Listed 6 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "LINDOS Ancient city LINDOS".
Outside the capital (of Rhodes) the most spectacular development took place at Lindos, in the famous Shrine of Athena Lindia. The acropolis of Lindos falls in precipitous cliffs, undercut in places, to the sea on the E. Towards the N is the main harbor; to the S is the inlet where St. Paul is said to have landed. The Shrine of Athena on the summit of the acropolis was founded by Danaos, according to legend. The extant temple had at least two shadowy predecessors; the tyrant-sage Kleoboulos is said to have built a temple in the 6th c. B.C., and a rock-cut stairway probably belongs to this phase. The great architectural development of the site took place in the 4th c. B.C., though some elements may be later; precise dating is disputed. The 4th c. temple, built after a disastrous fire which is recorded in the inscription known as the "Lindian temple-chronicle", is modest in size and appearance compared with its setting, both natural and architectural. It is a rather narrow building, nearly 22 x 8 m, orientated NE and SW, with its SE side close to the cliff edge. It had a porch of four Doric columns at either end, and like the other buildings of the shrine, it was constructed of a local limestone. Some of the terracottas found on the site may give an idea of the cult statue. Not far from the NW corner of the temple have been found traces of what may be an altar; Athena Lindia was traditionally worshiped with fireless sacrifices. According to the scholia in Pindar, Gorgon, historian of Rhodes, said that the magnificent ode (Ol. 7) in honor of Diagoras, greatest of boxers, was inscribed in letters of gold in the Temple of Lindian Athena, but one might expect this monument to be set up rather at Diagoras' native town Ialysos. The temple-chronicle gives a list of notable offerings in the shrine.
The so-called propylaia are in fact a complex consisting of colonnades bordering three sides of the court in front of the temple, with rooms on the NW side (another small colonnade was added later on the SW side adjoining the temple); and an outer colonnade facing down the hill to the NE, with projecting temple-like wings at either end. A broad stair leads on down to another stoa, of great length (about 87 m) similarly facing outwards and downwards, and making a short return at either end. This was the latest element in the grand scheme. Portions of stoa, propylaia, and temple have been not very effectively or securely restored.
The great stoa opened onto a spacious terrace, reached from below by a stairway in the middle. In late Hellenistic times the terrace was extended to about double its original width, by means of vaulted substructures, and the stair was rebuilt in narrower form. Lower down the slope, to the NE, was a temple of Roman date, built on a podium, about 9 x 16 m, with a porch of four columns facing back up the hill. The shrine is assigned by some to a hero called Psithyros (Whisperer), known from an inscription, but by Dyggve to a deified emperor, possibly Diocletian.
Remains of the ancient wall of the acropolis are slight, Hellenistic in date, and mainly on the N. The whole site was eventually enclosed within the great fortifications of the Knights. At the foot of the stairway which leads up to the entrance on the N is a large Hellenistic rock-cut relief representing the elegant up-curving prow of a ship; a projecting platform carried a statue of one Agesandros, dedicated by himself.
A small theater, about 28 m in diameter, holding about 2,000, was built into the SW slope of the hill; the middle section of the seats, cut into the rock, is best preserved. Nearby are remains of a rectangular court with Doric colonnades, possibly associated with the cult of Dionysos.
A fine model made under the direction of Dyggve and installed in the National Museum at Copenhagen gives a vivid impression of the appearance of the acropolis in Hellenistic times.
The city of Lindos stretched inland and W, a good deal farther than the present town. Of the scanty remains outside the acropolis the most remarkable are the monumental tombs. One of these, situated to the W of the town on Mt. Krana, is the family mausoleum of Archokrates (late 2d c. B.C.), a chamber cut into the rock with a two storied facade whose lower element is adorned with Doric columns. On the N, on the farther side of the main harbor, is a circular structure 9 m in diameter, popularly known, without any good reason, as the Tomb of Kleoboulos. It has not yet been fully studied, and while Dyggve places it in the 2d c. B.C., Kondis thinks it may prove to be a good deal earlier. In the Middle Ages it was used as a church.
This extract is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Feb 2003 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
One of the three Dorian cities in the island of Rhodes, situated on the eastern coast. Its modern name is Lindo. It is mentioned by Homer, with its kindred cities, Ialysus and Camirus. These three cities, with Cos, Cnidus, and Halicarnassus, formed the original Hexapolis, in the southwest corner of Asia Minor. Lindus stood upon a mountain in a district abounding in vines and figs, and had two celebrated temples, one of Athene surnamed Aindia and one of Heracles. It was the birthplace of Cleobulus, one of the seven wise men. It retained much of its consequence even after the foundation of Rhodes. Inscriptions of some importance have been found in its Acropolis.
This text is cited Sep 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Eth. Lindios: Lindos, one of the most important and most ancient towns
in the island of Rhodes, was situated on the eastern coast, a little to the north
of a promontory bearing the same name. The district was in ancient times very
productive in wine and figs, though otherwise it was, and is still, very barren.
(Philostr. Icon. ii. 24.) In the Homeric Catalogue (Il. ii. 656) Lindus, together
with the two other Rhodian cities, Ialysus and Camirus, are said to have taken
part in the war against Troy. Their inhabitants were Dorians, and formed the three
Dorian tribes of the island, Lindus itself being of one the Dorian hexapolis in
the south-west of Asia Minor. Previous to the year B.C. 408, when Rhodes was built,
Lindus, like the other cities, formed a little state by itself, but when Rhodes
was founded, a great part of the population and the common government was transferred
to the new city. (Diod. xii. 75.) Lindus, however, though it lost its political
importance, still remained an interesting place in a religious point of view,
for it contained two ancient and much revered sanctuaries,--one of Athena, hence
called the Lindian, and the other of Heracles. The former was believed to have
been built by Danaus (Diod. v. 58; Callim. Fragm. p. 477, ed. Ernesti), or, according
to others by his daughters on their flight from Egypt. (Herod. ii. 182; Strab.
xiv.; comp. Plin. H. N. xxxiii. 23; Act. Apost. xvii. 17.) The temple of Heracles
was remarkable, according to Lactantius (i. 31), on account of the vituperative
and injurious language with which the worship was conducted. This temple contained
a painting of Heracles by Parrhasius; and Lindus appears to have possessed several
other paintings by the same artist. (Athen. xii., xv.) Lindus also was the native
place of Cleobulus, one of the Seven Sages of Greece; and Athenaeus (viii.) has
preserved a pretty poem ascribed to Cleobulus, and which the Lindian boys used
to sing as they went round collecting money for the return of the swallows in
spring.
The site of Lindus, as described by Strabo, on the side of a hill,
looking towards the south and Alexandria, cannot be mistaken; and the modern neat
little town of Lindos is exactly the spot occupied by the ancient Dorian city.
The place and its many ancient remains have often been visited and described,
and most recently by Ross in his Reisen auf den Griech. Inseln, vols. iii. and
iv., from which it appears that ancient remains are more and more destroyed. There
are many tombs cut in the rocks, some of which have had beautiful architectural
ornaments; the remains of a theatre at the foot of the hill; and on the acropolis
are seen the ruins of two Greek temples, which, to judge from inscriptions, belonged
to the Lindian Athena and Zeus Polieus. The number of inscriptions found at Lindus
is very considerable.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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