Axus or Axos (), also Oaxus or Oaxos (Ὄαξος) and Waxus or Waxos (Ϝάξος), was a city and ''

polis Polis (: poleis) means 'city' in Ancient Greek. The ancient word ''polis'' had socio-political connotations not possessed by modern usage. For example, Modern Greek πόλη (polē) is located within a (''khôra''), "country", which is a πατ ...

'' (city-state) of

ancient Crete The history of Crete goes back to the 7th millennium BC, preceding the ancient Minoan civilization by more than four millennia. The Minoan civilization was the first civilization in Europe. During the Iron Age, Crete developed an Ancient Greece-i ...

. According to

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

, it was situated on a river; which, according to

Vibius Sequester Vibius Sequester (active in the 4th or 5th century AD) is the Latin author of lists of geographical names. Work ''De fluminibus, fontibus, lacubus, nemoribus, gentibus, quorum apud poëtas mentio fit'' is made up of seven alphabetical lists of ...

, gave its name to Axus. According to the

Cyrenaean Cyrene, also sometimes anglicization of names, anglicized as Kyrene, was an ancient Greeks, ancient Greek Greek colonization, colony and ancient Romans, Roman Cities of the Roman Empire, city near present-day Shahhat in northeastern Libya in Nor ...

traditions, the

Thera Santorini (, ), officially Thira (, ) or Thera, is a Greek island in the southern Aegean Sea, about southeast from the mainland. It is the largest island of a small, circular archipelago formed by the Santorini caldera. It is the southernmos ...

ean Battus, their founder, was the son of a damsel named Phronimne, the daughter of Etearchus, king of this city. The town must be quite ancient as its name appears in Mycenaean

Linear B Linear B is a syllabary, syllabic script that was used for writing in Mycenaean Greek, the earliest Attested language, attested form of the Greek language. The script predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries, the earliest known examp ...

tablets in the form e-ko-so. It was an inland town and its harbour was at

Astale Astale () was a Roman town of ancient Crete. According to the ''Stadiasmus Maris Magni'', it was located on the north coast of Crete, 30 stadia from an unknown location ''Amphimatrion'' (Άμφιματρίον), probably meaning Amphimalion, and 30 ...

. The site of Axus is located near modern

Axos Axus or Axos (), also Oaxus or Oaxos (Ὄαξος) and Waxus or Waxos (Ϝάξος), was a city and ''polis'' (city-state) of ancient Crete. According to Virgil, it was situated on a river; which, according to Vibius Sequester, gave its name to Ax ...

, near

Mount Ida In Greek mythology, two sacred mountains are called Mount Ida, the "Mountain of the Goddess": Mount Ida in Crete, and Mount Ida in the ancient Troad region of western Anatolia (in modern-day Turkey), which was also known as the '' Phrygian Ida' ...

. In the 19th century, remains belonging to the so-called

Cyclopean walls Cyclopean masonry is a type of stonework found in Mycenaean architecture, built with massive limestone boulders, roughly fitted together with minimal clearance between adjacent stones and with clay mortar or no use of mortar. The boulders typi ...

were found, and in the church a piece of white marble with a sepulchral inscription in the ancient

Doric Greek language Doric or Dorian (), also known as West Greek, was a group of Ancient Greek dialects; its varieties are divided into the Doric proper and Northwest Doric subgroups. Doric was spoken in a vast area, including northern Greece (Acarnania, Aetolia, ...

of the island. On another inscription was a decree of a "common assembly of the Cretans," an instance of the well known Syncretism, as it was called. The coins of Axus present types of

Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

and

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

, as might be expected in a city situated on the slopes of Mt. Ida, and the foundation of which was, by one of the legends, ascribed to a son of Apollo. The situation answers to one of the etymologies of the name: it was called Axus because the place is precipitous, that word being used by the Cretans in the same sense that the other Greeks assigned to ἀγμός, a crag.

References

Populated places in ancient Crete Former populated places in Greece Cretan city-states Places in Greek mythology Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Greece Archaeological sites in Crete {{AncientCrete-geo-stub