Terme

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Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)
Map of Anatolia ancient regions
Map of Turkey

Terme is the seat of Terme District, Samsun Province, Turkey.

Variants

Jat Gotras Namesake

Location

Terme is located on Terme River, about 5 km from its mouth, on the eastern end of the Çarşamba Plain.

History

Terme or its environs are the site of the ancient city of Themiscyra, Θεμίσκυρα.[1]

Terme District is the site of an annual festival celebrating the Amazons, an ancient nation of all-female warriors who, according to Greek myth, were believed to have lived in the Samsun region.[2]

Terme River

The Terme River (Turkish: Terme Çayı; Latin: Thermeh;[3] Greek: Θερμώδων,[4]rendered Thermodon[5]) is a short river in Samsun Province, Turkey draining into the Black Sea. Its sources are in the Pontic Mountains.[6][7] 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.[8] In antiquity, its mouth was about "three plethra" wide (ca. 300 feet[9]), and it was navigable.[10] 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.[11] 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.[12]

In Greek mythology, the Thermodon was the location of the plain and capital, Themiscyra, where the Amazons dwelt.[13][14]

Mention by Pliny

Pliny[15] mentions The region of Themiscyra, and the nations therein....Upon the coast there is the, Thermodon, which rises at the fortified place called Phanarœa4 and flows past the foot of Mount Amazonius.5 There was formerly a town of the same name as the river, and five others in all, Amazonium, Themiseyra, Sotira, Amasia, and Comana6, now only a Manteium. (4.)

4 Now called the Thermea.

5 Still called Mason-Dagh.

6 He alludes to Comana, in Pontus, the site of which is now called Gumenek, near to which, on the Tocat-su, the modern name of the Iris, Hamilton found some remains of a Roman town, and part of a bridge apparently of Roman construction. The language of Pliny seems to imply that it had become in his day nothing beyond a manteium or seat of an oracle.

References

  1. ↑ Richard Talbert, Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World, (ISBN 0-691-03169-X), Map 87 & notes.
  2. ↑ "Village of Amazons to be recreated in Samsun park - Today's Zaman, your gateway to Turkish daily news".
  3. ↑ Schmitz, Leonhard (1857). "Thermodon". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Vol. II, Iabadius–Zymethus. London: Walton and Maberly, and John Murray. p. 1161, principally.
  4. ↑ Schmitz, Leonhard (1857). "Thermodon". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Vol. II, Iabadius–Zymethus. London: Walton and Maberly, and John Murray. p. 1161, principally.
  5. ↑ Schmitz, Leonhard (1857). "Thermodon". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Vol. II, Iabadius–Zymethus. London: Walton and Maberly, and John Murray. p. 1161, principally.
  6. ↑ Tønnes Bekker-Nielsen, "Navigable Rivers in Northern Anatolia", to be published in Anca Dan, Stéphane Lebreton (eds.), Rivers of Asia minor (Geographica Historica)
  7. ↑ Gustav Hirschfeld, "Notes of travel in Paphlagonia and Galatia" The Journal of Hellenic Studies 4: 275-280 (1883).
  8. ↑ Schmitz, Leonhard (1857). "Themiscyra". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Vol. II, Iabadius–Zymethus. London: Walton and Maberly, and John Murray. p. 1156, principally; see also pp. 64, 70, 119, 223, 546, 659, 946, and 1161.
  9. ↑ Calvert, J.B. (13 May 2010). "Old Units of Length". MySite.DU.edu. University of Denver. Retrieved 3 March 2020. Original creation date, 3 July 1999.
  10. ↑ Xenophon, Anab. 5.6.9, 6.2.1.
  11. ↑ Schmitz, Leonhard (1857). "Thermodon". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Vol. II, Iabadius–Zymethus. London: Walton and Maberly, and John Murray. p. 1161, principally.
  12. ↑ Tønnes Bekker-Nielsen, Marit Jensen, "Two Pontic Rivers", Cedrus: The Journal of MCRI 3:231-2142 (2015), doi:10.13113/CEDRUS.2015011411
  13. ↑ Schmitz, Leonhard (1857). "Themiscyra". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Vol. II, Iabadius–Zymethus. London: Walton and Maberly, and John Murray. p. 1156, principally; see also pp. 64, 70, 119, 223, 546, 659, 946, and 1161.
  14. ↑ Schmitz, Leonhard (1857). "Thermodon". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Vol. II, Iabadius–Zymethus. London: Walton and Maberly, and John Murray. p. 1161, principally.
  15. ↑ Natural History by Pliny Book VI/Chapter 4

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