OLYMPOS
Cyprus.
On the E point of the island about 6 km from the Monastery of Apostolos Andreas. Far out in the sea are the Kleides islands (
Hdt. 5.108.2;
Strab. 14.682; Ptol. 5.14.7). At the foot of a rising mass of rock remains of a small town extend for some distance inland; farther W is the necropolis.
The name Kleides was also applied to the cape itself
by such writers as Agathemenos and Hesychios. To
Ptolemy it was also known as Oura Boos (bull's tail).
In the
Stadiasmus (
GGM 2.476) it is simply called
Akra. The name of the town has not been identified yet
but on the evidence of Strabo, who calls the hillock
Olympos, this name may also apply to the town itself.
The foundations of a building measuring about 35 x
17 m are still visible on the summit of the rock. These
remains may belong to the Temple of Aphrodite Akraia,
which women were not allowed to enter (
Strab. 14.682;
Stad. GGM 1.307, 315).
Of the lower town only scanty remains of a few houses
are still visible above ground. Farther inland the site is
overgrown with thick scrub. Several rock-cut tombs
looted long ago, are still visible along the shore to the
W of the town. Along the N shore Hogarth saw ancient
wheel-marks and two underground pools, to which access
was obtained by flights of steps.
On present-day archaeological evidence this town has
been in existence from Classical to Graeco-Roman
times. The S slope of the hillock, however, was occupied by a very small community in Neolithic times, as shown by recent excavations. The Classical town is still unexcavated.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
D. G. Hogarth,
Devia Cypria (1889)
83-84; A. Sakellarios,
Τὰ Κυπριακά I (1910) 161-62; G.
Jeffery, “Classic Temples in Cyprus,”
Κυπριακὰ Χρονικά (1923) 165; V. Karageorghis, “Chronique des Fouilles
et Découvertes Archéologiques à Chypre,”
BCH 86 (1962) 373-74
I.
K. NICOLAOU
