Mount Ida ( tr, Kazdağı, links=no, pronounced , meaning "Goose Mountain", ''Kaz Dağları,'' or ''Karataş Tepesi'') is a mountain in northwestern

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

, some southeast of the ruins of

Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Ç ...

, along the north coast of the

Edremit Gulf The Edremit gulf tr, Edremit körfezi el, Αδραμυττηνός κόλπος, Adramyttinós kólpos is an Aegean gulf in Turkey's Balıkesir Province. It is named after Edremit, an ilçe (district) of Balıkesir Province which is situated cl ...

. The name

Mount Ida In Greek mythology, two sacred mountains are called Mount Ida, the "Mountain of the Goddess": Mount Ida (Crete), Mount Ida in Crete, and Mount Ida (Turkey), Mount Ida in the ancient Troad region of western Anatolia (in modern-day Turkey), which wa ...

is the ancient one. It is between

Balıkesir Province Balıkesir Province ( tr, ) is a province in northwestern Turkey with coastlines on both the Sea of Marmara and the Aegean. Its adjacent provinces are Çanakkale to the west, İzmir to the southwest, Manisa to the south, Kütahya to the sou ...

and Çanakkale Province.

Geography

Mount Ida is a lightly populated upland

massif In geology, a massif ( or ) is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. The term also refers to a ...

of about 700 km² located to the north of Edremit. A number of small villages in the region are connected by paths. Drainage is mainly to the south, into the , also known as Edremit Bay, where the coast is rugged and is known as "the Olive Riviera." However, the Karamenderes River (the ancient

Scamander Scamander (; also Skamandros ( grc, Σκάμανδρος) or Xanthos () was a river god in Greek mythology. Etymology The meaning of this name is uncertain. The second element looks like it is derived from Greek () meaning 'of a man', but t ...

) flows from the other side of Mount Ida to the west. Its valley under Kaz Dağları has been called "the Vale of Troy" by English speakers. Currently a modest 2.4 km² of Mount Ida are protected by Kaz Dağı National Park, created in 1993. The summit is windswept and bare with a relatively low

tree line The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snow ...

due to exposure, but the slopes of this mountain, at the edge of mild Mediterranean and colder central Anatolian climate zones, hold a wealth of endemic flora, marooned here after the Ice Age. The climate at lower altitudes has become increasingly hot and dry in the deforested landscape. The dry period lasts from May to October. Rainfall averages between 631 and 733 mm per year. The mean annual temperature is 15.7 degrees Celsius, with diurnal temperatures as high as 43.7 degrees Celsius in Edremit. The forests on the upper slopes consist mainly of

Trojan fir ''Abies nordmanniana'', the Nordmann fir or Caucasian fir, is a fir indigenous to the mountains south and east of the Black Sea, in Turkey, Georgia and the Russian Caucasus. It occurs at altitudes of 900–2,200 m on mountains with precip ...

(''Abies nordmanniana'' subsp. ''equi-trojani''; considered by some botanists to be a distinct species ''Abies equi-trojani'').

Deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the re ...

wild boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species i ...

and

jackal Jackals are medium-sized canids native to Africa and Eurasia. While the word "jackal" has historically been used for many canines of the subtribe canina, in modern use it most commonly refers to three species: the closely related black-backed ...

are common at the area.

Wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...

lynx A lynx is a type of wild cat. Lynx may also refer to: Astronomy * Lynx (constellation) * Lynx (Chinese astronomy) * Lynx X-ray Observatory, a NASA-funded mission concept for a next-generation X-ray space observatory Places Canada * Lynx, ...

brown bear The brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is a large bear species found across Eurasia and North America. In North America, the populations of brown bears are called grizzly bears, while the subspecies that inhabits the Kodiak Islands of Alaska is k ...

s and big cats once roamed there, but now disappeared from the mountains due to overhunting.

Legend

Cultic significance

Cybele

In ancient times of the Greeks, the mountain was dedicated to the worship of Cybele. The Romans gave this goddess the

epithet An epithet (, ), also byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) known for accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, di ...

''Magna Mater'' ("Great Mother"), or ''Magna Mater deorum Idaea'' ("great Idaean mother of the gods").

Sibylline books

The oldest collection of Sibylline utterances, the

Sibylline Books The ''Sibylline Books'' ( la, Libri Sibyllini) were a collection of oracular utterances, set out in Greek hexameters, that, according to tradition, were purchased from a sibyl by the last king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus, and were consulted at ...

