Terme River
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The Terme River (Template:Langx; Template:Langx;<ref name = SchmitzSmith1857_Thermodon/> Template:Langx,<ref name = SchmitzSmith1857_Thermodon/> rendered Thermodon<ref name = SchmitzSmith1857_Thermodon/>) is a short river in Samsun Province, Turkey draining into the Black Sea. Its sources are in the Pontic Mountains.<ref>Tønnes Bekker-Nielsen, "Navigable Rivers in Northern Anatolia", to be published in Anca Dan, Stéphane Lebreton (eds.), Rivers of Asia minor (Geographica Historica) full text</ref><ref>Gustav Hirschfeld, "Notes of travel in Paphlagonia and Galatia" The Journal of Hellenic Studies 4: 275-280 (1883).</ref> It runs through the fertile Çarşamba plain to Salıpazarı, where it splits into three tributaries. The city of Terme is on the river, about 5 km from its mouth.
The ancient name of the river is the Thermodon, and the surrounding region was the Pontus.<ref name = SchmitzSmith1857_Themiscyra>Template:Cite book</ref> In antiquity, its mouth was about "three plethra" wide (ca. 300 feet<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} Original creation date, 3 July 1999.</ref>), and it was navigable.<ref name = SchmitzSmith1857_Thermodon>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Xenophon, Anab. 5.6.9, 6.2.1.Template:Full citation needed</ref> The river, said by Strabo to have "its many sources near Phanaroea... [in] many streams" (which is not true; perhaps he was thinking of the Iris), was "very often noticed by ancient writers", and its mouth was near the town of Themiscyra.<ref name = SchmitzSmith1857_Thermodon/> Starting with Dionysius Periegetes, in his Periegesis of the World, the Thermodon is often confused with the Iris River (modern Yeşilırmak), which is much larger, flows through Phanaroea, and carries much more sediment.<ref>Tønnes Bekker-Nielsen, Marit Jensen, "Two Pontic Rivers", Cedrus: The Journal of MCRI 3:231-2142 (2015), {{#invoke:CS1 identifiers|main|_template=doi}}</ref>
In Greek mythology, the Thermodon was the location of the plain and capital, Themiscyra, where the Amazons dwelt.<ref name = SchmitzSmith1857_Themiscyra/><ref name = SchmitzSmith1857_Thermodon/>
References
Further reading
- Cited by Schmitz in the Thermodon article, op. cit.:
- Aeschyl. Prom. 274, Suppl. 290.Template:Full citation needed
- Herodotus, 9.27.Template:Full citation needed
- Herodotus, 4.86.Template:Full citation needed
- Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax, p. 33.Template:Full citation needed
- Strabo i. p.52, vii. p. 298.Template:Full citation needed
- Periplus of the Euxine Sea p. 10.Template:Full citation needed
- Ptolemy 5.6.4.Template:Full citation needed
- Pomp. Mela, 1.19.Template:Full citation needed
- Plin. Nat. H. 11.19, 37.37.Template:Full citation needed
- Virgil Aeneid, 11.659.Template:Full citation needed
- Ovid, ex Pont. 4.19 51.Template:Full citation needed