Gortyn
- v. the foll. art.
GORTYN, GORTYNA (Γορτύν, Γόρτυνα: Eth. Γορτύνιος), a town of Crete which appears in the Homeric poems, under the form of Γορτύν (Il. 2.646, Od. 3.294); but afterwards became usually Γόρτυνα (comp. Tzchuck ad Pomp. Melam, vol. iii. pt. 2. p. 811), according to Steph. B. (s. v.) it was originally called Larissa (Λάρισσα) and Cremnia (Κρήμνια).
This important city was next to Cnossus in importance and splendour; in early times these two great towns had entered into a league which enabled them to reduce the whole of Crete under their power; in after-times when dissensions arose among them they were engaged in continual hostilities (Strab. 10. p. 478). It was originally of very considerable size, since Strabo (l. c.) reckons its circuit at 50 stadia; but when he wrote it was very much diminished. He adds that Ptolemy Philopator had begun to enclose it with fresh walls; but the work was not carried on for more than 8 stadia. In the Peloponnesian War, Gortyna seems to have had relations with Athens. (Thuc. 2.85). In B.C. 201, Philopoemen, who had been invited over by the inhabitants, assumed the command of the forces of Gortyna. (Plut. Phil. 13.) In B.C. 197, five hundred of the Gortynians, under their commander, Cydas, which seems to have been a common name at Gortyna, joined Quinctius Flamininus in Thessaly (Liv. 33.3.)
Gortyna stood on a plain watered by the river Lethaeus, and at a distance of 90 stadia from the Libyan Sea, on which--were situated its two harbours, Lebena and Metallum (Strab. l. c.), and is mentioned by Pliny (Plin. Nat. 4.20), Scylax (p. 19), Ptolemy (Ptol. 3.17.10), and Hierocles, who commenced his tour of the island with this place.
In the neighbourhood of Gortyna, the fountain of Sauros is said to have been surrounded by poplars which bore fruits (Theophrast. H. P. 3.5); and on the banks of the Lethaeus was another famous spring, which the naturalists said was shaded by a plane-tree, which retained its foliage through the winter, and which the people believed to have covered the marriage-bed of Europa and the metamorphosed Zeus. (Theophrast. H. P. 1.15; Varr. de Re Rustic. 1.7; Plin. Nat. 12.1.)
The ruins of Gortyna, as they existed previously, have been described more or less diffusely by various writers (Belon, Les Observ. des plus Singul. p. 8; Tournefort, Voyage du Lévant, pp. 58--64; Pococke, Trav. vol. ii. pt. i. pp. 252--255; Savary, Lettres sur la Grèce, xxiii.); their statements, along with the full account of the Venetian MS. of the 16th century, will be found in the Museum of Classical Antiquities, vol. ii. pp. 277--286. The site of Gortyna cannot, till the survey of the island is completed, be made out, but Mr. Pashley (Trav. vol. 1. p. 295) has placed it near the modern Haghius Dhéka, where the ten Saints of Gortyna, according to tradition, suffered martyrdom in the reign of Decius (comp. Cornelius, Creta Sacra, vol. i. pp. 156--166). In this neighbourhood is the cavern which Mr. Cockerell (Walpole, Memoirs, vol. ii. pp. 402--406) has conjectured to be the far-famed labyrinth; but as the ancients. with the exception of Claudian (Sext. Cons. Hon. 634), who, probably, used the name of the town as equivalent to Cretan, are unanimous in fixing the legend of the Minotaur at Cnossus, the identification must be presumed to be purely fanciful. The coins of Gortyna are of very ancient workmanship. Besides the autonomous, there are numerous imperial coins, ranging from Augustus to Hadrian. (Eckhel, vol. 2. p. 312; Sestini, p. 82.) COIN OF GORTYNA.
[E.B.J](Γορτύν) or Gortȳna (Γόρτυνα). An ancient city in Crete on the southern shore of the island, and situated on the banks of the river Lethaeus. By its two harbours, Metallum and Lebena, it communicated with the sea. Here were temples to Zeus, Apollo, and Artemis; and near the fountain of Saurus was a spring overhung by a palm-tree, a spot which tradition declared to be the scene of the loves of Zeus and Europa (q.v.). Next to Cnossus, Gortyn was the most powerful town of Crete, and between these two cities there existed an almost continuous feud. Under the Romans, Gortyn became the capital of the island. In 1884, an archaic inscription was found on the site of Gortyn, by Halbherr, in the bed of a millstream. Two fragments of the same inscription had been previously found, the new discovery making a practically complete record of a collection of laws regulating the private relations of the people of the city, with regard to such subjects as inheritance, adoption, heiresses, marriage, and divorce. The inscription is regarded as a little earlier than the year B.C. 400. See Merriam, The Law Code of the Cretan Gortyna (1886) (text, translation, and commentary); and Simon, Zur Inschrift von Gortyn (Vienna, 1886).
