Syia
Small city on the S coast of W Crete, in the Selino district between Lisos and Poikilasion. Little is known of its history; it was probably a member of the league of Oreioi in the 3d c. B.C. (see Lisos). Its surviving remains belong to the Imperial and First Byzantine periods, and it was probably destroyed in the Arab conquest. It had a good harbor and served as the port of inland Elyros (Stadiasmus 331; Steph. Byz. s.v.). It apparently did not strike its own coins.
The site lies at the mouth of the valley running down from Elyros. There is no harbor now, but if relative sea level was some 6.6 m higher in antiquity there would have been one W of the river mouth and protected from the S by a mole. Most of the ancient remains lie E of the river: remains of houses, an aqueduct to the N, a bath building to the S, and built and rock-cut tombs on the slopes to the E. A large basilica of the 6th c. has been excavated just W of the village, and two other basilicas lie E of it.
BIBLIOGRAPHYR. Pashley, Travels in Crete II (1837; repr. 1970) 98-102; T.A.B. Spratt, Travels and Researches in Crete II (1865) 240-43M; L. Thenon, RA 14 (1866) 396-404; L. Savignoni, MonAnt 11 (1901) 443-48PI; G. De Sanctis, ibid. 510-13; Honigmann, “Syia,” RE IV A1 (1931) 1024-25; J.D.S. Pendlebury, Archaeology of Crete (1939) 365-71; M. Guarducci, ICr II (1939) 299-301; A. Orlandos, KretChron 7 (1953) 337-59; S. G. Spanakis, Kriti II (n.d.) 356-61.
D. J. BLACKMAN