Listed 63 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "NAXOS Province KYKLADES" .
POTAMOS (Village) AMORGOS
Potamos is overlooking Ormos, the harbor, and is the village with the best-preserved architecture in the area.
KOUFONISSIA (Island complex) KYKLADES
DASKALIO (Isolated island) KOUFONISSIA
In antiquity Daskalio was united with the island of Keros. On the bay formed by those two, there was the principal ancient settlement of the island, which is today below the sea. Daskalio is at 50 m. distance from the island of Keros.
AMORGOS (Island) KYKLADES
Amorgos (Amorgos: Eth. Amorginos, also Amorgios, Amorgiies: Amorgo),
an island of the Sporades in the Aegean sea, SE. of Naxos. It is rarely mentioned
in history, and is chiefly celebrated as the birthplace of the iambic poet Simonides.
(Strab. p. 487.) There was in Amorgos a manufactory of a peculiar kind of linen
garments, which bore the name of the island, and which were dyed red. (Steph.
B. s. v.; Eustath. ad Dionys. 526; Pollux, vii. 16.) In dyeing them use appears
to have been made of a kind of lichen, which is still found in the island, and
of which Tournefort has given an account. The soil of Amorgos is fertile. It produces
at present corn, oil, wine, figs, tobacco, and cotton, all of good quality. Hence
it was considered under the Roman empire one of the most favourable places for
banishment. (Tac. Ann. iv. 30.) We learn from Scylax that Amorgos contained three
towns, the names of which, according to Stephanus (s. v. Amorgos), were Minoa
(Minoa, Minuia, Ptol. v. 2. § 33), the birthplace of Simonides, Arcesine (Arkesine),
and Aegiale (Aigiale, Begialis, Ptol.). Remains of all these cities have been
discovered, and a minute description of them is given by Ross, who spent several
days upon the island. They are all situated on the western side of the island
opposite Naxos, Aegiale at the N., and Arcesine at the S., while Minoa lies more
in the centre, at the head of a large and convenient harbour, now called Ta Katapola,
because it is kata ten polin. It appears, from the inscriptions found in the island,
that it possessed other demes besides the above-mentioned towns. It is probable
that Melania (Melania), which Stephanus in another passage (s. v. Arkesine) mentions
as one of the three towns of Amorgos in place of Aegiale, may have been one of
these demes. We learn from several inscriptions that Milesians were settled in
Minoa and Aegiale, and that they formed in the latter town a separate community.
(Bockh, Corp. Inscr. vol. ii. No. 2264; Ross, Inscr. Gr. Lined. vol. ii. No. 112,
120-122.) The island contains at present 3,500 inhabitants. (Tournefort, Voyage,
&c. vol. ii. p. 182, seq.; Fiedler, Reise, &c. vol. ii. p. 325, seq.; and more
especially Ross, Reisen auf den Griech. Inseln, vol. i. p. 173, seq., vol. ii.
p. 39, 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
DONOUSSA (Island) KYKLADES
Donusa or Donysa (Donusa; whence come the corrupt forms Donousia,
Steph. B. s.v.; Eustath. ad Dionys. Per. 530; Dionysia, Mel. ii. 7), a small island
near Naxos, said by Stephanus to have been the island to which Dionysus carried
Ariadne from Naxos, when pursued by her father Minos. This tale, however, appears
to have arisen from confounding Donusa, the name of the island, with Dionysus,
the name of the god. Stephanus also states, though we know not on what authority,
that the island belonged to Rhodes. Virgil (Aen. iii. 125) gives to Donusa the
epithet of viridis, which Servius explains by the colour of its marble; but this
statement is probably only invented to explain the epithet. Donusa was used as
a place of banishment under the Roman empire. (Tac. Ann. iv. 30.)
NAXOS (Island) KYKLADES
Naxos or Naxus (Nachos: Eth. Nachios: Naxia), the largest and most
fertile of the Cyclades, situated in the middle of the Aegean sea, about halfway
between the coasts of Greece and those of Asia Minor. It lies east of Paros, from
which it is separated by a channel about 6 miles wide. It is described by Pliny
(iv. 12. s. 22) as 75 Roman miles in circumference. It is about 19 miles in length,
and 15 in breadth in its widest part. It bore several other names in ancient times.
It was called Strongyle (Strongule) from its round shape, Dionysias (Dionusias)
from its excellent wine and its consequent connection with the worship of Dionysus,
and the Smaller Sicily (mikra Sikelia) from the fertility of its soil (Plin. iv.
