Nysa
Frieze-Dennison Vergil
- the nurse of Bacchus: in monte Nysā, a Nysā nutrice, Serv. ad Verg. E. 6, 15; cf. Plin. 5, 18, 16, § 74; Cic. N. D. 3, 23, 58.
- the name of several cities.
- A A city in Caria, on the slope of Mount Messogis, the modern Nasli or Sultan-hissar, Plin. 5, 29, 29, § 108. —
- B A city in Palestine, the modern El Baisan, Plin. 5, 18, 16, § 74.—
- C A city in India, on Mount Meros, the birthplace of Bacchus, Verg. A. 6, 805; Mel. 3, 7; Plin. 6, 21, 23, § 79; Curt. 8, 10; cf. Just. 12, 7, 6; cf.: celso Nysae de vertice.—
- II Hence,
- A Ny-saeus, a, um, adj.
- 1 Of or belonging to Nysa in Caria.—Nysaei, ōrum, m., the Nysaeans, Cic. Fam. 13, 64, 1.—
- 2 Of or belonging to Nysa, in India; poet. for Bacchic: chori, Prop. 3, 15 (4, 16), 22: palmes, Sil. 7, 198: Hydaspes, Luc. 8, 227: cacumina Gauri, Sil. 12, 160.—
- B Nȳsēis, ĭdis, adj. f., Nysaean, i.e. Bacchic: Nymphae Nyseides, who reared Bacchus, Ov. F. 3, 769.—
- C Nȳsēĭus, a, um, adj., Nysaean, i.e. Bacchic: juga Nyseia, Luc. 8, 801.—
- D Nȳseus (dissyl.), ĕi and ĕos, m., an epithet of Bacchus, Ov. M. 4, 13.—
- E Nȳsĭ-ăcus, a, um, adj., Nysaean, i.e. Bacchic, Mart. Cap. 2, § 98.—
- F Nȳsĭas, ădis, adj. f., Nysaean: Nysiades Nymphae, Ov. F. 3, 769. —
- G Nȳsĭgĕna, ae, m., born in Nysa: cum Nysigenis Silenis, Cat. 64, 252.—
- H Nȳsĭus, a, um, adj., Nysian: quam (hederam) quidam Nysiam, alii Bacchicam vocant, Plin. 16, 34, 62, § 147; also, an epithet of Bacchus: Nysius et Semeleius Liber, Arn. 5, 176; Cic. Fl. 25, 60.
(Νῦσα), a daughter of Aristaeus, who was believed to have brought up the infant god Dionysus, and from whom one of the many towns of the name of Nysa was believed to have derived its name. (Diod. 3.69.) [L.S]
or Nyssa (Νύσα or Νύσσα). 1. Queen of Bithynia, wife of Nicomedes II., and mother of Nicomedes III. (Memnon, 100.30.) She is generally considered to have been originally a dancer, because Nicomedes III. is termed, by his rival Mithridates, " saltatricis filius" (Just. 38.5); but it is more probable that the latter by such an expression meant to stigmatise Nicomedes as illegitimate, though he was in reality the son of Nysa.
2. Wife of Nicomedes III. Mithridates prework tended that she was the mother of the impostor, whom he set up as a claimant to the. throne of Bithynia, B. C. 74. (Mithr. Ep. ad Arsac. ap. Sall. Hist. iv. p. 239, ed. Gerlach.)
3. A daughter of Nicomedes III., whose cause was defended by J. Caesar, in gratitude for her father's friendship. (Suet. Jul. 49.)
4. A sister of Mithridates the Great, who was taken prisoner by Lucullus at Cabeira, which saved her from sharing the fate of the other sisters and wives of the king, who were put to death shortly after at Pharnacia. (Plut. Luc. 18.)
5. A daughter of Mithridates the Great, who had been betrothed to the king of Cyprus, but accompanied her father in his flight to the kingdom of Bosporus, where she ultimately shared his fate, and put an end to her life by poison, B. C. 63. (Appian, App. Mith. 111.) [E.H.B]
NYSA or NYSSA (Νύσα or Νύσσα), is said to have been the name of the place in which the god Dionysus was born, whence it was transferred to a great many towns in all parts of the world which were distinguished for the cultivation of the vine. In Asia.
