Chaonia in the context of "Eponymous"

Sarandë (Albanian: [saˈɾandə]; Albanian definite form: Saranda; Greek: Άγιοι Σαράντα) is a city in Albania and the seat of Sarandë Municipality. Geographically, the city is located on an open sea gulf of the Ionian Sea within the Mediterranean Sea. Stretching along the Albanian Ionian Sea Coast, Sarandë has a Mediterranean climate with over 300 sunny days a year.

In ancient times, the city was known as Onchesmus or Onchesmos, and was a port-town of Chaonia in ancient Epirus. It owes its modern name to the nearby Byzantine monastery of the Forty Saints by which it became known from the High Middle Ages. Sarandë today is known for its deep blue Mediterranean waters. Near Sarandë are the remains of the ancient city of Butrint, a UNESCO World Heritage site. In recent years, Sarandë has seen a steady increase in tourists, many of them coming by cruise ships. Visitors are attracted by the natural environment of Sarandë and its archaeological sites. Sarandë is inhabited by a majority of ethnic Albanians, and also has a minority Greek community and as such has been considered one of the two centers of the Greek minority in Albania.

Chaon (Greek: Χάων, gen.: Χάονος) was a Trojan hero and the eponymous ancestor of the Chaonians in Virgil's Aeneid. The story is unclear as to whether he was the friend or the brother of Helenus, but in either case, he accompanied him to the court of Neoptolemus. Chaon's death is as unclear as that of his relationship to Helenus. Chaon was either killed in a hunting accident or offered himself as a sacrifice to the gods during an epidemic, thus saving the lives of his countrymen. In either case, when Helenus became the ruler of the country, he named a part of the kingdom after Chaon; Chaonia.

The name Χάων 'Chaon' derives from the Greek *χαϝ-ών 'place with abysses'; cf. Χάον ὄρος 'Chaon mountain' in Argolis, χάος 'chaos, space, abyss', χάσκω 'to yawn', χάσμα 'chasm, gorge'. Chaon was also a common Ancient Greek name (Chaon son of Philoumenos - Χάων Φιλουμένου, and Chaon son of Eudoxos - Χάων Εὐδόξου).

Cestria or Kestria (Ancient Greek: Κεστρία), also known as Ilium or Ilion (Ἴλιον), or Troja (Τροΐα), was a town in ancient Epirus. Its district was called Cestrine or Kestrine (Κεστρίνη) and Kestrinia (Κεστρινία), and was located in Chaonia, separated from Thesprotia by the river Thyamis. It is said to have received its name from Cestrinus, son of Helenus and Andromache, having been previously called Cammania or Kammania (Καμμανία). The principal town of the district was Cestria, but its more usual name appears to have been Ilium or Troja, in memory of the Trojan colony of Helenus. In the neighbourhood are those fertile pastures, which were celebrated in ancient times for the Cestrinic oxen. The inhabitants of the district were called Κεστρηνοί by the poet Rhianus.

The city is located near the modern Filiates, Greece.

39°14′33″N 20°31′53″E / 39.242391°N 20.53143°E / 39.242391; 20.53143

Cichyrus (Ancient Greek: Κίχυρος, Kichyros), earlier called Ephyra (Ἐφύρα or Ἐφύρη), was the capital of ancient Thesprotia, according to the myth built by the Arcadian leader Thesprotos. Thucydides describes it as situated in the district Elaeatis in Thesprotia, away from the sea. At its site is the famous Necromanteion (Νεκρομαντεῖον, "Oracle of the Dead"). First settled during the Bronze Age and resettled in the 14th century BC by colonists most probably from Chaonia and the west Peloponnese region, the city is about 800 m north of the junction of the Kokytos River with the Acheron, and about 4.5 km east of the bay of Ammoudia. Near it was the outlet into the sea of the Acherusian Lake. Strabo (7.7.5) gives the same information and adds that in his time Ephyra was called Kichyros. The name had been changed from Ephyra back to the more ancient name about 200 years earlier.