12. s. 22; Diod. v. 50-52); but the poets frequently give it the name of Dia (Dia;
comp. Ov. Met. ii. 690, viii. 174.) It is said to have been originally inhabited
by Thracians, and then by Carians, and to have derived its name from Naxos, the
Carian chieftain. (Diod. v. 50, 51; Steph. B. s. v. Nachos.) In the historical
ages it was colonised by Ionians from Attica (Herod. viii. 46), and in consequence
of its position, size, and fertility, it became the most powerful of the Cyclades.
The government of Naxos was orignally an oligarchy, but was overthrown by Lygdamis,
who made himself tyrant of the island. (Aristot. ap. Ath. viii. p. 348.) Lygdamis,
however, appears not to have retained his power long, for we find him assisting
Peisistratus in his third restoration to Athens, and the latter in return subduing
Naxos and committing the tyranny to Lygdamis. (Herod. i. 61, 64; comp. Aristot.
Pol. v, 5.) But new revolutions followed. The aristocratical party appear to have
again got the upper hand; but they were after a short time expelled by the people,
and applied for assistance to Aristagoras of Miletus. The Persians, at the persuasion
of Aristagoras, sent a large force in B.C. 501 to subdue Naxos: the expedition
proved a failure; and Aristagoras, fearing the anger of the Persian court, persuaded
the Ionians to revolt from the great king. (Herod. v. 30-34.) At this period the
Naxians had 8000 hoplites, many ships of war, and numerous slaves. (Herod. v.
30, 31.) From the 8000 hoplites we may conclude that the free population amounted
to 50,000 souls, to which number we may add at least as many slaves. In B.C. 490
the Persians under Datis and Artaphernes landed upon the island, and in revenge
for their former failure laid it waste with fire and sword. Most of the inhabitants
took refuge in the mountains, but those who remained were reduced to slavery,
and their city set on fire. (Herod. vi. 96.) Naxos became a dependency of Persia;
but their four ships, which were sent to the Persian fleet, deserted the latter
and fought on the side of Grecian independence at the battle of Salamis. (Herod.
viii. 46.) They also took part in the battle of Plataeae. (Diod. v. 52.) After
the Persian wars Naxos became a member of the confederacy of Delos under the headship
of Athens; but about B.C. 471 it revolted, and was subdued by the Athenians, who
reduced the Naxians to the condition of subjects, and established 500 Athenian
Cleruchs in the island. (Thuc. i. 98, 137; Plut. Pericl. 11; Paus. i. 27. § 6.)
From this time Naxos is seldom mentioned in ancient history. It was off Naxos
that Chabrias gained a signal victory over the Lacedaemonian fleet in B.C. 376,
which restored to Athens the empire of the sea. (Xen. Hell. v. 4. 60, seq.; Diod.
xv. 34.) During the civil wars of Rome Naxos was for a short time subject to the
Rhodians. (Appian, B.C. v. 7.)
After the capture of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204, the Aegaean
sea fell to the lot of the Venetians; and Marco Sanudo, in 1207, took possession
of Naxos, and founded there a powerful state under the title of the Duchy of the
Aegaean Sea (Dux Aegaei Pelagi). He built the large castle above the town, now
in ruins, and fortified it with 12 towers; His dynasty ruled over the greater
part of the Cyclades for 360 years, and was at length overthrown by the Turks
in 1566. (Finlay, Medieval Greece, p. 320, seq.) Naxos now belongs to the new
kingdom of Greece. Its population does not exceed 12,000, and of these 300 or
400 are Latins, the descendants of the Venetian settlers, many of whom bear the
names of the noblest families of Venice.
The ancient capital of the island, also called Naxos, was situated
upon the NW. coast. Its site is occupied by the modern capital. On a small detached
rock, called Palati, about 50 yards in front of the harbour, are the ruins of
a temple, which tradition calls a temple of Dionysus. The western portal still
remains, consisting of three huge marble slabs, two perpendicular and one laid
across, and is of elegant, though simple workmanship. A drawing of it is given
by Tournefort. Stephanus B. mentions another town in Naxos called Tragia or Tragaea
(s. v. Tragia), but which Ross believes to be the small island Makares, between
Naxos and Donussa. Aristotle also (ap. Athen. viii. p. 348) mentioned a place,
named Lestadae (Lestadai), of which nothing further is known.
