KEOS
(Ceos, Cea, Zea; now officially Kea, but called
Tzia) one of the Cyclades, Greece.
Near the tip
of Attica, the island is favorably situated on principal
shipping lanes. It has more water than most islands and
once bore a second name, Hydrousa. Small plains and
terraced slopes provide arable land and there are deposits
of useful minerals, including miltos. Not surprisingly, it
has been inhabited since Neolithic times. The word Keos
(with omega) is almost certainly not Greek, presumably
pre-Greek.
In Early Classical times there was a tetrapolis, but in
the days of Strabo (
10.5.6; C486) the cities were only
two. Ioulis having taken over Koressia and Karthaia having absorbed Poieessa. The history and antiquities of the
island have been examined sporadically by modern scholars but few sites have been systematically excavated and
much remains unknown.
Koressia (originally Koressos, another Prehellenic
name), at the W end of the great natural harbor on the
NW coast of the island, was and is now the principal
port. Ancient walls are visible on the rocky heights behind it, and on an upper terrace are remains of a temple.
Among chance finds in the town are bits of excellent
Attic pottery and a fine kouros of the third quarter of the
6th c. (National Museum 3686).
Ioulis, the most important of the Classical poleis and
the chief modern town (Kea, “Chora”), is inland, high on
the steep hillsides S of the harbor. Parts of walls are
exposed, architectural fragments and pieces of marble
sculpture and inscriptions have been found, but the place
has not been excavated. About a km NE of the town a
mighty figure of a reclining lion, carved in high relief on
a rough boulder, rests isolated on the slopes. It is 9 m
long; a work probably of the early 6th c., seen undoubtedly by Simonides and Bacchylides, who were natives of Ioulis.
Karthaia, on the SE coast at the foot of deep gorges
which descend from the highlands, is now called Poles
and is all but deserted. Parts were investigated by Bröndsted in 1812. There are massive walls of masonry and
remains of various buildings, among which are a Temple
of Athena in excellent style of the early 5th c. and one
of Apollo.
Poieessa (Poiessa, Poiassa; now Poises) was on the W
coast, above a small, rich valley. Ancient walls can be
seen on the rocky hills; it has not been excavated.
Between Poieessa and Koressia there were Temples of
Apollo Smintheus and Athena Nedousia, the latter said to
have been founded by Nestor on his voyage homeward
from Troy (Strabo 10.5.6). A big watchtower, probably
of the 4th c. B.C., shaken but remarkably well preserved,
stands at the village of Haghia Marina. At many places
along the coasts and on the high ground in the interior
potsherds, bits of roof tiles, and building blocks testify
to extensive occupation in Greek and Roman times.
The promontory of Haghia Irini at the inner (E) end of
the great harbor, was the site of a flourishing town in the
Bronze Age. In it was a free-standing building, a temple,
which served religious purposes from the Middle Helladic
period onward. Destroyed by earthquake in the 15th c.
B.C., it was rebuilt and modified repeatedly in Mycenaean
times and thereafter. One of the small rooms became a
shrine and in it, around 700 B.C., was carefully preserved
the head of one of the large terracotta female statues
which had stood in the temple some eight centuries earlier. Graffiti and small votive offerings show that the
shrine was sacred to Dionysos from the 6th c. The area
seems to have been revered at least until late Hellenistic
times.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
P. O. Bröndsted,
Reisen und Untersuchungen in Griechenland (also in French,
Voyages . . .)
(1826) I
I; A. Meliarakes,
Hypomnemata perigraphika
ton Kykiadon neson (1880) 184-263; F. Halbherr, “Iscrizioni di Keos,”
Museo Italiano di Antichità Classica 1
(1885) 191-219; A. Pridik,
De Cei insulae rebus (1892);
L. Savignoni, “Archaiotetes tes Keo,”
ArchEph (1898)
219-48; P. Graindor, “Fouilles de Karthaia,”
BCH 29
(1905) 329-61
I; K. Storck,
Die ältesten Sagen der Insel
Keos (1912); I. N. Psyllas,
Historia tes nesou Keas
(1920); L. Buuml;rchner in
RE (1921); G. Welter, “Von
griechischen Inseln,”
AA (1954) 48-93; J. L. Caskey,
excavation reports in
Hesperia 31 (1962), 263-83
I; 33
(1964), 314-35; 35 (1966), 363-76; 40 (1971), 358-96;
D. Lewis, “The Federal Constitution of Keos,”
BSA 57
(1962) 1-4; C. G. Doumas, “Kea,”
Deltion 18 (1963)
Chronika B2, 281-82
I.
J. L. CASKEY
