Lyktos (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: or ) was a city in ancient

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

. During the Classical and

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

periods, it was one of the major settlements on the island. Its ruins are located near the modern-day village of Lyttos in the municipality of

Minoa Pediada Minoa Pediada (, "Minoan Plain") is a municipality in Heraklion regional unit, Crete, Greece. The seat of the municipality is the village Evangelismos. The municipality has an area of . Municipality The municipality Minoa Pediada was formed at th ...

, Heraklion Regional Unit.

Lyktos in mythology

Lyktos appears in the

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 ...

ic catalogue. According to

Hesiod Hesiod ( or ; ''Hēsíodos''; ) was an ancient Greece, Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer.M. L. West, ''Hesiod: Theogony'', Oxford University Press (1966), p. 40.Jasper Gr ...

, ''Theogony''
477-484
, Rhea gave birth to

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 ...

in Lyktos and hid him in a cave of Mount Aegaeon. The inhabitants of this ancient Doric city called themselves colonists of

Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...

, and 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 ...

appears to have prevailed there.

History

The name "Lyktos" seems to originate in the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

, appearing in

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 ...

texts as ''ru-ki-to'' and as ''rkt (ry-kꜣ-tı͗)'' in an Egyptian list of Aegean place names from the

Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III The Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III, also known as Kom el-Hettân, was built by the main architect Amenhotep, son of Hapu, for Pharaoh Amenhotep III during the 18th dynasty of the New Kingdom. The mortuary temple is located on the Western bank ...

. In 344 BC, Phalaecus the

Phocis Phocis (; ; ) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Central Greece. It stretches from the western mountainsides of Parnassus on the east to the mountain range of Vardousia on the west, upon the Gu ...

assisted the Knossians against their neighbors the Lyktians, and took the city of Lyktos, from which he was driven out by

Archidamus Archidamus may refer to: *one of several kings of Sparta: ** Archidamus I (c. 600–575 BC) **Archidamus II (469–427 BC) **Archidamus III (360–338 BC) **Archidamus IV (305–275 BC) **Archidamus V (228–227 BC) * Archidamus (speech), a speech o ...

, king of

. The Lyktians, at a still later period, were engaged in frequent hostilities with

Knossos Knossos (; , ; Linear B: ''Ko-no-so'') is a Bronze Age archaeological site in Crete. The site was a major centre of the Minoan civilization and is known for its association with the Greek myth of Theseus and the minotaur. It is located on th ...

, and succeeded in creating a formidable party in the island against that city. During the

Lyttian War The Lyttian War was an internal conflict fought from around 220 BC to about 216 BC between two coalitions of Cretan city-states, led by Knossos and Polyrrhenia respectively. The events of the war are recorded by the historian Polybius. It is con ...

in 220 BC the Knossians, taking advantage of their absence on a distant expedition, surprised Lyktos, and utterly destroyed it. The citizens, on their return, abandoned it, and found refuge at Lappa.

Polybius Polybius (; , ; ) was a Greek historian of the middle Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work , a universal history documenting the rise of Rome in the Mediterranean in the third and second centuries BC. It covered the period of 264–146 ...

, on this occasion, bears testimony to the high character of the Lyktians, as compared with their countrymen. They afterwards recovered their city by the aid of the Gortynians, who gave them a place called Diatonium, which they had taken from the Knossians. Lyktos was sacked by the

general

Metellus Metellus may refer to: Cognomina *Metellus, a cognomen of the gens Caecilia, an ancient Roman family **For their family tree, see Caecilii Metelli family tree *Hugo Metellus (died ), Augustinian canon and poet *Metellus of Tegernsee ( ), German mon ...

, but was existing in the time of

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo, Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-si ...

at a distance of 80 stadia (15 km) from the

Libyan Sea The Libyan Sea (; ; ) is the portion of the Mediterranean Sea north of the North Africa, African coast of Ancient Libya, ancient ''Libya'', i.e. Cyrenaica, and Marmarica (the coast of what is now Butnan District, eastern Libya and Matrouh Gov ...

. The site still bears the name of ''Lytto'', where ancient remains are now found. In the 16th century, Venetian manuscripts describe the walls of the ancient city, with circular bastions, and other fortifications, as existing upon a lofty mountain, nearly in the centre of the island. Numerous vestiges of ancient structures, tombs, and broken marbles, are seen, as well as an immense arch of an aqueduct, by which the water was carried across a deep valley by means of a large marble channel. The harbor of

Chersonesos Chersonesus, contracted in medieval Greek to Cherson (), was an ancient Greek colony founded approximately 2,500 years ago in the southwestern part of the Crimean Peninsula. Settlers from Heraclea Pontica in Bithynia established the colon ...

served as the port for Lyktos trade. The town of ''Arsinoe'' belonged to Lyktos during the

Hellenistic period In classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Greek history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC, which was followed by the ascendancy of the R ...

, according to

Stephanus of Byzantium Stephanus or Stephen of Byzantium (; , ''Stéphanos Byzántios''; centuryAD) was a Byzantine grammarian and the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled ''Ethnica'' (). Only meagre fragments of the dictionary survive, but the epit ...

, although its location is far from certain. Some scholars locate this

Arsinoe (Crete) Arsinoe (Greek: ) was a Hellenistic era city in Crete known primarily from the coins it minted. Though its location is not entirely certain, numismatic evidence suggests that it was a Ptolemaic refounding of the city of Rhithymna. This evidence ...

at the site of the older city of

Rhithymna Rhithymna or Rithymna () or Rhithymnia (Ῥιθυμνία), was a town of ancient Crete, Greece, which is mentioned by Ptolemy and Pliny the Elder as the first town on the north coast to the east of Amphimalla, and is spoken of as a Cretan city by ...

(although it is rather far from Lyktos). Others place it near the village of Malia, at

above, or elsewhere in the territory of Lyktos. The decoration of the coins issued at Lyktos is usually an eagle flying, with the inscription "ΛΥΤΤΙΩΝ" ("of the Lyttians").

Modern history

Before unearthing Knossos,

Arthur Evans Sir Arthur John Evans (8 July 1851 – 11 July 1941) was a British archaeologist and pioneer in the study of Aegean civilization in the Bronze Age. The first excavations at the Minoan palace of Knossos on the List of islands of Greece, Gree ...

intended to excavate Lyktos but did not succeed in obtaining the necessary permits. As of 2022, only a small part of the site has been systematically excavated. A new five-year research program commenced in 2021, whose first year yielded significant findings the most important of which was a headless marble statue of

Hadrian Hadrian ( ; ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian was born in Italica, close to modern Seville in Spain, an Italic peoples, Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica; his branch of the Aelia gens, Aelia '' ...

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References

External links

* {{Authority control Populated places in Heraklion (regional unit) Minoa Pediada Cretan city-states Former populated places in Greece Spartan colonies Apollo