In the centre of the island a mountain, now called Zia, rises to the
height of 3000 feet. From its summit 22 islands may be counted; and in the distance
may be seen the outline of the mountains of Asia Minor. This mountain appears
to have been called Drius (Drios) in antiquity (Diod. v. 51); its modern name
is probably derived from the ancient name of the island (Dia). On it there is
a curious Hellenic tower; and near the bottom, on the road towards Philoti, an
inscription, horos Dios Melosiou. Another mountain is called Koronon (to Koronon),
which is evidently an ancient name, and reminds one of the Naxian nymph Coronis,
who brought up the young Dionysus (Diod. v. 52). The mountains of Naxos consist
partly of granite and partly of marble, the latter being scarcely inferior to
that of Paros. Good whetstones were also obtained from Naxos. (Hesych. s. v. Nachia
lithos; Plin. xxxvi. 6. s. 9.) There are several streams in the island, one of
which in ancient times was called Biblus (Biblos, Steph. B. s. v. Bibline).
The fertility of Naxos has been equally celebrated in ancient and
modern times. Herodotus says that it excelled all other islands in prosperity
(v. 28). It produces in abundance corn, oil, wine, and fruit of the finest description.
In consequence of the excellence of its wine Naxos was celebrated in the legends
of Dionysus, particularly those relating to Ariadne. Moreover, the priest of Dionysus
gave his name to the year, like the Archon Eponymus at Athens. (Bockh, Inscr.
2265.) The finest wine of Naxos is now produced at a place called Aperathos. It
is a superior white wine, and is celebrated in the islands of the Aegaean under
the name of Bacchus-Wine.
The plant which produces ladanum is found at Naxos; and in Thevenot's
time it was collected from the beards of goats, in the manner described by Herodotus
(iii. 112). Emery is also found there, particularly in the southern part of the
island, and forms an article of export. The goats of Naxos were celebrated in
antiquity. (Athen. xii. p. 540.)
One of the most remarkable curiosities in the island is an unfinished
colossal figure, still lying in an ancient marble quarry near the northern extremity
of the island. It is about 34 feet in length, and has always been called by the
inhabitants a figure of Apollo. On the side of the hill, at the distance of five
minutes from the statue, we still find the inscription, horos choriou hierou Apollonos.
Ross conjectures that the statue may have been intended as a dedicatory offering
to Delos. (Thevenot, Travels, p. 103, Engl. transl.; Tournefort, Voyage, vol.
i. p. 163, Engl. transl.; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. iii. p. 93; Ross, Reisen
auf den Griech. Inseln, vol. i. p. 22, seq.; Gruter, De Naxo Insula, Hal. 1833
Curtius, Naxos, Berl. 1846.)
This 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
AMORGOS (Island) KYKLADES
An island, one of the Sporades, and the birthplace of the poet Simonides. The Roman emperors used it as a place of banishment.
DONOUSSA (Island) KYKLADES
(Donusa) or Donusia (Donousia). One of the smaller Sporades in the Aegaean Sea near Naxos. It produced green marble, whence Vergil calls the island viridis. Under the Roman emperors it was used as a place of banishment.
NAXOS (Island) KYKLADES
Now Naxia; an island in the Aegaean Sea, the largest of the Cyclades, especially
celebrated for its wine. It is about eighteen miles in length and twelve in breadth.
It was also called Dia, Strongyle, and Dionysias. Here Dionysus is said to have
come to Ariadne after she had been deserted by Theseus. It was colonized by Ionians,
who had emigrated from Athens. After the Persian Wars, the Naxians were the first
of the allied States whom the Athenians reduced to subjection (B.C. 471). The
chief town of the island was also called Naxos.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Naxos is famous from mythology as the place where Theseus abandoned the princess Ariadne on his return voyage from Crete. There, Dionysos found her and made her his wife. Historically, Naxos developed a prosperous maritime trade in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. It produced an important school of sculptors. At Melones, a city located in southeastern Naxos, at the quarries of Flerio, there still lie two unfinished and abandoned seventh century kouroi, and near the emery quarries of Appollona there lies another unfinished colossal kouros.
