Chytri (or Khytri, el, Χύτροι) was one of the ten city-kingdoms of Cyprus in antiquity. It was located in the centre of the island, in the territory of Chytraea, west of

Mesaoria The Mesaoria ( el, Μεσαορία, tr, Mesarya) is a broad, sweeping plain which makes up the north centre of the island of Cyprus. Geography The Mesaoria is the name given to the broad tract of plain which extends across the island from the ...

. Today the modern town of

Kythrea Kythrea ( el, Κυθρέα or ; tr, Değirmenlik) is a small town in Cyprus, 10 km northeast of Nicosia. Kythrea is under the ''de facto'' control of Northern Cyprus. History Kythrea is situated near the ancient Greek city-kingdom of ...

(Kyrka) has preserved the ancient name.

Ancient history

After 1200 B.C. and after the Trojan war many Greek immigrants led by Chytros, son of Alexander and grandson of the Athenian Akamas, hero of the Attican tribe of the same name, settled in Cyprus. Kythrea is situated near the ancient kingdom of Chytroi which was founded by Chytros. There has been found here a

necropolis A necropolis (plural necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'', literally meaning "city of the dead". The term usually im ...

. In the time of the

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the As ...

n king

Assurbanipal Ashurbanipal (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , meaning "Ashur is the creator of the heir") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 669 BCE to his death in 631. He is generally remembered as the last great king of Assyria. Inheriting the throne as ...

, Pilagura was King of Kitrusi, one of the ten kingdoms on the island. Numerous inscriptions have been found in the Cypriot dialect, some in ordinary Greek. Chytri was noted for the worship of

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...

Artemis In ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion, Artemis (; grc-gre, Ἄρτεμις) is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, Kourotrophos, care of children, and chastity. ...

and

Aphrodite Paphia Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols incl ...

. In Delphic Theorodochoi inscription, one inscription mention the Chytri. Later forms of the name are Cythraia, Cythereia, Cythroi, Chytrides; according to the late Greek work of

Sakellarios A ''sakellarios'' ( el, σακελλάριος) or ''sacellarius'' is the title of an official entrusted with administrative and financial duties (cf. ''sakellē'' or ''sakellion'', "purse, treasury") in a government or institution. The title was ...

(Kypriaka, 2nd ed., 202–205) Kyrka should be Cythera or Cythereia; he identifies Chytri with Palo-Kythro, a village with ruins two hours south of Kyrka. However, the historical texts mention only one town.

Diogenes Laërtius Diogenes Laërtius ( ; grc-gre, Διογένης Λαέρτιος, ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is definitively known about his life, but his surviving ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal sour ...

writes that there was a festival held at Chytri with theatrical plays.

Middle Ages

Chytri was at an early date an episcopal see.

Lequien Michel Le Quien (8 October 1661, Boulogne-sur-Mer – 12 March 1733, Paris) was a French historian and theologian. He studied at Plessis College, Paris, and at twenty entered the Dominican convent in Faubourg Saint-Germain, where he made his p ...

's list of the bishops of the see (II, 1069) is very incomplete, only eight being recorded: the first is St. Pappus, who suffered martyrdom under

Licinius Valerius Licinianus Licinius (c. 265 – 325) was Roman emperor from 308 to 324. For most of his reign he was the colleague and rival of Constantine I, with whom he co-authored the Edict of Milan, AD 313, that granted official toleration to ...

, Maximinus or

Constantius Chlorus Flavius Valerius Constantius "Chlorus" ( – 25 July 306), also called Constantius I, was Roman emperor from 305 to 306. He was one of the four original members of the Tetrarchy established by Diocletian, first serving as caesar from 293 ...

; the most famous is

St. Demetrian Saint Demetrian (d. 912?) is a saint from Cyprus. In the 9th and 10th centuries, he served the Christian Church as a monk and an abbot, and ultimately as the bishop of the ancient city of Khytri. He is venerated for his apparently miraculous re ...

, 885-912 (?). The Greek, i.e. Orthodox, see of similar title was suppressed in 1222 by Cardinal Pelagius, the

papal legate 300px, A woodcut showing Henry II of England greeting the pope's legate. A papal legate or apostolic legate (from the ancient Roman title ''legatus'') is a personal representative of the pope to foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic ...

, while the islands was a Latin crusader kingdom.

References

Cities in ancient Cyprus Former populated places in Cyprus {{Cyprus-geo-stub

Ancient history

Middle Ages

See also

References