PHAESTUS
PHAESTUS
1.
（
Φαιστός: Eth.
Φαίστιος), a town in the S. of Crete, distant 60 stadia from Gortyna, and 20 from the sea. (
Strab. x. p.479;
Plin. Nat. 4.12. s. 20.)
It was said to have derived its name from an eponymous hero Phaestus, a son of Hercules, who migrated from Sicyon to Crete. (
Paus. 2.6.7;
Steph. B. sub voce Eustath.
ad Hom. l.c.) According to others it was founded by Minos. (
Diod. 5.78; Strab.
l.c.) It is mentioned by Homer (
Hom. Il. 2.648), and was evidently one of the most ancient places in the island.
It was destroyed by the Gortynians, who took possession of its territory. (Strab.
l.c.) Its port was Matalum, from which it was distant 40 stadia, though it was only 20 from the coast. (Strab.
l.c.) We also learn from Strabo that Epimenides was a native of Phaestus.
The inhabitants were celebrated for their sharp and witty sayings. (
Athen. 6.261e.) Phaestus is mentioned also by
Scylax, p. 18;
Plb. 4.55.
Stephanus B. (s. v.
Φαιστός) mentions in the territory of Phaestus a place called Lisses, which he identifies with a rock in the Odyssey (
3.293)), where in our editions it is not used as a proper name, but as an adjective,--
λισσή, “smooth.” Strabo (
l.c.) mentions a place Olysses or Olysse in the territory of Phaestus (
Ὀλύσσην τῆς Φαιστίας); but this name is evidently corrupt; and instead of it we ought probably to read Lisses.
This place must not be confounded with Lissus. which was situated much more to the W. (Kramer,
ad Strab. l.c.)
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| COIN OF PHAESTUS. |
2.
A town of Thessaly in the district Pelasgiotis, a little to the right of the Peneius.
It was taken by the Roman praetor Baebius in B.C. 191. (
Liv. 36.13.)
3.
A town of the Locri Ozolae in the interior, with a port called the port of Apollo Phaestius. (
Plin. Nat. 4.3. s. 4.) Leake places Phaestus at
Vithari, where are the ruins of a fortress of no great extent, and the port of Apollo near
C. Andhromákhi. (Leake,
Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 621.)
4.
The later name of Phrixa in Triphylia in Elis. [
PHRIXA]