ARKESSINI (Ancient city) AMORGOS
AMORGOS (Island) KYKLADES
Island SE of Naxos with three areas of habitation, centering on Aigiale
(modern Vigla), Minoa (Katapola), and Arkesine (Kastri). Many Early Bronze Age
burials and rich grave goods have been known since the 19th c., and recently neighboring
islets, Ano Kouphonesi, Donousa, Herakleia, Keros, and Schoinoussa have yielded
extensive finds. Donousa also had a fortified Geometric settlement.
The Greek inhabitants may have come from Samos and perhaps Naxos.
The Amorgians participated collectively in the Athenian Empire from 437 B.C. on,
and in the Second Athenian Confederacy (Athens garrisoned Arkesine ca. 357); they
issued coins (cf. Lambros) and certified amphoras, and their cloth was especially
fine. The Battle of Amorgos ended the Lamian War in 322. Amorgos belonged at various
times to the Island League, and was later attached to the Roman province of Asia,
though the island enjoyed autonomy which was reaffirmed by Antoninus Pius. It
was a place of exile under the Julio-Claudian emperors. Each of the three cities
had an independent constitution and magistrates at least from the 4th c. on, and
in the late 3d c. B.C. a Samian settlement existed at Minoa and a Milesian settlement
at Aigiale. The Naxian settlement at Arkesine is not certainly attested until
Imperial times.
Extensive remains have been recorded: architectural, sculptural, ceramic,
and epigraphic, from prehistoric to late Roman times, and finds continue. So-called
Hellenic towers and Roman tombs appear especially in the center and E of the island,
while at Arkesine, in the W, Greek walls surround an acropolis. Remains of temples
are cited from Minoa and. Aigiale, but no systematic descriptions have been published.
Some finds, are in the Katapola museum, others in Syros or Athens.
M. B. Wallace, 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.
NAXOS (Island) KYKLADES
Largest island of the Cyclades, E of Paros and S of Delos.
In the 3d and 2d millennia B.C. it was a center of Cycladic culture
and art. The graves of this period, which are found all over the island, testify
to a dense population, but very few remains of houses have been excavated. The
graves indicate that Naxos was the chief center for the production of the marble
Cycladic idols which were the forerunners of Greece's great sculpture. One of
the local natural resources was emery, which was used to smooth the surface of
the large-grained Naxian marble. Naxos was preeminent also in the Mycenaean period
(LH III). The tradition that Dionysos was born in Naxos (his cult was transferred
to Paros, according to Archilochos), the story of Ariadne, the capture of the
island by the Thracians, the establishment there of the cult of Otos and Ephialtes,
all reflect the importance of the island at that time.
The Protogeometric and Geometric periods (11th-8th c. B.C.) are richly
represented, but from the 7th c. on we can follow the development of the island
in literary sources as well. It was a rival of Paros and joined the Chalkidian
forces during the Lelantine war (8th-7th c. B.C.). With Chalkis, Naxos joined
in the colonization of Sicily, where Naxos (founded 735 B.C.) took its name from
the island. During the war with Paros, which may be considered a part of the Lelantine
war, a Naxian killed Archilochos. The differing directions taken by their art
illustrate the lack of accord between the two islands, as well as their respective
fields of colonization: Paros in the Aegean and Naxos in the W. The power of Naxos
during the 7th and 6th c. is witnessed by the number of Naxian dedications at
Delos, but Naxian hegemony over the Cyclades is unlikely.
The tyrant Lygdamis (ca. 540-524 B.C.), a friend and ally of the tyrants
Peisistratos and Polykrates, put an end to the aristocratic constitution of Naxos.
The ten-year naval supremacy of the island (thalassocracy) is attributed to him,
but his tyranny was ended by the intervention of the Spartans.
Naxos was the first to resist the advance of the Persians, ca. 500
B.C. The Persians were helped by the island's old enemy, Miletos, in their attempted
expansion to the W, but Naxos, with luck and strength (8000 hoplites, numerous
ships, strong walls, and the betrayal of the Persian plans by Miletos, according
to Hdt. 5.28f) repulsed the attack. The island did not long escape subjection,
however, and her city and shrines were destroyed during the campaign of Datis
and Artaphernes in 490 B.C. During Xerxes' campaign the four Naxian ships joined
the Greek fleet. A member of the Athenian Alliance, it was the first city which
was subjugated by the Athenians (470) and later received Athenian cleruchies (ca.
450 B.C.).
After the Peloponnesian war, Naxos regained her independence, but
had lost the power to pursue her own policies against successive domination by
the great powers (Spartans, Athenians, the Hellenistic kings, etc.) in the Aegean.
