The island's main feature was said to be its temple to Apollo, and its patron deity a goddess named Chryse. The Greek archer Philoctetes stopped there on his way to Troy and was fatally bitten by a viper. Lucullus captured three men there in an ambush during the Third Mithridatic War. The island seems to have disappeared by the 2nd century CE; it is mentioned by Pausanias and Appian. An ancient oracle (written by Onomacritus) may have predicted this end. The Description of Greece says: