KOS
Greece.
An island of the S Sporades
group. The
Iliad (2.676) speaks of the participation of
Kos in the Trojan War under the leadership of the Heraclidae Phidippos and Antiphos; they are to have succeeded the first dynasty of the island, which was Thessalian. In archaic times Kos was a Doric oligarchy; it
became part of the political and religious union that
included Lindos, Kamiros, Ialysos, Knidos, and Halikarnassos. At the end of the 6th c. B.C. Kos fell under
Persian domination, but rebelled after the Greek victory
at Cape Mykale in 479 B.C. In 477 the island entered
the Delio-Attic League, and during the Peloponnesian
war it participated in the expedition to Sicily as an ally
of Athens. In 410 B.C. Alkibiades left an Athenian garrison on the island, and it was subsequently occupied by
the Spartans under Lysander. Only after Knidos had
done so did Kos become re-allied with Athens in 394
B.C., and the island was also a member of the Second
Maritime League.
Following a synoecism, probably promoted by the
family of the Asklepiads of Isthmos in the W part of the
island, the capital was transferred from Astypalaia to the
site of the modern city (
Diod. 15.762;
Strab. 14.657).
In 357 B.C. the island fought against Athens in the social
war, and passed under the control of Mausolos, King of
Caria. After the victory of Alexander the Great at Halikarnassos in 334 B.C., Kos became part of the Macedonian domain. After 309 B.C. Kos was linked to the dynasty
of the Lagidi until the naval battle of 260 B.C. in which
the Ptolemies were defeated by Antigonos Gonatas, King
of Macedonia. Later the island came under the influence
of Rhodes, but from the beginning of the 2d c. B.C.
entered into the Roman orbit. Kos was occupied and
sacked by Mithridates in 88 B.C., but continued to have
good relations with Rome and was a civitas libera of the
province of Asia. In A.D. 53, under Claudius, the island
was declared immunis. Antoninus Pius aided in its recovery after the terrible earthquake in 142. In the time of
Diocletian Kos was part of the Provincia insularum, and
later was annexed to the Eastern Empire. In this period
the island suffered two violent earthquakes, in A.D. 469
and 554. The latter destroyed the city.
Excavations in the city and elsewhere on the island
were begun in 1900-1904 and continued in 1922-43. The
site of the modern city was occupied in very ancient
times. In the zone called the Seraglio in the S central
part of the city a habitation site from the Bronze Age
has been explored, in which the earliest identifiable
strata belong to the Middle Bronze Age and the most
recent to the end of the Late Bronze Age. Related to
this habitation site are the necropoleis of Eleona and
Langada SW of the modern city, which were excavated
in 1935 and 1940. Material from the three phases of
Late Bronze Age III included imported Mycenaean pottery and locally made imitations.
Above the Mycenaean habitation site is a protogeometric necropolis, but the settlement has not been found.
The latest tombs in the necropolis date from the end
of the 8th c. B.C. Later finds are scarce and sporadic,
and apparently the site was not reoccupied until 366 B.C.
when the city was founded after the synoecism. On the
other hand, the sources (
Thuc. 8.41.2;
Diod. 13.42.3)
speak of Kos Meropis during the Classical period, a
city which must have been situated on the sea near the
new Kos of 366, but which was probably not a center
of major importance. The new city of 366 B.C., with a
geometric plan following the principles of Hippodamos
was enclosed by a wall of volcanic stone, of which several sections have been found. Its perimeter is calculated
as 3-4 km. The port was left outside the wall to the
N, but was protected by two sections of wall that were
detached on the E and W from the principal wall. In the
2d c. B.C., in connection with a general restoration of
buildings in the city for which white marble from local
quarries was freely used, the wall was restored with
limestone worked in boss-like projections.
Some interesting monuments have been brought to
light in the port area, including a shrine from the 2d c.
B.C. with a rectangular plan. A few courses of the marble
superstructure survive, on an earthen foundation that
seems to be older; it is surrounded by a 3d c. A.D. building with a series of rooms on four sides. There are also
remains of a travertine stoa, built in the 4th-3d c. B.C.
and remodeled in the 3d c. A.D., which are visible between the foundation walls of a basilica built above it
in the 5th c. A.D. The basilica had three aisles preceded
by an atrium and a narthex, and a square baptistery.
The principal monument in this area is a sanctuary, of
which the foundations remain: a Doric quadriporticus
on a high podium with two propylaea in front, and an
internal esplanade with two matching tetrastyle temples
which have high flights of steps in front. The sanctuary,
attributed to Aphrodite Pandemos and Pontia, was
erected in the 2d c. B.C. and must have been the first
monumental structure seen by those arriving by sea. At
the extreme NW of the port area a bath building from
the 3d c. A.D. has been found.
