OGYRIS
OGYRIS (
Ὦγυρις,
Strab. xvi. p.766), an island, off the southern coast of Carmania about 2000 stadia, which was traditionally said to contain the tomb of king Erythras, from which the whole sea was supposed to have deriVed its name.
It was marked by a huge mound planted with wild palms. Strabo
[p. 2.471]states that he obtained this story from Nearchus and Orthagoras (or Pythagoras), who learnt it from Mithropastes, the son of a Phrygian satrap, to whom he had given a passage in his fleet to Persia.
The same name is given to the island in many other geographers (as in Mel. 3.8.6; Dionys. Per. 607;
Plin. Nat. 6.28. s. 32; Priscian,
Perieg. 605; Fest. Avien. 794;
Steph. B. sub voce Suidas, s. v.).
The other editions of Strabo read
Τυρρήνη and
Τυρρίνη,--possibly a corruption of
Ὠγυρίνη or
Γυρίνη--the form which Vossius (
in Melam, l.c.) has adopted.
The account, however, preserved in Arrian's Voyage of Nearchus (
Indic. 37), differs much from the above.
According to him, the fleet sailing westward passed a desert and rocky island called Organa; and, 300 stadia beyond it, came to anchor beside another island called Ooracta; that there the tomb of Erythras was said to exist, and the fleet obtained the aid of Mazene, the chief of the island, who volunteered to accompany it, and pilot it to Susa.
It seems generally admitted, that the Organa of Arrian and Ptolemy (
6.7.46, who, placing it along the Arabian coast, has evidently adopted the distances of Strabo) is the modern
Hormuz, which bears also the name of
Gerun, or
Jerun. Vincent, however, thinks that it is the modern
Arek, or
L'Arek. (
Voy. Nearchus, i. p. 348.)
The distance in Strabo is, perhaps, confounded with the distance the fleet had sailed along the coast of Carmania. Again Nearchus places the tomb of Erythras, not in Organs, but in Ooracta; and Agatharchides mentions that the land this king reigned over was very fertile, which applies to the latter, and not to the former. (Agatharch. p. 2, ed. Hudson.)
The same is true of what Pliny states of its size (
l.c.). Curtius, without mentioning its name, evidently alludes to Ogyris (
Ormuz), which he places close to the continent (10.2), while the Geographer of Ravenna has preserved a remembrance of all the places under the head of “Colfo Persico,” in which he places “Ogiris, Oraclia, Durcadena, Rachos, Orgina.” Ooracta is called in Strabo (
l.c.)
Δώρακτα; in Pliny, Oracla (6.28. s. 98).; in Ptolemy,
Οὐορόχθα (6.8.15).
The ancient name is said to be preserved in the modern
Vroct, or
Broct. It also derives the name of
Kishmi from the quantity of grapes now found on it. Edrisi calls
Jezireh-tuileh, the long island (i. p. 364 ; cf. also Wellsted's
Travels, vol. i. p. 62).
The whole of this complicated piece of geography has been fully examined by Vincent,
Voy. of Nearchus, vol. i. p. 348, &c.; Bitter, vol. xii. p. 435.
[
V]
