CO´RYCUS
CO´RYCUS (
Κώρυκος,
Ptol. 3.17.2:
Grabúsa), the NW. promontory of Crete. In Strabo the name appears as Cimarus (
Κίμαρος, x. p. 474). Elsewhere Strabo (
xvii. p.838) states that Corycus was the point whence the distances to the several ports of Peloponnesus were measured: as
Grabúsa ends in two projecting points, it is probable that the W. point was called Cimaros, the E. Corycus. We learn from Pliny (
4.20) that the islands which lie off this promontory were called Corycae, and that part of the mass of rock which forms this point went by the name of Mount Coryous. Ptolemy (
l.c.) mentions a city of this name, and there is a passage in which Juvenal (14.267) mentions a Corycian vessel which evidently belonged to this Cretan town. When the Florentine traveller Buondelmonte visited the island in A.D. 1415, he found remains existing. (Cornelius,
Creta Sacra, vol. i. p. 87; Pashley,
Trav. vol. ii. p. 74; Hoeck,
Kreta, vol. i. p. 377.)
[
E.B.J]