, appears to have been made about the time of

Cyrus Cyrus (Persian: کوروش) is a male given name. It is the given name of a number of Persian kings. Most notably it refers to Cyrus the Great ( BC). Cyrus is also the name of Cyrus I of Anshan ( BC), King of Persia and the grandfather of Cyrus ...

at Gergis on Mount Ida; it was attributed to the Hellespontine

Sibyl The sibyls (, singular ) were prophetesses or oracles in Ancient Greece. The sibyls prophesied at holy sites. A sibyl at Delphi has been dated to as early as the eleventh century BC by PausaniasPausanias 10.12.1 when he described local trad ...

and was preserved in the temple of Apollo at Gergis. From Gergis the collection passed to Erythrae, where it became famous as the oracles of the

Erythraean Sibyl The Erythraean Sibyl was the prophetess of classical antiquity presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Erythrae, a town in Ionia opposite Chios, which was built by Neleus, the son of Codrus. The word ''Sibyl'' comes (via Latin) from the an ...

. It seems to have been this very collection, or so it would appear, which found its way to Cumae (see the

Cumaean Sibyl The Cumaean Sibyl was the priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Cumae, a Greek colony located near Naples, Italy. The word ''sibyl'' comes (via Latin) from the ancient Greek word ''sibylla'', meaning prophetess. There were many siby ...

) and from Cumae to Rome.

Mythology

Mount Ida owes much of its fame to the work of the poet

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

, gaining renown from having been mentioned in his epic poem the ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Ody ...

''. It is the setting for numerous episodes in Ancient Greek myth. For example, in the ''Iliad'', Mount Ida plays an essential role for the lives of Trojans in the city of Troy. Part of Troy's water source came from the rivers along Mount Ida, while the city uses the mountain to collect wood as well. Trojans also used the peaks on Mount Ida for religious purposes, while in the ''Iliad'',

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek relig ...

stayed on the peak at Gargarus on Mount Ida for a period of time in the poem.

Idaea

Idaea was a

nymph A nymph ( grc, νύμφη, nýmphē, el, script=Latn, nímfi, label=Modern Greek; , ) in ancient Greek folklore is a minor female nature deity. Different from Greek goddesses, nymphs are generally regarded as personifications of nature, are ...

, mate of the river god

, and mother of King Teucer the

Trojan Trojan or Trojans may refer to: * Of or from the ancient city of Troy * Trojan language, the language of the historical Trojans Arts and entertainment Music * ''Les Troyens'' ('The Trojans'), an opera by Berlioz, premiered part 1863, part 189 ...

king. The Scamander River flowed from Mount Ida across the plain beneath the city of Troy, and joined the

Hellespont The Dardanelles (; tr, Çanakkale Boğazı, lit=Strait of Çanakkale, el, Δαρδανέλλια, translit=Dardanéllia), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli from the Gallipoli peninsula or from Classical Antiquity as the Hellespont (; ...

north of the city.

Ganymede

At an earlier time, on Mount Ida, Ganymede, the son of Tros or perhaps of Laomedon, both kings of Troy, was desired by

, who descended in the form of an eagle and swept up Ganymede, to be cupbearer to the Olympian gods.

Hermaphroditus

In The Metamorphoses,

Ovid Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom ...

writes that

Hermaphroditus In Greek mythology, Hermaphroditus or Hermaphroditos (; grc, Ἑρμαφρόδιτος, Hermaphróditos, ) was a child of Aphrodite and Hermes. According to Ovid, he was born a remarkably handsome boy whom the naiad Salmacis attempted to rape an ...

, the child of

Hermes Hermes (; grc-gre, Ἑρμῆς) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Hermes is considered the herald of the gods. He is also considered the protector of human heralds, travellers, thieves, merchants, and orat ...

and

Aphrodite Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols incl ...

, was taken after birth to be raised for fifteen years by the Naids of Mount Ida.

Paris

On the sacred mountain, the nymphs who were the daughter-spirits of the river Cebrenus, had their haunt, and one, Oenone, who had the chthonic gifts of prophetic vision and the curative powers of herb magic, wed

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

, living as a shepherd on Mount Ida. Unbeknownst to all, even to himself, Paris was the son of Priam, king of Troy. He was there on Mount Ida, experiencing the rustic education in exile of many heroes of

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities o ...

, for his disastrous future effect on Troy was foretold at his birth, and Priam had him

exposed Expose, exposé, or exposed may refer to: News sources * Exposé (journalism), a form of investigative journalism * '' The Exposé'', a British conspiracist website Film and TV Film * ''Exposé'' (film), a 1976 thriller film * ''Exposed'' (1932 ...

on the sacred slopes. When the good shepherd who was entrusted with the baby returned to bury the exposed child, he discovered that he had been suckled by a she-bear (a totem animal of the archaic goddess

Artemis In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Artemis (; grc-gre, Ἄρτεμις) is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. She was heavily identified with ...

) and took the child home to be foster-nursed by his wife. When Eris ("discord") cast the Apple of Discord, inscribed "for the fairest", into the wedding festivities of

Peleus In Greek mythology, Peleus (; Ancient Greek: Πηλεύς ''Pēleus'') was a hero, king of Phthia, husband of Thetis and the father of their son Achilles. This myth was already known to the hearers of Homer in the late 8th century BC. Bi ...

with

Thetis Thetis (; grc-gre, Θέτις ), is a figure from Greek mythology with varying mythological roles. She mainly appears as a sea nymph, a goddess of water, or one of the 50 Nereids, daughters of the ancient sea god Nereus. When described as ...

, three great goddesses repaired to Mount Ida to be appraised. By a sacred spring on the mountainside, in "the Judgment of Paris", the grown youth Paris awarded it to

, who offered

Helen Helen may refer to: People * Helen of Troy, in Greek mythology, the most beautiful woman in the world * Helen (actress) (born 1938), Indian actress * Helen (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) Places * Helen, ...

for a bribe, earning the perpetual enmity of the discredited goddesses

Hera In ancient Greek religion, Hera (; grc-gre, Ἥρα, Hḗrā; grc, Ἥρη, Hḗrē, label=none in Ionic and Homeric Greek) is the goddess of marriage, women and family, and the protector of women during childbirth. In Greek mythology, she ...

and

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of v ...

to the

cause ('' Bibliotheca'' 3.12.5).

Anchises

Anchises Anchises (; grc-gre, Ἀγχίσης, Ankhísēs) was a member of the royal family of Troy in Greek and Roman legend. He was said to have been the son of King Capys of Dardania and Themiste, daughter of Ilus, who was son of Tros. He is mos ...

, father of

Aeneas In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas (, ; from ) was a Trojan hero, the son of the Trojan prince Anchises and the Greek goddess Aphrodite (equivalent to the Roman Venus). His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy (both being grandsons ...

, also of the Trojan royal house, was tending sheep on Mount Ida when he was seduced by Aphrodite. Their union led to the birth of

, the mythological progenitor of Rome's

Julio-Claudian dynasty , native_name_lang=Latin, coat of arms=Great_Cameo_of_France-removebg.png, image_size=260px, caption= The Great Cameo of France depicting emperors Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius and Nero, type= Ancient Roman dynasty, country= Roman Empire, estates=* ...

and a founder of Rome.

Trojan War

The mountain is the scene of several mythic events in the works of

. At its summit, the Olympian gods gathered to watch the progress of the epic fight. But the mountain was the sacred place of the Goddess, and Hera's powers were so magnified on Mount Ida, that she was able to distract Zeus with her seductions, just long enough to permit Poseidon to intercede on behalf of the Argives to drive Hektor and the Trojans back from the ships. During the

Trojan War In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans ( Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and ...

, in an episode recorded in ''Epitome'' of the fourth book of the '' Bibliotheca'', Achilles with some of the Achaean chiefs laid waste the countryside, and made his way to Ida to rustle the cattle of Aeneas. But Aeneas fled, and Achilles killed the cowherds and Mestor, son of Priam, and drove away the sacred kine (''Epitome'' 3.32). Achilles briefly refers to this incident as he prepares to duel with Aeneas during the siege of Troy. (''Iliad'' XX) After the Trojan War, the only surviving son of Priam, Helenus, retired to Mount Ida, where he was surprised and became the captive of

Neoptolemus In Greek mythology, Neoptolemus (; ), also called Pyrrhus (; ), was the son of the warrior Achilles and the princess Deidamia, and the brother of Oneiros. He became the mythical progenitor of the ruling dynasty of the Molossians of ancient Ep ...

