Cicones (Ἴσμαρος) — a Homeric kingdom of the Odyssey, c. 1200 BC

Cicones — Ismaros of the sweet dark wine — Thracian spearmen for Troy who dealt Odysseus the first wound of his homeward road.

The Cicones of Ismaros in Thrace sent Euphemos and his spearmen to fight for Troy; on his own nostos Odysseus sacked their city, but they rallied and drove him off with heavy loss — the one homecoming that broke upon a Trojan ally's walls.

Leader at Troy: Euphemos.

Ruler in the Odyssey's present: Euphemos.

Role in the Trojan War: A Trojan ally out of Thrace: Euphemos son of Troizenos led the Ciconian spearmen in the catalogue of Priam's allies, ranged beside the Thracians and Paeonians to hold Ilios against the Achaean host.

The homecoming: Their captain abides — but their city took the first blow of Odysseus's return.

Along the Thracian shore, where 'the strong stream of Hellespont shutteth in' the northern peoples, lies Ismaros — walled city of the Cicones, a folk of vineyards and swift chariots, wardens of a coast famed for wine so strong that Maron the priest cut one cup into twenty measures of water. In the great muster of Priam's allies they answer the call against the Achaeans: 'Euphemos was captain of the Kikonian spearmen, the son of Troizenos Keos' son, fosterling of Zeus.' In Homer's line of allied captains the Cicones stand shoulder to shoulder with their kin — just ahead of them march the Thracians [THR] under Akamas and hero Peiroos, and just behind them the Paeonians [PAE] of curved bows under Pyraichmes. Together these are the far-northern spears that came down to hold Ilios [TRO]. The Cicones are no minor levy. When Odysseus tells the tale of his own homecoming, it is they who deal his first wound. The wind off fallen Ilios drives the Ithacan ships straight to their shore, and Odysseus of the Cephallenians [CEP] falls upon Ismaros, sacks the town and slays its men. But the raiders linger over the wine and the sheep, and the Cicones prove braver than plunder-drunk sailors reckon: the coast-dwellers rouse their inland neighbours — 'more in number than they and braver withal, skilled to fight with men from chariots' — and at the turning of the day drive the Achaeans back to the sea, six men slain from every ship. Thus the very folk Euphemos led at Troy avenge, on the plain of Ismaros, a fragment of that long war upon the man who devised the Horse. This is the strange grace of the Cicones in the world of the returns. They sent their captain to fight for Troy, and Troy fell — yet here, uniquely, the tables turn: it is a Greek nostos that runs aground on THEIR walls, and Ismaros that draws the first Achaean blood of the homeward road. One house among them keeps faith and is kept faithful: Maron son of Euanthes, priest of Apollo who watches over Ismarus, is spared with wife and child in his grove, and in gratitude loads Odysseus with gold, a silver bowl, and twelve jars of the honey-sweet wine — the very draught that will later drown the eye of the Cyclops. Ruin and reward flow from the same sacked city. At the dramatic present, ten years on from the war, Euphemos abides among his spearmen — his line untoppled, his fate unmarked by the poet's list of the slain. Ismaros bears its scar and keeps its vineyards, and Apollo still stands warder over the towers of the Cicones on the wine-dark Thracian coast.

“The wind that bare me from Ilios brought me nigh to the Cicones, even to Ismarus, whereupon I sacked their city and slew the people.” — Odyssey 9.39-41