Cytorus was a settlement on the northern coast of Asia Minor

Asia Minor

Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...

. Mentioned by Homer

Homer

In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...

, Cytorus survives in the name of Gideros, which is both

• a bay of the Black Sea
  Black Sea
  The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
  
   and
• the adjacent neighborhood (mahalle) of the village of Kalafat in the district (ilçe) of Cide
  Cide
  Cide, also Karaağaç, is a town and district of the Kastamonu Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey. According to the 2000 census, population of the district is 23,161 of which 5,834 live in the town of Cide. The district covers an area of , and the town lies at an elevation of .-External links:*...
  
   in the Kastamonu
  Kastamonu
  Kastamonu is the capital district of the Kastamonu Province, Turkey. According to the 2000 census, population of the district is 102,059 of which 64,606 live in the urban center of Kastamonu. The district covers an area of , and the town lies at an elevation of...
  
   province of Turkey
  Turkey
  Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
  
  .

Gideros is 12 km west of the town of Cide, 15 km east of Kurucaşile

Kurucasile

Kurucaşile is a town and district of Bartın Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey. The mayor is Mehmet Zihni Sayın ....

.
Possibly the name of Cide itself is derived from Cytorus.

In giving the Trojan battle order

Trojan Battle Order

The Trojan Battle Order or Trojan Catalogue is a section of the second book of the Iliad listing the allied contingents that fought for Troy in the Trojan War...

 in Book 2 of the Iliad

Iliad

The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...

,
Homer mentions Cytorus and Sesamon as Paphlagonia

Paphlagonia

Paphlagonia was an ancient area on the Black Sea coast of north central Anatolia, situated between Bithynia to the west and Pontus to the east, and separated from Phrygia by a prolongation to the east of the Bithynian Olympus...

n settlements, along with others around the river Parthenius

Bartin River

Bartın River , is a small river in east of Black Sea Region of Turkey. Its source is Ilgaz Mountains, in Kastamonu Province and Karabük Province, it flows to the north, passes through in Bartın and empties into the Black Sea near Boğaz village in a delta.The last 14 kilometers on the Bartın River,...

, today's Bartın River.
Sesamon is today's Amasra

Amasra

Amasra is a small Black Sea port town in the Bartın Province, Turkey. The town is today much appreciated for its beaches and natural setting, which has made tourism the most important activity for its inhabitants...

. This town was Amastris for Strabo

Strabo

Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...

, who writes of its founding through a union of Cytorus, Sesamon, and two other settlements. He reports that Cytorus was the marketplace of Sinope

Sinop, Turkey

Sinop is a city with a population of 36,734 on İnce Burun , by its Cape Sinop which is situated on the most northern edge of the Turkish side of Black Sea coast, in the ancient region of Paphlagonia, in modern-day northern Turkey, historically known as Sinope...

 and was a source for boxwood

Boxwood

Boxwood may refer to:*Buxus, a genus of about 70 species of shrubs and trees in the family Buxaceæ, which in North America is called "boxwood"*Buxus sempervirens, the most common species of Buxus, which is known as "boxwood" in United Kingdom...

. He derives the name of Cytorus (he uses the neuter Cytorum) from Cytorus, a son of Phryxus

Phrixus

In Greek mythology, Phrixus or Frixos or Phryxus was the son of Athamas, king of Boiotia, and Nephele . His twin sister Helle and he were hated by their stepmother, Ino. Ino hatched a devious plot to get rid of the twins, roasting all of Boeotia's crop seeds so they would not grow. The local...

 and therefore one of the Argonauts

Argonauts

The Argonauts ) were a band of heroes in Greek mythology who, in the years before the Trojan War, accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece. Their name comes from their ship, the Argo, which was named after its builder, Argus. "Argonauts", therefore, literally means...

.

In the Argonautica,
Apollonius of Rhodes

Apollonius of Rhodes

Apollonius Rhodius, also known as Apollonius of Rhodes , early 3rd century BCE – after 246 BCE, was a poet, and a librarian at the Library of Alexandria...

 mentions the settlement of Cytorus and related places in describing the voyage of the Argo. Unlike Strabo, he does not mention Cytorus as a son of Phryxus. Apollonius does apparently place Cytorus where Gideros Bay is today, between the Bartın River and the city of Sinop.

Apollonius applies the epithet "woody" to Cytorus, alluding to the boxwood that Strabo mentions.
In the 4th of the Carmina

Poetry of Catullus

The poetry of Gaius Valerius Catullus was written towards the end of the Roman Republic. It describes the lifestyle of the poet and his friends, as well as, most famously, his love for the woman he calls Lesbia.-Sources and organization:...

, Catullus

Catullus

Gaius Valerius Catullus was a Latin poet of the Republican period. His surviving works are still read widely, and continue to influence poetry and other forms of art.-Biography:...

 addresses "Box-tree-clad Cytórus", while
in the Georgics

Georgics

The Georgics is a poem in four books, likely published in 29 BC. It is the second major work by the Latin poet Virgil, following his Eclogues and preceding the Aeneid. It is a poem that draws on many prior sources and influenced many later authors from antiquity to the present...

, Virgil

Virgil

Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...

 says, "Fain would I gaze on Cytorus billowy with boxwood".
The Homeric commentator Eustathius of Thessalonica

Eustathius of Thessalonica

Archbishop Eustathius of Thessalonica was a Greek bishop and scholar. He is most noted for his contemporary account of the sack of Thessalonike by the Normans in 1185, for his orations and for his commentaries on Homer, which incorporate many remarks by much earlier researchers.- Life :After being...

 mentions a saying, "carry boxwood to Cytorus," with the meaning of "carry coals to Newcastle

Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...

".

Strabo's etymology notwithstanding, Bilge Umar

Bilge Umar

Bilge Umar is a Turkish writer, researcher and jurist born in Karşıyaka, İzmir in Turkey.He did his studies in Istanbul University Law School, where he also worked, after graduation in 1958, as an assistant and received his doctorate degree in 1962, with a thesis entitled Annulment Suit under...

 finds the origin of the name Cytorus in the Luwian for "Big wall".

There is also reported a folk etymology for the modern name of Gideros, based on its resemblance to the Turkish

Turkish language

Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...

gideriz (we go). Villagers say that Roman ships once sought shelter from a storm at Gideros Bay, and when the villagers asked the sailors if they would stay, the sailors replied, "Kalamazsak, gideros"—If we can't stay, we go. Pleased at the prospect of not having the Romans around, the villagers called the bay Gideros.