Tenedos - Name

Name

The island is known in English as both Tenedos (the Greek name) and Bozcaada (the Turkish name). Over the centuries many other names have been used. Documented ancient Greek names for the island are Calydna, Phoenice and Lyrnessus (Pliny, HN 5,140).

The official Turkish name for the island is Bozcaada, its name in Turkish since the mid-fourteenth century. Turkish word "boz" means either a barren land or grey to brown color (sources indicate both of these meanings may have been associated with the island) and "ada" meaning island. The name Tenedos was derived, according to Apollodorus of Athens, from the Greek hero Tenes, who ruled the island at the time of the Trojan War and was killed by Achilles. Apollodorus writes that the island was originally known as Leocophrys until Tenes landed on the island and became the ruler. The island became known as Bozcaada when the Ottoman empire took the island over. Tenedos remained a common name for the island along with Bozcaada after the Ottoman conquest of the island, often with Greek populations and Turkish populations using different names for the island.