Listed 6 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "SKYROS Island STEREA HELLAS".
Famous for the legends of Theseus and of Achilles.
In 470 B.C. Kimon seized the island, enslaving the inhabitants and
replacing them with Athenian colonists. In 332 B.C. the Macedonians freed it from
Athenian domination. To the S of the village of Skyros, on the hill that dominates
the present village a Venetian fort has taken full advantage of the Greek substructures.
In the walls of the acropolis, trapezoidal masonry alternates with irregular courses
(attributable to the 5th c. B.C.) and with isodomic blocks having squared faces.
Very scarce remains of the enclosing wall are datable to ca. 450 B.C. Traces of
stratification indicating habitation during the Early and Middle Bronze Ages have
recently been found by D. R. Theocharis. During the Empire, breccia, which was
much in demand for its decorative quality, was quarried.
N. Bonacasa, 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.
Now Scyro. An island in the Aegaean Sea, east of Euboea, and one of the Sporades. Here Thetis concealed her son Achilles in woman's attire among the daughters of Lycomedes, and here also Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles by Deidamia, was brought up. According to another tradition the island was conquered by Achilles, in order to revenge the death of Theseus, who is said to have been treacherously destroyed in Scyros by Lycomedes. The bones of Theseus were discovered by Cimon in Scyros, after his conquest of the island, B.C. 476, and were conveyed to Athens, where they were preserved in the Theseum ( Thuc.i. 98; Diod. Sic.xi. 60). From this time Scyros continued subject to Athens till the period of the Macedonian supremacy; but the Romans compelled the last Philip to restore it to Athens, B.C. 196.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Scyros or Scyrus (Skuros: Eth. Skurios: Skyro), an island in the Aegaean
sea, and one of the northern Sporades, was so called from its ruggedness. It lay
east of Euboea, and contained a town of the same name (Strab. ix. p. 436; Scylax,
p. 23; Ptol. iii. 13. § 47), and a river called Cephissus. (Strab. ix. p. 424.)
Scyros is frequently mentioned in the stories of the mythical period. Here Thetis
concealed her son Achilles in woman's attire among the daughters of Lycomedes,
in order to save him from the fate which awaited him under the walls of Troy.
(Apollod. iii. 13. § 8; Paus. i. 22. § 6; Strab. ix. p. 436.) It was here also
that Pyrrhus, the son of Deidamia by Achilles, was brought up, and was fetched
from thence by Ulysses to the Trojan War. (Hom. Il. xix. 326, Od. xi. 507; Soph.
Phil. 239, seq.) According to another tradition Scyros was conquered by Achilles
(Hom. Il. i. 668; Paus. i. 22. § 6); and this conquest was connected in the Attic
legends with the death of Theseus. After Theseus had been driven out of Athens
he retired to Scyros, where he was first hospitably received by Lycomedes, but
was afterwards treacherously hurled into the sea from one of the rocks in the
island. It was to revenge his death that Peleus sent Achilles to conquer the island.
(Plut. Thes. 35; Pans. i. 22. § 6; Philostr. Heroic. 19.) Scyros is said to have
been originally inhabited by Pelasgians, Carians, and Dolopians; and we know from
Thucydides that the island was still inhabited by Dolopians, when it was conquered
by Cimon after the Persian wars. (Nicolaus Damasc. ap. Steph. B. s. v.; Scymn.
Ch. 580, seq.; Thuc. i. 98; Diod. xi. 60.) In B.C. 476 an oracle had directed
the Athenians to bring home the bones of Theseus; but it was not till B.C. 469
that the island was conquered, and the bones conveyed to Athens, where they were
preserved in the Theseium. Cimon expelled the Dolopians from the island, and peopled
it with Athenian settlers. (Thuc. Diod. ll. cc.; Plut. Thes. 36, Cim. 8; on the
date of the conquest of Scyros, which Clinton erroneously places in B.C. 476,
see Grote, History of Greece, vol. v. p. 409.) From this time Scyros was subject
to Athens, and was regarded even at a later period, along with Lemnos and Imbros,
as a possession to which the Athenians had special claims. Thus the peace of Antalcidas,
which declared the independence of all the Grecian states, nevertheless allowed
the Athenians to retain possession of Scyros, Lemnos, and Imbros (Xen. Hell. iv.
8. 15, v. 1. § 31); and though the Macedonians subsequently obtained possession
of these islands, the Romans compelled Philip, in the peace concluded in B.C.
196, to restore them to the Athenians. (Liv. xxxiii. 30.) The soil of Scyros was
unproductive (Dem. c. Callip. p. 1238; Eustath. ad Hom. Il. ii. p. 782; Suidas,
s. v. arche Skuria); but it was celebrated for its breed of goats, and for its
quarries of variegated marble. (Strab. ix. p. 437; Athen. i. p. 28, xii. p. 540;
Zenob. ii. 18; Plin. xxxvi. 16. s. 26.)
Scyros is divided into two parts by a narrow isthmus, of which the
southern half consists of high rugged mountains. The northern half is not so mountainous.
The modern town of St. George, on the eastern side of the island, stands upon
the site of the ancient town. It covers the northern and western sides of a high
rocky peak, which to the eastward falls steeply to the sea; and hence Homer correctly
describes the ancient city as the lofty Scyros (Skuron aipeian, Il. i. 664). The
Hellenic walls are still traceable in many parts. The city was barely 2 miles
in circumference. On the isthmus south of Scyros a deep bay still retains the
name of Achilli (Achilli), which is doubtless the site of the Achilleion, or sanctuary
of Achilles, mentioned by Eustathius (ad Il. ix. 662). Athena was the divinity
chiefly worshipped at Scyros. Her temple stood upon the shore close to the town.
(Stat. Achill. i. 285, ii. 21.) Tournefort says that he saw some remains of columns
and cornices of white marble, close by a forsaken chapel, on the left hand going
into the fort of St. George; these are probably remains of the temple of Athena.
(Tournefort, Voyage, vol. i. p. 334, trans.; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii.
p. 106, seq.; Fiedler, Reise, vol. ii. p. 66; Ross, Wanderungen in Griechenland,
vol. ii. p. 32, seq.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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