1.A town in Caria, on the southern slope of mount Messogis, on the north of the Maeander, and about midway between Tralles and Antioch. The mountain torrent Eudon, a tributary of the Maeander, flowed through the middle of the town by a deep ravine spanned by a bridge, connecting the two parts of the town. (Strab. 14. p. 650; Hom. hymn. 4.17; Plin. Nat. 5.29; Ptol. 5.2.18; Hierocl. p. 659; Steph. Byz. s. v.) Tradition assigned the foundation of the place to three brothers, Athymbrus, Athymbradus, and Hydrelus, who emigrated from Sparta, and founded three towns on the north of the Maeander; but in the course of time Nysa absorbed them all; the Nysaeans, however, recognise more especially Athymbrus as their founder. (Steph. B. s. v. Ἄθυμβρα; Strab. l. c.) The town derived its name of Nysa from Nysa, one of the wives of Antiochus, the son of Seleucus (Steph. B. s. v. Ἀντιόχεια), having previously been called Athymbra (Steph. B. s. v. Ἄθυμβρα) and Pythopolis (Steph. B. s. v. Πυθόπολις).
Nysa appears to have been distinguished for its cultivation of literature, for Strabo mentions several eminent philosophers and rhetoricians; and the geographer himself, when a youth, attended the lectures of Aristodemus, a disciple of Panaetius; another Aristodemus of Nysa, a cousin of the former, had been the instructor of Pompey. (Strab. l. c.;Cic. ad Fam. 13.6. 4) Hierocles classes Nysa among the sees of Asia, and its bishops are mentioned in the Councils of Ephesus and Constantinople. The coins of Nysa are very numerous, and exhibit a series of Roman emperors from Augustus to Galllienus. The site of Nysa has been recognised by Chandler and other travellers at Sultan-hissar, above the plain of the Maeander, on a spot much resembling that described by Strabo; who also mentions a theatre, a forum, a gymnasium for youths, and another for men. Remains of a theatre, with many rows of seats almost entire, as well as of an amphitheatre, gymnasium, &c., were seen by Chandler. (Leake, Asia Minor, p. 248; Fellows, Discover. pp. 22, foil.; Hamilton, Researches, 1. p. 534.) The country round Nysa is described as bearing evidence of the existence of subterraneous fires, either by exhalations and vapours, or by its hot mineral springs. COIN OF NYSA IN CARIA.
COIN OF NYSA IN CARIA.A place in the district of Milyas in Pisidia, situated on the river Xanthus, on the south of Podalaea. (Ptol. 5.3.7; Hierocl. p. 684, where the name is misspelt Μίσαι. )
3.A town in Cappadocia, in the district called Muriane, not far from the river Halys, on the road from Ancyra to Caesareia. (Ptol. 5.7.8; It. Ant. pp. 505, 506; Hierocl. p. 699; Nicephor. 11.44.) Its site is now occupied by a village bearing the name of Nirse or Nissa (Hamilton, Researches, 2. p. 265.) [L.S]
NYSA (Νῦσα). In Europe.
1.A village in Boeotia on Mt. Helicon. (Strab. 9. p. 405; Steph. B. s. v. Νῦσαι. )
2.A town in Thrace, in the district between the rivers Strymon and Nestus, which subsequently formed part of Macedonia. It is called Nyssos by Pliny. (Steph. B. s. v.;Plin. Nat. 4.10. s. 17.)
3.In Euboea, where the vine was' said to put forth leaves and bear fruit the same day. (Steph. B. l. c.)
4.In the island of Naxos. (Steph. B. s. v.)
(Νύσα). The legendary scene of the nurture of Dionysus (Bacchus), who was therefore called Nysaeus, Nysius, Nyseïus, Nyseus, Nysigena, etc. Hence the name was applied to several places sacred to that god: as (1) in India, at the northwest corner of the Punjab, near the confluence of the rivers Cophen and Choaspes.
(2) Nyssa, a city of Caria, on the southern slope of Mount Messogis, famous for its wine.
(3) A city of Cappadocia, near the Halys, the bishopric of St. Gregory of Nyssa.
(4) A town in Aethiopia near Meroë (Herod. iii. 97, 111).
(5) A village on the slopes of Helicon, in Boeotia.
