Astacus
- the father of Menalippus, who is hence called Astacides, Ov. Ib. 513; Stat. Th. 8, 725.
- a town in Bithynia, Mel. 1, 19, 4: Astacum, unde et ex eo Astacenus sinus, Plin. 5, 32, 43, § 148.
(Ἄστακος).
1. A son of Poseidon and the nymph Olbia, from whom the town of Astacus in Bithynia, which was afterwards called Nicomedeia, derived its name. (Arrian. apud Steph. Byz. s. v.; Paus. 5.12.5; Strab. xii. p.563.)
2. The father of Ismarus, Leades, Asphodicus, and Melanippus, whence Ovid calls the last of these heroes Astacides. (Apollod. 3.6.8 ; Ovid Ibis. 515.) [L.S]
A´STACUS (Ἄστακος: Eth. Ἀνστακηνίς, Ἀστάκιος), a town on the W. coast of Acarnania, on the bay now called Dragamesti, one side of which is formed by the promontory anciently named Crithote. The ruins of Astacus are probably those described by Leake as below a monastery of St. Elias, and which he supposes to be those of Crithote. There was, however, no town Crithote, but only a promontory of this name; and Leake has misunderstood the passage of Strabo (p. 459), in which Crithote is mentioned.
The word πολίχνη in this passage refers to the place of this name in the Thracian Chersonesus, which Strabo mentions cursorily, on account of its bearing the same name as the promontory in Acarnania. (Hoffmann, Gricchenland, p. 450.)
Astacus is said to have been a colony of Cephallenia. At the commencement of the Peloponnesian war, it was governed by a tyrant, named Evarchus, who was deposed by the Athenians (B.C. 431), but was shortly afterwards restored by the Corinthians. It is mentioned as one of the towns of Acarnania in a Greek inscription, the date of which is subsequent to B.C. 219. (Strab. l. c.; Steph. Byz. s. v.;Thuc. 2.30, 33, 102; Scylax, p. 13; Ptol. 3.14; Böckh, Corpus Inscript., No. 1793; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. 4. p. 4, seq.)A´STACUS (Ἀστακός: Eth. Ἀστακήνος, Ἀστάκιος), a city of Bithynia, on the gulf of Astacus, and a colony from Megara and Athens. (Strab. p. 563.) Memnon (Phot. Bibl. 224) says that the first colonists came from Megara, in the beginning of the seventeenth Olympiad, and those from Athens came afterwards. Mela (1.19) calls it a colony of Megara. It appears that this city was also called Olbia; for Scylax (p. 35), who mentions the gulf of Olbia and Olbia, does not mention Astacus; and Strabo, who names Astacus, does not mention Olbia. The mythical story of Astacus being founded by Astacus, a son of Poseidon and the nymph Olbia, favours the supposition of the identity of Astacus and Olbia. (Steph. s. v. Ἀστακός.) Astacus was seized by Doedalsus, the first king of Bithynia. In the war between Zipoetes, one of his successors, and Lysimachus, the place was destroyed or damaged. Nicomedes II., the son of Zipoetes, transferred the inhabitants to his city of Nicomedia (Ismid), B.C. 264. Astacus appears to have been near the head of the gulf of Astacus, and it is placed by some geographers at a spot called Ovaschik, and also Bashkele.
Nicomedia was not built on the site of Astacus [NICOMEDIA]; it is described by Memnon as opposite to Astacus.
[G.L](Ἄστακος). A celebrated city of Bithynia, on the Sinus Astacenus, a bay of the Propontis, was a colony from Megara, but afterwards received fresh colonists from Athens, who called the place Olbia. It was destroyed by Lysimachus, but was rebuilt on a neighbouring site by Nicomedes I., who named his new city Nicomedia.
- Hdt. 5.67
- the sons of, Ismarus, Leades, Amphidocus, and Melanippus, do doughty deeds: Apollod. 3.6.8
- Paus. 5.12.7