίς, Ptol. 3.13.31), which extended from Lake Cercinitis as far E. as the river Nestus, between the spurs of Mt. Orbelus, and the Pieres to the S. (Comp. Herod. v, 11, 7.110,. 114;
Thuc. 4.102,
109.) Edonis was included in the first region of Macedonia, after the Roman conquest, B.C. 167. (
Liv. 45.29.)
The following are the principal towns of this important district:
AMPHIPOLIS with its harbour EÏON; MYRCINUS; PHAGRES; OESYMA; GASORUS; DOMERUS; PHILIPPI; DRABESCUS; NEAPOLIS; ACONTISMA; TRAGILUS; PERGAMUS.
A large coin of Geta, king of the Edoni, has been published by Mr. Millingen, the characters on which agree with the time when the Edoni possessed Drabescus and the Nine Ways, and had therefore the power of working some of the mines.
It has been supposed that the coins of the Orescii, with the type, a satyr. carrying off a nymph, belong to Edonis or its vicinity. The Satyrs were the Satrae, and refer to the worship of Dionysus in the mountains Pangaeum and Orbelus. (
Hdt. 7.11.) Apollodorus (
3.5) has handed down some traditions showing the connection between the kings of the Edoni, and the legends about Dionysus and the Satyrs. (Leake,
Northern: Greece, vol. iii. p. 213.)
[
E.B.J]