The agora, ca. 82 m wide, was built against the N
side of the N city wall, extending out from its E part.
It was enclosed by its own wall on the other three sides,
and a section of the W side, built in the 4th-3d c. B.C.,
remains. A road circled the wall on the outside. The
inside of the walls formed the backs of wide porticos
which were reconstructed in marble in the 2d c. B.C.,
with Doric columns fluted for two-thirds of their height.
The pavement, remade in the 2d c. B.C., was of regular
slabs of marble. The S side, recently excavated, extended
as far as the altar of Dionysos and a Doric temple in
antis, both of the 2d c. B.C. In the Roman period the
walls on the N side, which had fallen in the earthquake
during the reign of Antoninus Pius, were rebuilt with a
monumental entrance. The opening had three large
arches, which on the interior corresponded to rooms
with barrel vaults decorated with plaster. In front of
the arches a grand marble staircase descended to the
area of the port.
In the N part of the W zone of the city are the badly
damaged remains of large bath buildings datable to the
3d c. A.D. There is also a stadium built against the E
slope of a small hill. Its original plan, with simple
benches in travertine, is attributable to the first phase
of the city. The aphesis, of which the stylobate and several bases of semi-columns in marble built against pilasters survive, belongs to the 2d c. B.C. The W tribune
dates to the Roman age, the 3d c. A.D. Farther S, but
still in the W section, is a monumental complex including a gymnasium of the 2d c. B.C., the xyston of which
has been partly restored; E of the gymnasium were large
baths. After the earthquake of A.D. 469, which destroyed
the baths, the frigidarium and several other rooms were
transformed into a basilica. Mosaic pavements in ornate
geometric designs have been found. Another church with
a baptistery was built in the caldarium.
On the E the baths were bounded by the cardo maximus, and its paving of large irregular slabs, of the 3d c.
A.D., is preserved under the level corresponding to the
Early Christian basilicas. Part of a travertine portico of
the 4th-3d c. B.C. survives E of the cardo, and S of the
portico is a public latrine, also contemporary with the
baths, which has been entirely reconstructed. It has a
square plan with an interior gallery on three sides; the
sewer ran along the back wall. The gallery consists of
Ionic columns surmounted by arches in brick with
vaults. On the fourth side of the latrine is a fountain
with three niches and basins, and behind that an access
corridor with the entrance to the cardo. Farther S
the cardo intersects the decumanus, 150 m of which
have been brought to light towards the W. It is ca.
10.5 m wide, including the sidewalks, had porticos on
both sides, and also dates from the 3d c. A.D.
Near the intersection of cardo and decumanus is the
Odeion, with rectilinear walls enclosing the cavea, which
is supported by two semicircular vaulted galleries. The
circular orchestra was decorated in opus-sectile with a
design of intertwined squares. Three open doorways in
the scena lead to a room behind. A loggia probably ran
above the summa cavea. A last large public building,
not yet completely excavated, is the theater, dating like
the Odeion from the 3d c. A.D. Near the S walls of the
city, it has a semicircular orchestra and cavea with the
marble tiers built against a hillside. Especially to N and
S of the decumanus there are interesting private houses,
arranged in regular city blocks.
At the corner of the decumanus and the cardo is the
House of the Mosaic of Europa, which constitutes an entire block. The house has a trapezoidal plan and a central
porticoed courtyard, from which open various rooms. Another block S of the decumanus is occupied by a large socalled Roman house, with two peristyles and a courtyard
with windows. Many mosaics have been found in the
houses, featuring figured scenes and geometric designs. In
the House of the Mosaic of Silenus, for example, mosaics
of a boar hunt and of a battle between gladiators, datable to the 2d-3d c. A.D., have been found, in addition to
the mosaic for which it is named. A nearby house has
mosaics of the 3d-4th c. A.D., showing the Muses and
Eros depicted as a fisherman. Among mosaics worth mentioning from the W zone of the city are Orpheus and the
animals, Hunting and Fishing, and The Judgment of
Paris, of the early 3d c. A.D.
Near the city of Kos is the sanctuary of Asklepios.
The healing god was venerated from the earliest times
on the island, which was also the home of Hippokrates,
the most famous physician of antiquity. In the beginning
the sanctuary had only an altar in the place which had
originally been the sanctuary of Apollo Kyparissios.
