CHEREU
CHEREU (
ἡ Χερέου, or
Χαιρέου, Schol.
in Nicand. Theriac. p. 623; It. Anton. p. 154-5; Greg. Nazianz.
Or. 21. p. 391, Bened. ed.; Athanas. Vit. S. Anton. p. 860), supposed to be the modern village of
Keriûn in the Delta of Egypt.
According to the rather conflicting statements in the Itineraries, Chereu was about mid-way between Alexandreia and Hermopolis, being about 20 or 24 miles from either.
The name, however, is comparatively of recent date, and seems to be a purely Coptic appellation, answering to the Hellenic
Σχεκία, or Packetboat. Chereu, according to the above-cited scholiast on Nicander, was near to Schedia (comp.
Strab. xvii. p.800), and seems in Roman times to have superseded it,--such mutations in places of anchorage being common in rivers which, like the Nile, bringing down great volumes of alluvial soil periodically, change the approach to their banks. At Schedia or Chereu, was stationed a general ferry-boat, of which the toll formed part of the revenues of the Hermopolite nome.
[
W.B.D]