City in Caria or Lydia, 30 km E of Aydin. A Seleucid foundation, apparently on the site of an earlier Athymbra, founded according to Strabo (650; cf. Steph. Byz. s.v. Athymbra) by a Spartan Athymbros, by a synoecism with two other cities, Athymbrada and Hydrela. The founder was Antiochos I (Steph. Byz. s.v. Antiocheia), who acted in response to a dream and named the city after his wife Nysa (otherwise unknown). A letter of Seleucus and Antiochos dated 281 B.C. is addressed to the Athymbrianoi, and this name survived to the latter part of the 3d c. (IG XI, 1235). It seems that the name was changed from Athymbra to Nysa at some time towards 200 B.C.; the earliest coins, of the late 2d c., have the latter name. At Acharaka, on the territory of Nysa, lay the celebrated Plutonion and the cave Charonion.
Strabo was educated at Nysa, and his description of the city (649) can be verified in the existing ruins. It is, he says, a sort of double city, divided by a stream which forms a ravine; part of this is spanned by a bridge connecting the two cities, and part is adorned with an amphitheater under which the stream flows concealed; below the theater is on one side the gymnasium of the young men, on the other the agora and the gerontikon. All these buildings are identifiable, though in some cases badly preserved.
The bridge was a huge platform nearly 100 m long, spanning the ravine below the theater, but very little is left of it. Parts of the substructure of the amphitheater and a few of the seats on either side of the ravine survive in the scrub. The theater, on the other hand, is well preserved: of Graeco-Roman type, its cavea is more than a semicircle; there are 23 rows of seats below the single diazoma and 26 above it. Nine stairways divide it into eight cunei; these are doubled above the diazoma. The front of the stage building is visible, with the usual five doors, but the back part has not been excavated. Low down on each side of the cavea is an arched vomitorium.
Not mentioned by Strabo is a fine tunnel, about 100 m long, through which the stream runs just below the theater. It makes an obtuse angle in the middle and at one point has a light-shaft in the roof. The builder's name is recorded in an inscription on the wall by the angle, but it is only partially legible.
The gymnasium lay on the W side of the ravine; its position is recognizable but virtually nothing survives. The baths, later covered by a church, were at the S end, but these were of late construction and did not exist in Strabo's day. Some 150 m N of the gymnasium are the ruins of a library, also later than Strabo's time. It apparently had three stories, but the lowest is now mostly buried and the highest almost entirely destroyed. The plan of the middle story is recognizable, and shows the usual separation of the bookshelves from the outer wall to protect them from damp.
In the agora on the E side of the ravine little remains but a few stumps of columns. Near its NW corner the gerontikon, or Council House of the Elders, is preserved virtually complete, though a good deal reconstructed. It forms a semicircle, with twelve rows of seats and five stairways, enclosed in a rectangle supported at the back by four large double half-columns. The floor is paved with regular limestone blocks. There is no indication that the building was ever roofed. On the S side, behind the speaker's platform, are three entrances between four large solid piers; behind these was a row of eight columns, the bases of which remain.
Another late building, between the agora and the amphitheater, has been dubiously recognized as a bath. Its spacious vaulted rooms contain many niches for statues, but it is in poor condition and the ground plan is not complete.
Nothing remains of the city wall which presumably existed in Hellenistic times. There are a few stretches of a Byzantine wall, but the circuit cannot be traced.
About 3 km W of Nysa lay the village of Acharaka; the road joining them crossed several gullies, and some traces of the bridges survive. The healing establishment of the Plutonion ccmprised a temple of Pluto and Kore and a remarkable cave called the Charonion; Strabo (649-50) gives a circumstantial account of the cure. Little remains of the temple, just E of the village of Salavatli. It has been conjecturally reconstructed with a very unusual plan, including two parallel walls running the length of the interior. The peristyle had twelve columns on the sides and six at the ends; the orientation is N-S, with the entrance apparently on the N. At present a row of six unfluted column drums and a few other blocks are visible. The Charonion, by Strabo's account, should be somewhere above the temple, but no cave exists in this position today. A little to the W is a deep ravine, in which rises the sulphur-bearing stream that gave the place its healing properties; this has been proposed as the Charonion, but here again no cave of any consequence is to be found.
BIBLIOGRAPHYW. von Diest, Nysa ad Maeandrum (1913) MI; C. B. Welles, Royal Correspondence in the Hellenistic Period (1934) no. 9; D. Magie, Roman Rule in Asia Minor (1950) 989-91; G. E. Bean, Turkey beyond the Maeander (1971) 211-20.
G. E. BEAN- called "the sacred," its cult of Dionysus: Hdt. 2.146, Hdt. 3.97
- Typhon at: Apollod. 1.6.3
- in Asia, the nymphs and Dionysus at: Apollod. 3.4.3