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AMATHUS (Ancient city) CYPRUS
Amathus (Amathous, -ountos: Amathousios, Adj. Amathusiacus, Ov. Met.
x. 227: nr. Old Limasol), an ancient town on the S. coast of Cyprus, celebrated
for its worship of Aphrodite - who was hence called Amathusia - and of Adonis.
(Scylax, p. 41; Strab. p. 683; Pans. ix. 41. § 2; Steph. B. s. v.; Tac. Ann. iii.
62; Catull. lviii. 51; Ov. Am. iii. 15 15.) It was originally a settlement of
the Phoenicians, and was probably the most ancient of the Phoenician colonies
in the island. Stephanus calls Amathus the most ancient city in the island, and
Scylax describes its inhabitants as autochthones. Its name is of Phoenician origin,
for we find a town of the same name in Palestine. Amathus appears to have preserved
its Oriental customs and character, long after the other Phoenician cities in
Cyprus had become hellenized. Here the Tyrian god Melkart, whom the Greeks identified
with Heracles, was worshipped under his Tyrian name. (Hesych. s. v. Malika, ton
Heraklea, Amathousioi. The Phoenician priesthood of the Cinyradae appears to have
long continued to exercise its authority at Amathus. Hence we find that Amathus,
as an Oriental town, remained firm to the Persians in the time of Dareins I.,
while all the other towns in Cyprus revolted. (Herod. v. 104, seq.) The territory
of Amathus was celebrated for its wheat (Hipponax, ap. Strab. p. 340), and also
for its mineral productions (fecundam Amathunta metalli, Ov. Met. x. 220, comp.
531.)
Amathus appears to have consisted of two distinct parts: one upon
the coast, where Old Limasol now stands, and the other upon a hill inland, about
1 1/2 mile from Old Limasol, at the village of Agios Tychonos, where Hammer discovered
the ruins of the temple of Aphrodite. (Hammer, Reise, p. 129; Engel, Kypros, vol.
i. p. 109, seq.; Movers, Die Phonizier, vol. ii. pt. ii. pp. 221, 240, seq.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
A town on the southern coast of Cyprus, with a celebrated temple of Aphrodite, who was hence called Amathusia. There were copper-mines in the neighbourhood of the town.
On the S coast, about 11 km E of Limassol. The ruins cover a large
area on top of a hill and on the slopes reaching the sea to the S. The lower city
lies between the acropolis and the sea and to the E. Remains of the ancient city
wall and of the harbor still survive. The relatively well-preserved wall across
the acropolis is of Early Byzantine times. The necropolis extends E, N, and W
of the town.
One of the ancient kingdoms of Cyprus, its legendary founder was Kinyras,
who called the city after his mother Amathous. It was said in antiquity that the
people were autochthonous. They used a non-Greek language, as shown by inscriptions
in the Cypriot syllabary used down to the 4th c. B.C. According to one version
of the Ariadne legend, Theseus abandoned Ariadne at Amathousa, where she died.
The Amathousians are said to have called the grove where she was buried the "Wood
of Aphrodite Ariadne."
Nothing is known of the earliest history of the city. At the time
of the Ionian Revolt (499-498 B.C.) it sided with the Persians. Onesilos, king
of Salamis, who led the revolt, persuaded all the Cypriots except those of Amathous
to join him against Persia. Onesilos proceeded to lay siege to Amathous, but forced
by other events to abandon the siege, he fell in the battle that ensued on the
plain of Salamis.
King Euagoras I of Salamis (411-374/373 B.C.) reduced Amathous at
the time of his attempt to liberate Cyprus from the Persians. Its king Rhoikos
had been made a prisoner, but then returned home, his release having been effected
by the Athenians, who were Euagoras' allies. King Androkles of Amathous assisted
Alexander the Great at the siege of Tyre. The history of the city was written
in nine books by Eratosthenes of Kyrene (275-195 B.C.). The kings of Amathous
who are known to have issued coins are Zotimos, Lysandros, Epipalos, and possibly
Rhoikos. The city continued to flourish throughout the Hellenistic and Graeco-Roman
periods down to Early Byzantine times, when it became the seat of a bishop, but
it was gradually abandoned after the first Arab raids of A.D. 647
Some stretches of the walls still stand but practically nothing of
the city has been uncovered so far. A number of built tombs had been excavated
in the 19th c., while more tombs were excavated in 1930. In recent years the ruins
of two Early Christian basilican churches were excavated. A built tomb can be
seen on the seaward side of the main Nicosia-Limassol road a little W of the ruins
of the city. A large dromos, measuring 13 x 7 m, slopes down to the doorway. The
interior of the tomb consists of two rectangular chambers; both have corbeled
slightly curved saddle roofs with flat top stones. It is dated to the beginning
of the Cypro-archaic I period, shortly after 700 B.C.
The city wall may be traced in practically all its course; the circuit
starts at the E end by the sea near the Church of Haghia Varvara, extends N along
the edge of the acropolis, and returns along its W edge. Remains of this Classical
wall survive at both ends. Of the ancient harbor only a little is now visible,
on the SE of the acropolis. Part of it has silted up and only scanty remains of
the artificial breakwaters can still be seen above water. The sites of a gymnasium
and of a theater are suspected but they have never been investigated. The Temple
of Aphrodite (also known as Amathousia) is to be sought on the summit of the acropolis.
We also know of the worship in Amathous of Zeus, Hera, Hermes and Adonis, but
nothing about the position of their sanctuaries. Cut into the face of a rock on
the E side of the acropolis there is a Greek inscription recording the construction
by Lucius Vitellius Callinicus at his own expense of the steps leading up to it
and of an arch.
Casual finds in the city site are frequent. A colossal statue in gray
limestone, measuring 4.20 m in height and 2 m in width at the shoulders, now in
the Istanbul Museum, was found in 1873 by the harbor. This curious colossus has
been much discussed and many identifications have been put forward, but most probably
it represents Bes. Its date too is disputed but it may well be an archaistic statue
of the Roman period. In 1862 a colossal stone vase, now in the Louvre, was found
on the summit of the acropolis. It may have stood at the entrance to the Temple
of Aphrodite. It has four horizontal arched handles ending with palmettes, within
each of which is placed a bull. Many small finds are in the Nicosia and Limassol
Museums.
K. Nicolaou, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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