. In the ''

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; la, Aenē̆is or ) is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who fled the fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of ...

'' a shooting star falls onto the mountain in answer to the prayer of

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousand ...

History

Bronze age

In the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

, the region around the mountain complex had a somewhat chequered ethnography. There is evidence for the following peoples with a reasonable degree of probability: * The

Tjeker The Tjeker or Tjekker ( Egyptian: ''ṯꜣkꜣr'' or ''ṯꜣkkꜣr'') were one of the Sea Peoples. Known mainly from the " Story of Wenamun", the Tjeker are also documented earlier, at Medinet Habu, as raiders defeated by Pharaoh Ramesses III ...

Ayvacık, Çanakkale Ayvacık is a town and district of Çanakkale Province in the Marmara region of Turkey. According to the 2007 census, population of the district is 30,027, of which 7,457 live in the town of Ayvacık. The district covers an area of , and the town ...

Province, which the Greeks called the Teucri. They were probably from Crete and are most likely to have been the source of the name, Mount Ida, which they took from

Mount Ida, Crete Mount Ida ( el, Ἴδα), known variously as Idha, Ídhi, Idi, and Ita (the massif including the mountain is called Psiloritis, el, Ψηλορείτης), is the highest mountain on the island of Crete, with an elevation of . It has the highest ...

Iron age

In historical times, Xerxes' march took him past Mount Ida (Herodotus VII:42).

2019 Controversy

In July 2019, protesters made accusations against Canadian company Alamos Gold for constructing a mine in Mount Ida, despite the fact that the mine was located 40 km away from Mount Ida, within the borders of the Biga Mountains and in the skirts of Balaban Hill. The Republic of Turkey prohibits mining in National Parks, Natural Preserves, Archeological Sites and Wildlife Protection Areas. Protesters criticized that thousands of trees were cleared as well as plans to use cyanide to extract gold. The Turkish government and company responded with claims that the mine would not damage the environment. Protesters began a "Water and Conscience Watch" on July 26. A "Great Water and Conscience Meeting" was then held on August 5, during which protesters entered the mining site and symbolically planted trees in front of the press. Local residents near the village of Kirazlı criticized the protesters who came to the region with misinformation. Images of the land which had been cleared of trees also caused outrage on social media. Artist Zülfü Livaneli wrote an open letter to UNESCO protesting about the destruction of the natural environment in the area. In 2021, the mining company filed an investment treaty claim exceeding $1 billion against Turkey for "unfair and inequitable treatment".

Notes

References

* Martyn Rix, "Wild About Ida: the glorious flora of Kaz Dagi and the Vale of Troy", ''Cornucopia'' 26, 2002. * Çoban, Ramazan Volkan. İda Dağı'ndan Kaz Dağına; Yöre Anlatılarının Karşılaştırmalı Mitoloji Tarafından İncelenmesi, III. Ulusal Kazdağları Sempozyumu (Balıkesir, 2012)

External links

* Çoban, Ramazan Volkan.
İda Dağı'ndan Kaz Dağına; Yöre Anlatılarının Karşılaştırmalı Mitoloji Tarafından İncelenmesi
', III. Ulusal Kazdağları Sempozyumu (Balıkesir, 2012) *

', article by Recep Peker Tanıtkan in ''Diplomat'' magazine, Ankara, May, 2006.
Morphological, Anatomical and Ecological studies on the two Turkish endemic species collected from Kaz Dağı (B1 Balıkesir) “Allium sibthorpianum Schultes & Schultes fil. and Allium reuterianum Boiss.”
article by İsmet Uysal in the ''Turkish Journal of Journal of Botany'', 23 (1999), 137–148. *
A Contribution to the Moss Flora of Western Turkey: Moss Flora of the Kaz Mountain (Balıkesir, Turkey)
', article by Adnan Erdag and Ahmet Yayıntaş in the ''Turkish Journal of Botany'', 23 (1999), 117–125. *
İda's researching in Comparative Mythology
', İda's researching in Comparative Mythology. {{authority control Ida Geography of ancient Anatolia National parks of Turkey Landforms of Balıkesir Province Locations in the Iliad Tourist attractions in Balıkesir Province Landforms of Çanakkale Province Tourist attractions in Çanakkale Province Important Bird Areas of Turkey Former Christian monasteries in Turkey Byzantine monasteries in Turkey Ida Cybele