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KASTAVOS (Ancient city) TURKEY
City in Caria above Hisaronu, 13 km SW of Marmaris. Until the site
was identified in 1960 Kastabos was known only from three sources: 1) a Rhodian
inscription found on the island of Megista; 2) a Rhodian decree, found at Golenye
near Marmaris, which locates Kastabos on the territory of the deme of Bybassos;
3) a passage of Diodoros (5.62-63) which places the sanctuary of Hemithea at Kastabos
in the Carian Chersonese. The site at Pazarlik was visited in 1860, and a temple,
theater, and other remains including a female statue were reported; it was supposed
to be the grove of Leto mentioned in Strabo (652). Excavation after WW II revealed
an inscription recording that the temple was dedicated to Hemithea, proving that
Kastabos was at Pazarhk and that the fortified site at Hisaronu is Bybassos.
Diodoros' account is remarkably detailed. The sanctuary, he says,
in the course of time became highly esteemed and visited by pilgrims from far
and near who made splendid sacrifices and rich offerings so that the place was
filled with dedications although not protected by guardians or any strong wall.
Such was its reputation that neither the Persians nor the pirates touched it,
vulnerable as it was. The goddess had great powers of healing, especially for
women in childbirth; standing over the sleeping patients she treated them in person
and had cured many desperate cases. The Golenye inscription confirms this popularity,
recording that the crowds were so great that they could not be accommodated in
the existing buildings, and revenue was being lost.
The temple stood on a platform; it succeeded a simple shrine about
5 m square on the hilltop, the sanctuary which had been spared by the Persians.
The platform and temple were apparently constructed in the latter part of the
4th c. The platform, some 53 by 34 m, is supported by high walls of local limestone
with masonry varying from ashlar to coursed polygonal. The temple was Ionic, with
a peristyle of 12 columns by 6, a cella, and a deep pronaos with two columns in
antis; there was no opisthodomos. The cella door seems to have been decorated
with engaged columns and stood on a high threshold necessitating steps up from
the pronaos. Close to this threshold, in the middle of the pronaos and blocking
direct approach to the cella door, was a puteal consisting of a circular plinth
surmounted by a round monument adorned with half-lifesize figures in relief. Judging
from its position this is probably a later addition to the pronaos. At the back
of the cella stood a small naiskos 1.22 m wide, which evidently housed the cult
statue. Of the whole temple hardly more than the foundation survives.
Round three sides of the platform ran a screen wall, poorly preserved;
along this at intervals were placed at least five small buildings, aediculae,
of unequal size and uncertain purpose. And on the E, adjoining the outer side
of the screen wall, were two larger buildings, also of unequal size; the larger
could possibly have served for purposes of incubation, but more likely both rooms
were intended for the personnel of the temple. Built into a wall of the larger
building, facing the temple, was an inscription recording the dedication of the
temple to Hemithea by a man of Hygassos; another inscription from the screen wall
named the architects, two men of Halikarnassos.
Outside the temple platform a few foundations are recognizable, but
the only identifiable building is the theater, a short way down the slope to the
SW. The cavea, facing approximately W, was roughly constructed, but only a small
part has been excavated.
We learn from the Golenye inscription that in the first half of the
2d c. B.C. considerable improvements were made to provide for the crowds and to
render the sanctuary more worthy of the goddess; but in the damaged condition
of the text it is not clear what steps were taken. Soon after this the sanctuary
began to decline, no doubt largely because of the contemporary decline of the
Rhodian state itself, and by the Roman period there is little evidence to suggest
that the cult of Hemithea continued even to exist.
G. E. Bean, 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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