The island, however, retained a measure of importance because of its situation
and size.
The few monuments preserved are scattered throughout the island. The
polis lay on a hill commanding the harbor; the acropolis was probably under the
modern town, Kastro. On the shore to the N (Grotta) portions of the Cycladic,
Mycenaean (LH III) and Geometric city (several successive layers, all below sea
level) are still being excavated. Inland a part of a square building ca. 60 m
on a side has been uncovered. It has four colonnades on the sides and bases for
dedications in front of it. This was perhaps the agora for the city of the Early
Hellenistic period. Across the torrent bed, which cuts off the plain of the lower
city, the hill of the Haplomata extends NE. On it is a necropolis notable for
its finds, chiefly Cycladic and Mycenaean chamber tombs, in spite of destruction
during expansion of the city in the Late Hellenistic period. A little nearer the
shore at a site called Kaminaki, important finds have been made: pottery, jewelry,
and a part of an archaic kore, from an unknown shrine. Its building has probably
collapsed into the sea. Finds have demonstrated the existence of a shrine of Demeter
behind and E of the present Gymnaseum of Naxos.
A huge marble doorway (h. 7.9 m including the lintel, w. ca. 6 m)
has always been visible on the hill called Palatia left of the modern harbor entrance.
Excavation has shown this to be the door to the cella of an archaic Ionic temple
from the time of Lygdamis (ca. 530 B.C.), the foundations of which are preserved.
It was a peripteral temple with a double colonnade on the short sides (a form
simpler than that of the great dipteral temples of Ionia) with a pronaos, cella,
and opisthodomos, and it was never finished. During its conversion into an Early
Christian basilica the floor was lowered, and the ancient flooring was destroyed
along with the whole form of the temple. There is a jamb under a garden wall near
the quarry of Phlerios which resembles those on the hill of Palatia and was destined
for the temple. Very few architectural fragments have been preserved. The temple
may have been dedicated to Apollo.
Not far from the city, in the little valley of the Phlerios near the
village of Melanes, among the marble rocks on the slope lies a kouros, ca. 5 m
long, dating to the early years of the 6th c. B.C., which was abandoned shortly
before the work was completed. There is another without a face, from the same
period, a little higher up. From this point to Potamia there are numerous marble
quarries.
At the quarry on the N end of the island, on the promontory of Apollo,
there is a colossal archaic statue (h. 10.05 m) a little above the sea. It still
occupies the spot where work on it was begun. It is a male, bearded, clothed figure
with right hand extended. It dates from ca. 570 B.C. and may represent Dionysos.
The area is dedicated to Apollo, as is evident on a rock-cut inscription a short
distance away: Boundary of Apollo's sacred territory.
At the site called Gyroulas or Marmara, near the village of Sangri,
are the remains of a square temple (13 m on a side) which was transformed into
an Early Christian basilica. It was lengthened by an apse at the E, the entrance
was moved from the S to the N side, the floor was lowered, and the inner columns
moved down from the original stylobate into two rows of depressions cut in the
living rock (these depressions may have belonged to an earlier building period).
Three columns of each row can be made out, and each row was terminated at either
end by a parastade of a simpler type than in the doorway at Palatia. The column
bases are preserved, each with a two-banded scotia, also numerous fragments of
the superstructure (beams, geison, etc.). The temple was square in plan, with
a round bothros in front, and numerous dedicatory inscriptions which indicate
the temple should be interpreted as a Thesmophorion.
On a second acropolis at Epano Kastro is a Venetian fortress; under
its S side is a portion of an ancient wall. This acropolis is probably connected
with a series of tombs of the Protogeometric and Geometric periods close to the
nearby town of Tsikalario. Beside the tombs are huge, upright, unworked stones
(marking stelai or stelai semata).
About a three-hour drive SE of Philoti is the almost completely preserved
round tower of Cheimarros. Most of the Cycladic tombs of the island have been
found in the now uninhabited SE area of Naxos, but only minimal signs of Cycladic
dwellings. There is a square granite tower in the area of Plaka near Agiersani.
The museum of the city of Naxos has been much enriched by recent excavations,
most notably its collection of Cycladic, Mycenaean, and archaic remains (pottery
and plastic arts). A smaller museum at Apeiranthon houses Cycladic idols and pottery
of the area, curious stones, and primitive carvings.
N. M. Kontoleon, 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 56 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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