Chryse (; ), also called Lemnian Chryse, was a small island in the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans and Anatolia, and covers an area of some . In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea, which in turn con ...

near

Lemnos Lemnos ( ) or Limnos ( ) is a Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within the Lemnos (regional unit), Lemnos regional unit, which is part of the North Aegean modern regions of Greece ...

, mentioned by

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

and

Sophocles Sophocles ( 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least two plays have survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those ...

. By the second century, PausaniasPausanias, ''

Description of Greece ''Description of Greece'' () is the only surviving work by the ancient "geographer" or tourist Pausanias (geographer), Pausanias (c. 110 – c. 180). Pausanias' ''Description of Greece'' comprises ten books, each of them dedicated to some ...

'' 8.33.4 and

Appian Appian of Alexandria (; ; ; ) was a Greek historian with Roman citizenship who prospered during the reigns of the Roman Emperors Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius. He was born c. 95 in Alexandria. After holding the senior offices in the pr ...

say that it had sunk below the sea. Its location is unknown. The island's main feature was said to be its temple to

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 ...

, and its patron deity was the goddess Chryse. The Greek archer

Philoctetes Philoctetes ( ''Philoktētēs''; , ), or Philocthetes, according to Greek mythology, was the son of Poeas, king of Meliboea (Magnesia), Meliboea in Thessaly, and Demonassa or Methone (Greek myth), Methone. He was a Greek hero, famed as an archer ...

stopped there on his way to

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

and was bitten by a

viper Vipers are snakes in the family Viperidae, found in most parts of the world, except for Antarctica, Australia, Hawaii, Madagascar, New Zealand, Ireland, and various other isolated islands. They are venomous and have long (relative to non-vipe ...

Lucullus Lucius Licinius Lucullus (; 118–57/56 BC) was a Ancient Romans, Roman List of Roman generals, general and Politician, statesman, closely connected with Lucius Cornelius Sulla. In culmination of over 20 years of almost continuous military and ...

captured three men there in an ambush during the

Third Mithridatic War The Third Mithridatic War (73–63 BC), the last and longest of the three Mithridatic Wars, was fought between Mithridates VI of Pontus and the Roman Republic. Both sides were joined by a great number of allies, dragging the entire east of th ...

. The island seems to have disappeared by the second century AD. An ancient oracle (written by Onomacritus) may have predicted this end. The ''

'' says:

Proposed sites

An amateur underwater archaeologist claimed to have rediscovered the island in 1960, identifying it with "a sunken land mass known as Kharos Bank, a 10-sq.-mi. area near the island of Lemnos" (), listed on British naval charts and located about below the surface. White building blocks (presumably from Apollo's temple) were said to be visible on the sea floor. The Kharos Bank is mentioned by others as a possible site, but there does not appear to have been further work on it. Another theory proposes that the remains of Chryse are on a small islet only 70–80 m off the north coast of Lemnos, locally known as Varvara (). Though the islet has a "heavy concentration of ancient foundations and fragments of pottery", and a large mound at its summit surrounded by walls (possibly an altar), it has not been excavated. It was apparently larger in antiquity, and large parts have sunk because of tectonic activity.Constantine Lagos, "Lemnian Chryse in Myth and Reality", E. Close, G. Couvalis, G. Frazis, M. Palaktsoglou, M. Tsianikas, eds., ''Greek Research in Australia: Proceedings of the Biennial International Conference of Greek Studies, Flinders University'', June 2007
p. 11–20
/ref>

References

External links

* "Herakles sacrifies to Chryse", vase painting with altar of Chryse
Vienna Art Museum
{{Aegean Sea, state=collapsed Islands of Greece North Aegean islands Former islands Ancient Aegean Sea Ancient Lemnos Mythological islands Former populated places in Greece

Proposed sites

References

Further reading

External links