Chytri (or Khytri, ) 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 (, ) 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 Bay of Famagusta in the east to ...
. Today the modern town of
Kythrea
Kythrea ( or ; ) 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 Chytroi, which was founded by Chy ...
(Kyrka) has preserved the ancient name.
Ancient history
According to mythology, after the
fall of Troy
The Trojan War was a legendary conflict in Greek mythology that took place around the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. The war was waged by the Achaeans (Greeks) against the city of Troy after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Me ...
, Greek immigrants led by Chytros, son of Alexander and grandson of the Athenian
Acamas, hero of the Attic tribe of the same name, settled in Cyprus. The modern village of Kythrea is situated near the ancient kingdom of Chytroi which was founded by Chytros. A
necropolis
A necropolis (: necropolises, necropoles, necropoleis, necropoli) is a large, designed cemetery with elaborate tomb monuments. The name stems from the Ancient Greek ''nekropolis'' ().
The term usually implies a separate burial site at a distan ...
has been discovered. In the time of the
Assyria
Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...
n king
Assurbanipal
Ashurbanipal (, meaning " Ashur is the creator of the heir")—or Osnappar ()—was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 669 BC to his death in 631. He is generally remembered as the last great king of Assyria. Ashurbanipal inherited the th ...
, 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 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 ...
,
Artemis
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Artemis (; ) is the goddess of the hunting, hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, transitions, nature, vegetation, childbirth, Kourotrophos, care of children, and chastity. In later tim ...
and
Aphrodite Paphia. In
Delphic Theorodochoi inscription, one inscription mentions Chytri. Later forms of the name are Cythraia, Cythereia, Cythroi, Chytrides; according to the work of
Athanasios Sakellarios (''Κυπριακά'', 1890, 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 ( ; , ; ) was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Little is definitively known about his life, but his surviving book ''Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers'' is a principal source for the history of ancient Greek ph ...
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.
Biography
Le Quien studied at , Paris, and at twenty entered the Dominican convent in Faubourg Saint-Germain, where he made ...
'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 (; Ancient Greek, Greek: Λικίνιος; 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 that ...
,
Maximinus or
Constantius Chlorus
Flavius Valerius Constantius ( – 25 July 306), also called Constantius I, was a Roman emperor from 305 to 306. He was one of the four original members of the Tetrarchy established by Diocletian, first serving as Caesar (title), ''caesar'' ...
; the most famous is
St. Demetrian, 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, to some other part of the Catho ...
,
while the islands was a Latin crusader kingdom.
See also
*
List of ancient Greek cities
This is an incomplete list of ancient Greek cities, including colonies outside Greece, and including settlements that were not sovereign '' poleis''.
Many colonies outside Greece were soon assimilated to some other language but a city is included h ...
References
Cities in ancient Cyprus
Former populated places in Cyprus
{{Cyprus-geo-stub