LARISSA
LARISSA (
Λάρισσα).
1.
A town in the territory of Ephesus, on the north bank of the Caystrus, which there flows through a most fertile district, producing an excellent kind of wine.
It was situated at a distance of 180 stadia from Ephesus, and 30 from Tralles. (
Strab. ix. p.440, xiii. p. 620.) In Strabo's time it had sunk to the rank of a village, but it was said once to have been a
Πόλις, with a temple of Apollo. Cramer (
As. Min. i. p. 558) conjectures that its site may correspond to the modern
Tirieh.
2.
A place on the coast of Troas, about 70 stadia south of Alexandria Troas, and north of Hamaxitus.
It was supposed that this Larissa was the one mentioned by Homer (
Hom. Il. 2.841), but Strabo (
xiii. p.620) controverts this opinion, because it is not far enough from Troy. (Comp.
Steph. B. sub voce The town is mentioned as still existing by Thu cydides (8.101) and Xenophon (
Hellen. iii 1.13; comp.
Scylax, p. 36;
Strab. ix. p.440, xiii. p. 604). Athenaeus (ii. p. 43) mentions some hot springs near Larissa in Troas, which are still known to exist a little above the site of Alexandria Troas. (
Voyage Pittoresque, vol. ii. p. 438.)
3.
Larissa, surnamed
PHRICONIS a Pelasgiar town in Aeolis, but subsequently taken possession of by the Aeolians, who constituted it one of the towns of their confederacy.
It was situated near the coast, about 70 stadia to the south-east of Cyme (
ἡ περὶ τὴν Κύμην, Strab. xiii. p.621;
Hdt. 1.149). Strabo, apparently for good reasons, considers this to be the Larissa mentioned in the Iliad (
2.840). Xenophon (
Xen. Hell. 3.1.7, comp.
Cyrop. 7.1.45) distinguishes this town from others of the same name by the epithet of “the Egyptian,” because the elder Cyrus had established there a colony of Egyptian soldiers. From the same historian we must infer that Larissa was a place of considerable strength, as it was besieged in vain by Thimbrom; but in Strabo's time the place was deserted. (Comp.
Plin. Nat. 5.32;
Vell. 1.4; Vit. Hom. 100.11;
Steph. B. sub voce Ptol. 5.2.5.) [
L.S]
