The Cicones (; ) or Ciconians were a

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient 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. Despite doubts about his autho ...

ic ThracianHerodotus, ''The Histories'' (Penguin Classics), edd. John M. Marincola and Aubery de Selincourt, 2003, p. 452 (I10): "The Thracian tribes lying along his route were the Paeti, Cicones, Bistones, Sapaei, Dersaei, Edoni, and Satrae; ��. tribe, whose stronghold in the time of

Odysseus In Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology, Odysseus ( ; , ), also known by the Latin variant Ulysses ( , ; ), is a legendary Greeks, Greek king of Homeric Ithaca, Ithaca and the hero of Homer's Epic poetry, epic poem, the ''Odyssey''. Od ...

was the town of Ismara (or ''Ismarus''), located at the foot of mount Ismara, on the south coast of

Thrace Thrace (, ; ; ; ) is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe roughly corresponding to the province of Thrace in the Roman Empire. Bounded by the Balkan Mountains to the north, the Aegean Sea to the south, and the Black Se ...

(in modern

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

). They are mentioned in book two of the ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; , ; ) 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 ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and ...

'' as having joined the war on the side of the Trojans, led by Euphemus. In book nine of Homer's '' Odyssey'', Odysseus and his men take Ismara by surprise and slay most of the Ciconian men they come across, taking Ciconian women as slaves. Later Ciconian reinforcements arrive and attack the invading Achaeans, killing so many of them that Odysseus and his men are forced to flee in their ships. Six men of each of Odysseus' ships were killed:

When I had set sail thence the wind took me first to Ismarus, which is the city of the Cicons. There I sacked the town and put the people to the sword. We took their wives and also much booty which we divided equitably amongst us, so that none might have reason to complain. I then said that we had better make off at once, but my men very foolishly would not obey me, so they stayed there drinking much wine and killing great numbers of sheep and oxen on the sea shore. Meanwhile the Cicons cried out for help to other Cicons who lived inland. These were more in number, and stronger, and they were more skilled in the art of war, for they could fight, either from chariots or on foot as the occasion served; in the morning, therefore, they came as thick as leaves and bloom in summer, and the hand of heaven was against us, so that we were hard pressed. They set the battle in array near the ships, and the hosts aimed their bronze-shod spears at one another. So long as the day waxed and it was still morning, we held our own against them, though they were more in number than we; but as the sun went down, towards the time when men loose their oxen, the Cicons got the better of us, and we lost half a dozen men from every ship we had; so we got away with those that were left''.

The Cicones are also referred to in the book of poems '' Metamorphoses'' by Ovid. They are mentioned in book VI when he writes of Boreas and Orithyia, when Ovid states:

He bore her off; and as he flew he felt the flames of love gain force on force; he did not curbe his course across the air until he'd reach the northern lands and city of the Cicones.

Orpheus, the Thracian lyre-player who sought his lover Eurydice in the underworld, was said to have been torn to pieces by Ciconian women after he rejected their advances, subsequently being reincarnated as a swan, or, according to Ovid, his disembodied head floating on the sea until it came to rest on the island of Lesbos, where it continued to speak, uttering prophecies. In classical times and in a historical context they go into obscurity. Non mythical instances of them occur in

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

(5th century BC) as he writes of their land that Xerxes' army passed by. The tribe itself is thought to have disappeared early on.Jan Bouzek, ''Greece, Anatolia, and Europe: Cultural Interrelations During the Early Iron Age'', 1997, p. 208: "Some tribes, like the Homeric Kikones, disappeared soon ��. Eumenes of Cardia lived there for a while after being retrieved from a sunk slave ship heading to Olbia, Ukraine.

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