Only after the death of Hippokrates, about the middle
of the 4th c. B.C., was the construction of the Asklepieion
begun, and its completion and embellishment took a
long time. The first plan consisted of the temple of the
god with the altar decorated by the sons of Praxiteles,
and of the abaton, the room in which the sick awaited
the god. The sanctuary, excavated in 1901, in its final
form consisted of four terraces joined by stairways, with
heavy foundation walls. In the lower quarter is a small
Roman bath building, from which one may ascend to
the large baths added in the 3d c. A.D. to the E part of
the third terrace, with an apsidal basilica and frigidarium. The principal access to the third terrace, enclosed
by porticos on three sides, was by a Doric propylaion;
its foundations and a wide stairway are preserved. From
the porticos opened various rooms for the sick. At the
center of the second terrace the foundation of the altar
of Asklepios is visible. To the right is the Ionic temple
of the god, of the early 3d c. B.C., in which votive offerings were deposited. To the left is another temple of the
Imperial age. Nearby are the remains of a lesche with a
portico. An exedra and a building to house the priests,
of which little remain, were located at the foot of the
stairway to the terrace above. The uppermost terrace was
constructed during an enlargement of the complex in
the 2d c. B.C. It contains the six-columned Doric peripteral temple of the god, enclosed by porticos.
In the S part of the island not far from the village of
Kephalos, on an upland near the church of the Panaghia
Palatiane, are the remains of polygonal walls. These
belong to the site of ancient Astypalaia, the principal
city of the island before the synoecism, which was probably founded after the Doric invasion. Ceramic material
from the 9th c. B.C. found at the site support the identification. Near Kephalos there are two small Doric temples in antis and a Hellenistic theater with a semicircular orchestra and seats of trachyte. Not far away, near
the SE coast, excavations in the grotto of Aspripetra
have brought to light a cult place active from the Neolithic period until the 4th-3d c. B.C., when Pan and the
Nymphs were venerated there. A Hellenistic theater built
against a hill has been excavated near Kardamena; the
cavea is preserved to the height of three tiers of seats.
In the same area inscriptions attest that ruins near the
church of Haghia Theotes belonged to a sanctuary of
Apollo. In the center of the island, at Pyli, a vaulted
hypogeum in which are incorporated elements of Doric
entablature from the Hellenistic age has been found under a village church. It is popularly identified as the
Heroon of Charmylos, a local mythological hero. There
is a tract of Cyclopean wall near the abandoned medieval fortress of Palaio Pyli, and Mycenaean pottery fragments from the area may indicate a Bronze Age settlement. Between Pyli and Asfendiu is a sanctuary of
Demeter and Kore, with a little Hellenistic temple in
which marble votive statues were found.
Both in the city of Kos and elsewhere on the island
are interesting Early Christian basilicas, with splendid
mosaics, that date from the period between the earthquakes of A.D. 469 and 554. The sculpture and ceramics
from the excavations are preserved in the archaeological
museum at Kos.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
R. Herzog,
AA (1901) 131ff; (1903)
1ff; (1905) 1ff; id. & P. Schazmann,
Kos I,
Asclepieion
(1932)
MPI; D. Levi, “La grotta di Aspripetra a Cos,”
ASAtene 8-9 (1929) 235ff
PI; L. Laurenzi, “Nuovi contributi alla topografia storico archeologica di Coo,”
Historia 5 (1931) 603ff
MPI; id., “L'Odeion di Coo,” ibid.
592ff
PI; id.,
EAA 3 (1959) 795ff; H. Balducci,
Basiliche
protocristiane e bizantine a Coo (1936)
MPI; L. Morncone, “Scavi e ricerche a Coo, 1935-43,”
BdA 35 (1950)
54-75, 219-46, 316-31
MPI; id., “Eleona e Langada; sepolcreti della tarda età del bronzo a Coo,”
ASAtene 27-28
(1965-66) 5ff; J. D. Kondis,
Αἱ ἑλληιστικαὶ διαμορφώσεις
. . . (1956)
MPI; G. E. Bean, “The Carian Coast III,”
BSA 52 (1957) 119ff; id., “Kos,”
Ergon (1959) 131ff;
G. Pugliese Caratelli, “Ii damos coo di Isthmos,”
ASAtene 25-26 (1963-64) 147ff; A. Orlandos,
ArchEph
(1966) 1-103; R. Hope Simpson & F. Lazenby, “Notes
from the Dodecanese,”
BSA 57 (1962) 169ff
M; 65
(1970) 55ff
MPI; 68 (1973) 170ff.
M. G. PICOZZI