Abydos, Hellespont

Abydos, Hellespont

Abydos (Greek: Άβυδος), an ancient city of Mysia, in Asia Minor, situated at Nara Burnu or Nagara Point on the best harbor on the Asiatic shore of the Hellespont. Across Abydos lies Sestus on the European side marking the shortest point in the Dardanelles, scarcely a mile broad. The strategic site has been a prohibited zone in the twentieth century.

Abydos was first mentioned in the catalogue of Trojan allies ("Iliad" ii.836). It probably was a Thracian town, as Strabo has it, but was afterwards colonized by Milesians, with the consent of Gyges, king of Lydia, around 700 BC. It was occupied by the Persians in 514 BC, and Darius burnt it in 512. Here Xerxes built two bridges of boats and crossed the strait in 480 BC when he invaded Greece. [Herodotus. "Histories", 7.34.]

Abydos thereafter became a member of the Delian League, until it revolted from Athenian rule in 411 BC. [Thucydides. "History of the Peloponnesian War", [http://classicpersuasion.org/pw/thucydides/jthucbk8rv2.htm 8.61-2] .] It allied itself to Sparta, until 394 BC; King Agesilaus of Sparta crossed here while returning to Greece. Abydos then passed under Achaemenid rule, until 334 BC. Alexander the Great threw a spear to Abydos while crossing the straight and claimed Asia as his own.

Abydos is celebrated for the vigorous resistance it made against Philip V of Macedon in 200 BC, [Polybius. "The Histories", [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Polybius/16*.html 16.29-34] ] and is famed in myth as the home of Leander. It minted coins from the early fifth century BC to the mid-third century AD.

The town remained until late Byzantine times an important toll and customs station of the Hellespont, its importance thereafter being transferred to the Dardanelles, after the building of the "Old Castles" by Sultan Mehmet II (c. 1456).

References

Footnotes

Additional sources

*1911
* [http://icarus.umkc.edu/sandbox/perseus/pecs/page.14.a.php Richard Stillwell, ed. "Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites", 1976:] "Abydos, (Naara Point) Turkey"


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  • Abydos — may mean:*Abydos, Egypt, one of the most ancient cities of Upper Egypt. According to Egyptian Mythology The holy city of Osiris, who was buried there himself, as were many other pharaohs *Abydos, Hellespont (also Ábydos ), an ancient city of… …   Wikipedia

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  • Hellespont — (Turkish Polytonic| Çanakkale Boğazı , Greek Polytonic| Ἑλλήσποντος; i.e. Sea of Helle , variously named in classical literature Hellespontium Pelagus , Rectum Hellesponticum , and Fretum Hellesponticum ) was the ancient name of a narrow strait,… …   Wikipedia

  • Abydos — Abydos,   1) ägyptisch Abodu, alte oberägyptische Stadt am westlichen Nilufer mit Königsgräbern seit der 1. Dynastie (2850 v. Chr.). Eines der Gräber kam in den Ruf, die Leiche des Osiris zu enthalten, sodass Abydos zum Mittelpunkt des… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Abydos — (a. Geogr.), 1) Handelsstadt in Troas (Kleinasien), an der Mündung des Hellespont, Sestos gegenüber, mit Hafen u. Tempeln der Artemis u. Aphrodite. Diese in der Sagengeschichte als Wohnort des Leander (s.d.) berühmten wegen der, Üppigkeit ihrer… …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Abȳdos — Abȳdos, 1) im Altertum Hafenstadt der Troas in Kleinasien, am Hellespont, Sestos gegenüber, um 700 v. Chr. von Milesiern gegründet und berühmt durch die Sage von Hero und Leander sowie durch die Brücke, die Xerxes 480 in ihrer Nähe über den… …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Hellespont — (Hellespontos, »Meer der Helle«, s. Phrixos), antiker Name der Dardanellenstraße (s. Dardanellen), deren engste, nur 7 Stadien breite Stelle (zwischen Sestos und Abydos) von Xerxes überbrückt wurde. Dieselbe Stelle war im Altertum berühmt durch… …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Abydos — Abȳdos. 1) Im Altertum Stadt in Kleinasien, an der engsten Stelle des Hellespont, Sestos gegenüber, bekannt durch Xerxes Heerschau und Brückenbau (480 v. Chr.), in der Sage durch Hero und Leander. – 2) Alte oberägypt. Stadt, l. am Nil, mit… …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

  • Abydos — [ə bī′däs΄] 1. ancient city in Asia Minor, on the Hellespont 2. ancient city in central Egypt, near the Nile, north of Thebes …   English World dictionary

  • Abydos — /euh buy deuhs/, n. 1. an ancient ruined city in central Egypt, near Thebes: temples and necropolis. 2. an ancient town in NW Asia Minor, at the narrowest part of the Hellespont. * * * I Ancient Anatolian town northeast of modern Çanakkale,… …   Universalium

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