MYRINA
Turkey.
City on the coast of Aiolis,
about 37 km SW of Pergamon. Apart from a legendary
foundation by Myrina, queen of the Amazons, nothing
is known of the city's origin or of its settlement by
Greeks. Its history also is almost a blank. Two earthquakes are recorded; in A.D. 17 Myrina was one of twelve
cities destroyed in a night and rebuilt with help from
Tiberius, and in A.D. 106 a second earthquake was again
followed by rebuilding. Otherwise Myrina is known almost solely for the famous temple and oracle of Apollo at Gryneion.
The ruins are scanty. The city was built on two hills
of modest height at the mouth of the river Pythikos or
Titnaios, now the Güzelhisar Çayi. The main occupation
was on the larger E hill, where there are slight remains
of a polygonal circuit wall and more conspicuous remains
of a Byzantine wall. At the W foot of this hill is a hollow
which probably held a theater, though nothing visible survives. The smaller hill is terraced and was evidently
occupied in antiquity, but here again nothing is standing.
On the shore are remains of an ancient quay, interesting
for the projecting blocks pierced with a round hole by
means of which vessels were moored.
Over 4000 graves in the necropolis on the N slope of
the larger hill and the S slope of the adjacent hill to the N
were excavated in the 19th c., but nothing can now be
seen. In general they were simple rectangular graves
holding a single body, though there were also a few
cinerary urns. The inscriptions, on tombstones or on
bronze tablets, date the necropolis as a whole to the later
Hellenistic period. The tomb contents were of great variety: small bronze coins for Charon's fare, plates and bottles for the dead man's food and drink, mirrors, needles, lamps and other objects of daily use, and over 1000 terracotta figurines rivaling those of Tanagra.
There are also a number of rock-cut tombs on the neighboring hills. One of them, now known as İntaş, comprises a central chamber with ten niches.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. Pottier & A. J. Reinach,
La Necropole de Myrina (1887); C. Schuchhardt,
Altertümer von Pergamon I, 1 (1912) 96-98; G. E. Bean,
Aegean Turkey (1966) 106-10.
G. E. BEAN
