PY´RAMUS
PY´RAMUS (
Πύραμος,), one of the great rivers of Asia Minor, which has its sources in Cataonia near the town of Arabissus. (
Strab. i. p.53, xiv. p. 675.) For a time it passes under ground, but then comes forward again as a navigable river, and forces its way through a glen of Mount Taurus, which in some parts is so narrow that a god can leap across it. (
Strab. xii. p.536.) Its course, which until then had been south, now turns to the south-west, and reaches the sea st Mallus in Cilicia.
This river is deep and rapid (Tzetz.
ad Lycoph. 440); its average breadth was 1 stadium (Xenoph.
Anab. 1.4.1), but it carried with it such a quantity of mud, that, according to an ancient oracle, its deposits were one day to reach the island of Cyprus, and thus unite it with the mainland. (Strab.
l.c.; Eustath.
ad Dionys, 867.) Stephanus B. (s. v.) states that formerly this river had been called Leucosyrus. (Comp.
Scylax, p. 40;
Ptol. 5.8.4;
Plin. Nat. 5.22; Pomp. Mela, 1.13; Curtius,
3.7; Arrian,
Arr. Anab. 2.5.8.) Its modern name is
Seihun or
Jechun. [
L.S]