The most important Graeco-Roman city of Crete stood on the N edge of the plain of Mesara, 15 km E of the great Bronze Age palatial site at Phaistos. Prehistoric remains at the site are scarce, although some evidence of Neolithic and Minoan occupation was found nearby at Mitropolis, and a little Late Minoan material has been found at Gortyn itself. References to the city in the Iliad (2.646) and Odyssey (3.294) suggest that there was probably a Late Bronze Age settlement somewhere in the vicinity of the Graeco-Roman city. The foundation of the city is variously ascribed to Lakonians (Konon, History 36), Tegeans (Paus. 8.53) and to Minos (Strab. 10.476-7), but the beginnings of the Graeco-Roman city can best be ascribed to the Geometric or early archaic period. The earliest inscriptions from the site date from the later 7th c., and the oldest of the temples was either a Geometric or archaic foundation. By the 3d c. B.C. it had become one of the major cities of Crete, and had conquered Phaistos and taken over its harbor at Matala. In 221 B.C., however, civil war broke out in the city between those who favored an alliance with Knossos and those who preferred alliance with Lyttos. The result of the war is uncertain, but there followed a long period of intermittent hostilities with Knossos, which were really ended only by the Roman conquest of Crete in 68 B.C. Gortyn allied with Rome, and while Knossos was destroyed, Gortyn became the capital of the new province of Crete and Cyrene. The city was finally destroyed by the Saracens in A.D. 824.
The city was built on either side of the Lethaios River, but there are few surviving remains to be seen to the W of the river. Immediately W of the river, however, is the acropolis with traces of its ancient wall and with the early temple mentioned above. This was a slightly oblong building with a cella, toward the back of which was a bothros flanked by two repositories. The building was restored in Classical, Hellenistic, and early Roman times. At the foot of the acropolis, by the river, are the remains of a theater.
Immediately opposite the theater, on the E bank, is the odeion, which was built in the late 1st c. B.C. and, after being damaged by an earthquake, was restored by Trajan. Behind the brick-floored stage was a facade with three portals and four built niches, while on the N side, incorporated into the foundations, were the 12 stone blocks carrying the famous law code. These had been built into an earlier, Hellenistic building which may well have been a law court, but the inscription was first cut in the first half of the 5th c. B.C. The code itself undoubtedly contains much that is archaic and indeed Minoan.
To the S of the odeion lay the agora and the Temple of Asklepios, about both of which little is known, although the cult statue from the temple is preserved in the Herakleion Museum. South of the agora, and close to the modern road, is the Church of Haghios Titus. It was probably built in the 6th c. A.D., but much of what survives certainly belongs to later repairs and additions. Originally there appear to have been transeptal apses and flanking chapels on either side of the great central apse and altar.
To the S of the modern road are several other important public buildings. Close together stand the Temple of Apollo Pythios and the Temple of Isis. The former is said to have stood at the center of the city and to have been its most important temple. Its foundation date is uncertain but it was restored and enlarged during the Hellenistic period, when a pronaos was added, with six half-columns of the Doric order. Between the columns were placed inscribed blocks carrying the treaties made between Gortyn and other Cretan cities during the 2d c. B.C. In the cella two rows of four Corinthian columns, the bases of which are still in situ, divided the interior into three aisles. Other subsequent additions included the great stepped altar which stood before the pronaos and was built during the Roman period. The Temple of Isis, just N of the Temple of Apollo, is known from an inscription to have been dedicated in fact to Isis, Serapis, and various Egyptian deities. The altar stand on the E wall, opposite the entrance, was in fact divided into three and took statues of Isis, Serapis, and Anubis. Niches for further statues were situated in the other walls and a number of inscriptions were recovered from the site.
East of the Temple of Apollo was a small nymphaion built at the end of the 2d c. A.D., and subsequently (6th-7th c. A.D.) made into a reservoir and fountain. A similar fate befell a second nymphaion, built perhaps a little earlier, and situated some distance S of the first. Immediately S of the N nymphaion is the building known as the Praetorium, and identified as the residence of the governor of the province. It was originally built at the beginning of the 2d c. B.C. during the reign of Trajan and may then have been a domestic residence for the governor and little more. Rebuilding following earthquake damage in the 4th c., however, saw the construction of the great basilican hall, which signifies that the building was now, if not before, used as an administrative center.
To the W, and close to the Temple of Apollo is a small brick-built theater of the Roman period. Some distance S of it are the remains of a substantial building of the Roman period which is almost certainly the main public baths. East of the baths is the brick and masonry amphitheater, another of the buildings erected early in the 2d c. A.D. The oval cavea is partially taken up by a built stage for theatrical performances, while on the outside wall of the building built niches were originally embellished with statues, one of which (of Antoninus Pius) is still preserved—the trunk on the site and the head in the Heraklion Museum. Fragments of other sculptured pieces survive in the vicinity of the amphitheater. South of it some of the supporting arches of the great circus or stadium can be seen.
During the Roman period water was supplied to the city by a built aqueduct which ran from a source somewhere along the line of the Lethaios river.
Finds from the site are on display in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum, and in the small museum on the W outskirts of the village of Haghia Deka where a number of statues and inscriptions are displayed.
BIBLIOGRAPHYHom. Od. 3.294; Il. 2.646; Strab. 10.476; F. Halbherr, “Relazione Sugli Scavi del Tempio di Apollo Pythio in Gortina,” MonAnt 1 (1892) 9-76; D. Comparetti, “Nuovi Frammenti d'Iscrizioni Arcaiche Trovati nel Pythion,” MonAnt 1 (1892) 77-120; S. Ricci, “Il Pretorio di Gortyna, Secundo un Disegno a Penna e Manoscritti Inediti del Secolo XVI,” MonAnt 2 (1892) 317-34; L. Savignoni et al., “Nuovi Studii e Scoperte in Gortyna,” MonAnt 18 (1907) 177-384I; L. Pernier & L. Banti, Guida degli Scavi Italiano in Creta (1947) MI; D. Levi, “Atti Della Scuola,” Annuario NS 19-20 (1958) 389-94; R. F. Willetts, The Law Code of Gortyn (1967) I; G. Rizza & V. Santa Maria Scrinari, Il Santuaria Sull' Acropoli di Gortina (1968) PI.
K. BRANIGAN