DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4856#0096
90
some mythographers make a son of Kinyras, was especially associated with that of
Aphrodite at Amathus. Pausanias mentions that an ancient shrine of Aphrodite and
Adonis at Amathus claimed to possess the necklace of Eriphyle.1 A tomb of Ariadne
was also shown at Amathus, and Plutarch reports, on the authority of one Paion of
Amathus, a curious ritual annually performed in her honour.2
We hear that the town was rich in its metals3 and its wheat.4 Its history was
written by Eratosthenes, in nine books at the least.
At an early but uncertain period the town of Amathus was supplanted by the
new city, Neapolis, now Limassol, which has the advantage of a more protected anchorage.
At the present day the ancient site is totally deserted, the nearest inhabitants being in
the village of Hagios Tychonas, about a mile to the north of the ancient Acropolis.
Among former finds made on this site is a great stone vase, now in the Louvre,
which has a figure of a bull in relief, below each of its four handles. There are some
scanty remains on the Acropolis of a second vase, said to have been broken when its
fellow was in course of transport.5 A Greek inscription {C.I.G. No. 2,644) remains in situ.
A grotesque figure of a colossal horned Heracles, more than thirteen feet high,
and holding up a lioness by the hind legs, was found near Amathus in 1873, and is
now in the museum at Constantinople.6 General Cesnola, in the course of his diggings
at Amathus, found an archaic sculptured sarcophagus in one of the built tombs,7 and
five specimens of Phoenician metal work, including a silver cup, with the subject of an
attack on a walled city.8
THE SITE.
The Acropolis of Amathus is a hill rising from the sea-shore, seven miles to the
east of Limassol. From the formation of the strata, the hill slopes gradually to the
sea, but falls in abrupt cliffs on the east, west, and north sides, the cliffs reaching
their greatest height on the north. On the east side a slope of lower elevation is
united to the Acropolis hill, and is believed to have been the site of the city itself.
Both Acropolis and Polis are now under the plough, and produce crops of barley.
This makes it impossible without excavation to distinguish the sites of buildings.
To the west of the Acropolis, and the east of the city site, the deep beds of
streams, dry most of the year, run to the sea. Beyond these streams for about a
thousand yards to east and west is the tomb area. There ■ is also a tomb area on
the level ground to the north of the Acropolis. The excavations took place on two
1 Paus. ix. 41. 2 Plutarch, Theseus, xx.
3 Ovid, Met. x. 220, 531. * Hipponax, in Strabo, p. 340.
s Mayer, Views in Palestine, etc. ; Longperier, Mus. Nap. III. PI. xxxiii. ; Loher, Cypern,
p. 283.
6 Gaz. Arch. 1879, PI. 31 ; Reinach, Repertoire, ii. p. 232.
7 Cesnola, Cyprus, Pis. xiv., xv. 8 Cesnola, Cyprus, Pis. xix., xx.
some mythographers make a son of Kinyras, was especially associated with that of
Aphrodite at Amathus. Pausanias mentions that an ancient shrine of Aphrodite and
Adonis at Amathus claimed to possess the necklace of Eriphyle.1 A tomb of Ariadne
was also shown at Amathus, and Plutarch reports, on the authority of one Paion of
Amathus, a curious ritual annually performed in her honour.2
We hear that the town was rich in its metals3 and its wheat.4 Its history was
written by Eratosthenes, in nine books at the least.
At an early but uncertain period the town of Amathus was supplanted by the
new city, Neapolis, now Limassol, which has the advantage of a more protected anchorage.
At the present day the ancient site is totally deserted, the nearest inhabitants being in
the village of Hagios Tychonas, about a mile to the north of the ancient Acropolis.
Among former finds made on this site is a great stone vase, now in the Louvre,
which has a figure of a bull in relief, below each of its four handles. There are some
scanty remains on the Acropolis of a second vase, said to have been broken when its
fellow was in course of transport.5 A Greek inscription {C.I.G. No. 2,644) remains in situ.
A grotesque figure of a colossal horned Heracles, more than thirteen feet high,
and holding up a lioness by the hind legs, was found near Amathus in 1873, and is
now in the museum at Constantinople.6 General Cesnola, in the course of his diggings
at Amathus, found an archaic sculptured sarcophagus in one of the built tombs,7 and
five specimens of Phoenician metal work, including a silver cup, with the subject of an
attack on a walled city.8
THE SITE.
The Acropolis of Amathus is a hill rising from the sea-shore, seven miles to the
east of Limassol. From the formation of the strata, the hill slopes gradually to the
sea, but falls in abrupt cliffs on the east, west, and north sides, the cliffs reaching
their greatest height on the north. On the east side a slope of lower elevation is
united to the Acropolis hill, and is believed to have been the site of the city itself.
Both Acropolis and Polis are now under the plough, and produce crops of barley.
This makes it impossible without excavation to distinguish the sites of buildings.
To the west of the Acropolis, and the east of the city site, the deep beds of
streams, dry most of the year, run to the sea. Beyond these streams for about a
thousand yards to east and west is the tomb area. There ■ is also a tomb area on
the level ground to the north of the Acropolis. The excavations took place on two
1 Paus. ix. 41. 2 Plutarch, Theseus, xx.
3 Ovid, Met. x. 220, 531. * Hipponax, in Strabo, p. 340.
s Mayer, Views in Palestine, etc. ; Longperier, Mus. Nap. III. PI. xxxiii. ; Loher, Cypern,
p. 283.
6 Gaz. Arch. 1879, PI. 31 ; Reinach, Repertoire, ii. p. 232.
7 Cesnola, Cyprus, Pis. xiv., xv. 8 Cesnola, Cyprus, Pis. xix., xx.