Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1180

 1156 TIIELPl'SA. situated upon the left or eastern bank of the river Ladon. Its territory was bounded on the north by that of Psophis, on the south by that of Haraea, on the west by the Eleia and Tisatis, and on the east by that of Cleitor, Tripolis, and Theisoa. The town is said to have derived its name from a nymph, the daughter of the river Ladon, which nymph was pro- bably the stream flowing through the lower part of the town into the Ladon. It is first mentioned in history in B.C. 352, when the Lacedaemonians were defeated in its neighbourhood by the Spartans. (Diod. xvi. 39.) In B.C. 222 it was taken by An- tigonus Doson, in the war against Cleomenes, and it is also mentioned in the campaigns of Philip. (Po- ]yb. ii. 54, iv. 60, 73, 77; Steph. B. s. v. Ti(povaa; Plin. Iv. 6. s. 20.) Its coins show that it belonged to the Achaean League. (Leake, Peloponnesiaca, p. 20G.) Wlien Pausanias visited Thelpusa, the city was nearly deserted, so that tiie agora, which was formerly in the centre of the city, then stood at its extremity. He saw a temple of Asclepius, and an- other of the twelve gods, of which the latter was nearly levelled with the ground. (Pans. viii. 25 § 3.) Pausanias also mentions two temples of some celebrity in the neighbourhood of Thelpusa, one above and the other below the city. The one above was the temple of Demeter Eleusinia, containing statues of Demeter, Persephone and Dionysus, made of stone, and which probably stood at the castle op- prteite to SjMthari (viii. 25. §§ 2, 3). The temple below the city was also sacred to Demeter, whom the Thelpusians called Erinnys. This temple is alluded to by Lycophron (1038) and Callimachus (/^r. 107). It was situated at a place called Onceium, where Oncus. the son of Apollo, is said once to have reigned (viii. 25. § 4, seq. ; Steph. B. s. v. 'Oyicetov). Below this temple stood the temple of Apollo Oncaeates, on the left bank of the Ladon, and on the right bank that of the boy Asclepius, with the sepulchre of Trygon, .said to have been the nurse of Asclepius (viii. 25. § 11). The ruins of Thelpu.sa stand upon the slope of a considerable hill near the village of Vmiena (Bdueva). There are only few traces of the walls of the city. At the ruined church of St. John, near the rivulet, are some Hellenic foundations and frag- ments of columns. The saint is probably the suc- cessor of Asclepius, whcse temple, as we learn from Pausanias, stood longest in the city. There are likewise the remains of a Roman building, about 12 yards long and 6 wide, with the ruins of an arched roof. There are also near the Ladon some Hellenic foundations, and the lower parts of six co- lumns. Below Vdne7ia there stands upon the right bank of the Ladon the ruined church of St. Athana- sius the Miraculous, where Leake found the remains of several columns. Half a mile below this church is the village of Tumbiki, where a promontoiy pro- jects into the river, upon which there is a mound apparently artificial. This mound is probably the tomb of Trygon, and Tumbiki is the site of the the temple of Asclepius. Pausanias, in describing the route from Psopiiis COIN OF TIIELPl'.S.. THEMISCYRA. to Thelpusa, after mentioning the boundaries between the territories of the two states [Psopiiis], first crosses the river Arsen, and then, at the distance of 25 stadia, arrives at the ruins of a village Cans and a temple of A.sclepius Causius, erected upon the roadside. From this place the distance to Thelpusa was 40 stadia. (Leake, Morea, vol. ii. pp. 97, seq., 250, seq., Peloponnesiaca, pp. 205, 222, 228 j Boblaye, Recherches, ijc. p. 152; Ross, Reisen ini Pelopvnnes. p. Ill; Curtius, Pelojwnnesos, vol. i. p. 370, seq.) THELUTHA, a fortress situated on an island in the Euphrates. It is mentioned by Anmiianus (xsiv. 2), who states that it was used as a treasury by the Persians. It is unquestionably the same as the Thilabus of Isidorus {Stathm. Parth. 1), who gives a similar description of it, and places it at no great distance from another island in the same river, Anatho. Zosimus, speaking of the same region, notices a fortified island, which he calls (ppovpwv oxvpt^rarov (iii. 15); probably the same place. It is doubtless represented now by an island which Colonel Chesney calls Telbes, Tilhtis, or Anatelhes (i. p. 53 and Map.). [V.] THEMEOTAE (©f^ewrai, Ptol. v. 9. § 17), a people of Asiatic Sarmatia. [T. H. D.] THEMMA. [Tem.a]. THEM ISC Y'RA (Ge^uiV/fi/pa), a plain in the north of Pontus, about the mouths of the rivers Iris and Thermodon, was a rich and beautiful district, ever verdant, and supplying food for numberless herds of oxen and horses. It also produced great abun- dance of grain, especially pannick and millet ; and the southern parts near the mountains furnished a variety of fruits, such as grapes, apples, pears, and nuts in such quantities that they were suffered to waste on the trees. (Strab. ii. p. 126, xii. p. 547, foil.; Aeschyl. Prom. 722; comp. Apollod. ii. 5; Apollon. Rhod. ii. 370 ; Plin. vi. 3, xxiv. 102.) Mythology describes this plain as the native country of the Amazons. A Greek town of the name of Themiscyra, at a little distance from the coast and near the mouth of the Thermodon, is mentioned as early as the time of Herodotus (iv. 86; comp. Scylax, p. 33; Pans. i. 2. § 1). Ptolemy (v. 6. § 3) is undoubtedly mistaken in placing it further west, midway between the Iris and Cape Heraclium. Scylax calls it a Greek town ; but Diodorus (ii. 44) states that it was built by the founder of the kingdom of the Amazons. After the retreat of Mithridates from Cyzicus, Themiscyra was besieged by Lueullus. The inhabitants on that occasion defended themselves with great valour; and when their walls were undermined, they sent bears and other wild beasts, and even swarms of bees, against the workmen of Lueullus (Appian, Mithrid. 78). But notwithstanding their gallant defence, the town seems to have perished on that occasion, f:ir Mela speaks of it as no longer existing (i. 19), and Strabo does not mention it at all. (Comp. Anon. Peripl. P. E. p. 1 1 ; Steph. B. s. v. XaStvia.) Some suppose that the town of Thermeh, at the mouth of the Thermodon, marks the siteof ancient Themiscyra; but Hamilton (^Researches, i. p. 283) justly observes that it must have been situated a little further in- land. Ruins of the place do not appear to exist, for those which Texier regards as indicating the site of Themiscyra, at a distance of two days' journey from the Halys, on the borders of Galatia, cannot possibly have belonged to it, but are in all probability the remains of Tavium. [L. S.]