MORPHOU
Cyprus.
On the NW coast, 6-7 km
from the sea. Remains of an extensive settlement can be
seen on both sides of the main Morphou-Myrtou road
due N of the village of Morphou. On the evidence of
surface finds the settlement can be dated from the archaic
period down to Early Byzantine times. A necropolis with
tombs ranging in date from the Geometric to the Hellenistic period extends W from Ambelia. The sites of both the settlement and the necropolis are now planted with orange trees.
Nothing is known of the founding of this important
settlement or of its ancient name. It succeeded the nearby
Late Bronze Age settlement at Toumba tou Skourou.
Rescue excavations, carried out in recent years, have
brought to light the remains of a Hellenistic sanctuary
probably dedicated to Aphrodite. It may be noted that
at Sparta Aphrodite bore the epithet Morpho and that
the Lakonians, the traditional founders of Lapethos
(q.v.), may also have settled in the area of Morphou.
From the necropolis at Ambelia come a funerary inscription of the 4th c. B.C. in the Cypriot syllabary and some pottery of the Geometric to the Hellenistic
periods. An alphabetic inscription of the 3d c. B.C. honoring a Ptolemaic official and his family is also reported to have been found at Morphou. And on a marble sarcophagus of the early 3d c. A.D., now in the Church of
Haghios Mamas at Morphou, is an epigram of Artemidoros in hexameter.
The finds are in the Cyprus Museum, Nicosia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. Sakellarios,
Τὰ Κυπριακά I (1890)
138; K. Nicolaou,
Ἱερὸν Ἀφροδίτης Μόρφου,
Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus (1963) 14-28
MPI.
K. NICOLAOU
