Chryse (placename)

Chryse is a name occurring in Ancient Greek geography, reported by ancient authors to have referred to the following places:

• Chryse is an island in the Mediterranean where, in Greek mythology, Philoctetes was bitten by a snake

• Chryse, a town mentioned in Homer's Iliad, from which Agamemnon took Chryseis^[1]

• Chrysē nēsos (Golden Island), an ancient poetical name for the island Thasos, after its gold mines^[2]

• Chryse, a promontory of Lemnos opposite Tenedos^[3]

• Chryse, a place on Lesbos^[3]

• Chryse, a city or place on Skyros^[3]

• Chryse, a location in Caria in the area of Halicarnassus^[3]

• Chryse, a city at Hellespontus located between Ophrynion and Abydos^[3]

• Chryse in Bithynia, near Chalcedon^[3]

• Chrysa, a place in Athens around Pnyx^[4]

• Chryse or Chrysea, an island near Crete, now Gaidaronisi

• Chryse is the Greek short name of gold-producing Chryse Chersonesos (The Golden Peninsula) in the East Indies, which may have referred to Malay peninsula

• Chryse is the name that was applied by the geographer Ptolemy to the Philippines^[5] which means isle of gold^[6][7]

References

1. Homer, Iliad, 1. 30
2. Arrian in Eustathius on Dionysius Periegetes, 589
3. Stephanus of Byzantium s. v. Khrysē
4. Plutarch, Life of Theseus, 27. 3
5. Legeza, Laszlo. "Tantric Elements in pre-Hispanic Philippines Gold Art," Arts of Asia, July-Aug. 1988, pp.129-136. (Mentions gold jewelry of Philippine origin in first century CE Egypt)
6. Peralta, J.T. "Prehistoric gold ornaments from the Central Bank of the Philippines," Arts of Asia 1981, no. 4, p. 54.
7. Villegas, Ramon N. Ginto: History Wrought in Gold, Manila: Bangko Central ng Pilipinas, 2004.