The Cicones — Ismaros (the Cicones) (Ἴσμαρος), landfall 2 of 15 on the voyage of odysseus
Homer's Odyssey, Book IX. Raid on the Cicones; first losses. Traditional location: near Maroneia, Thrace, Greece.
The first landfall is a raid. Odysseus sacks Ismaros, city of the Cicones, sparing only Maron the priest of Apollo — who repays him with twelve jars of honey-sweet wine that will later save his life in the Cyclops' cave.
But the crews linger on the beach, feasting and drinking, while the Cicones fetch their inland kinsmen. At dawn the counterattack comes: six men lost from every ship before they fight their way back to sea.
The raid turns
The first landfall of the voyage is not an adventure but a raid — the ordinary piracy of a returning war fleet. Odysseus sacks Ismaros, city of the Cicones, killing the men and dividing the plunder. He spares only Maron, priest of Apollo, who repays him with twelve jars of honey-sweet unmixed wine. That wine will later save his life in a cave in Sicily.
Odysseus orders a quick withdrawal; the crews refuse. They feast on the beach, drinking and slaughtering sheep, while the survivors run inland for help. At dawn the Cicones return with their kinsmen — as many as leaves in spring — and horsemen. The Greeks fight all day and break at sunset. Six benches sit empty in every ship.
“Out of each ship six of my strong-greaved comrades were lost; the rest of us escaped from death and doom.” — Odyssey IX, 60–61
Maron's wine was real: Maroneia in Thrace was famous through all antiquity for wine so strong that Homer says it was mixed with twenty parts of water. Archilochus, a century after Homer, was still drinking — and praising — Ismarian wine.
The fleet after this landfall: 12 of 12 ships. Six men lost from every ship — seventy-two dead on the Ciconian shore.