CE´NCHREAE
CE´NCHREAE (
Κεγχρεαί: Eth.
Κεγχρεάτης).
1.
A city of the Troad, “in which Homer lived while he was inquiring of the things that concerned the Trees,” as Stephanus (s. v.
Κεγχρεαί) says. Another tradition, of no more value, makes it the birthplace of Homer. (Suidas, s. v.
Ὅμηρος.) The site of Cenchreae is supposed to be a place called
Tshigri, where there are remains, near the left bank of the
[p. 1.584]Mendere (the Scamander), lower down than the supposed ruins of Cebrene [CEBRFENIA], and near those of Neandria. [
G.L]
2.
κεγχρειαί A town in the Argeia, south of Argos, and on the road from the latter city to Tegea. Pausanias says that it was to the right of the Trochus (
τρόχος), which must not be regarded as a place, but as the name of the carriage road leading to Lerna. Near Cenchreae Pausanias saw the sepulchral monuments of the Argives, who conquered the Lacedaemonians at Hysiae.
The remains of an ancient place, at the distance of about a mile after crossing the Erasinus (
Kephalári), are probably those of Cenchreae; and the pyramid which lies on a hill a little to the right may be regarded as one of the sepulchral monuments mentioned by Pausanias. [For description of this pyramid, see p. 202.] It is supposed by some writers that the Hellenic ruins further on in the mountains, in a spot abounding in springs, called
τα Νερὰ or
Skcaphidaki, are those of Cenchreae; and the proximity of these ruins to those of Hysiae is in favour of this view; but on the other hand, the remains of the pyramid appear to fix the position of Cenchreae at the spot already mentioned near the Erasinus.
The words of Aeschylus (
Prom. 676)--
εὔποτον Κερχνείας [al.
Κεγχρείας] ῥέος Λέρνης ἄκρην τε--would seem to place Cenchreae near Lerna, and the stream of which he speaks is perhaps the Erasinus. (
Paus. 2.24.7;
Strab. viii. p.376; Leake,
Morea, vol. ii. p. 343; Boblaye,
Recherches, &c. p. 46; Ross,
Reisen im Peloponnes, p. 141, seq.)
3.
The eastern port of Corinth. [
CORINTHUS]
