Cychreus

by Dr Alena Trckova-Flamee Ph.D.

 
According to the myths Cychreus was the son of the god Poseidon and the nymph Salamis, the daughter of the river-god Asopus. Cychreus became a legendary king of the biggest island in the Saronic Gulf — Salamis — and he was worshiped there as a mysterious divine hero. In this mythological story the island was named after Cychreus’ mother, the nymph Salamis, but the place was also called “the Snake Island” in relation to the following myth about the king Cychreus. (Originally, the island Salamis took its name from the Phoenician emigrants coming there from Cyprus, for them this place was schalam, “peaceful.”)