STYRA
S Euboia, Greece.
At modern Nea
Styra on the W coast. Styra was the most substantial prehistoric settlement in the region. Two Cycladic figurines
have been reported, and Neolithic, Early Helladic, and
Middle Helladic sherds, as well as some obsidian, continue to be found at at least five sites.
Otherwise the only certain remains are Classical. The
Dryopian inhabitants were no doubt in some sense subject to Eretria during the archaic period (cf. Strab. 446),
but their formal independence dates at least from the
Persian sack of Eretria in 490 B.C. Styrans served at
Artemision, Salamis, and Plataia; joined the Delian
League (normally paying one talent); and fought for
Athens in the Peloponnesian War until 411, when they
revolted with the other Euboians. At an unknown date
before the 340s they had fallen back under Eretria, and
shares its later history.
Quarries are frequent in the area. Three small dragon
houses reminiscent of the great building on the summit
of Mt. Ocha (see Karystos) are the principal remains.
A further puzzle is provided by some 450 lead tablets
with unusual names, dating from the early 5th c. The
acropolis, now surmounted by the Frankish castle Larmena, still shows old fortifications.
Near the landing Nimporio are ancient quarries, and
two tombs with monolithic sarcophagi; half an hour inland at Pyrgos there is a tower with reused Classical blocks.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hom.
Il. 2.539;
Hdt. 6.107, 8.1, 46.9.28,
31;
Thuc. 7.57; Strab. 444; Ptol. 3.15.25;
Paus. 4.34.11.
F. Geyer,
Topographie und Geschichte der Insel Euboias (1903); F. Johnson, “The Dragon Houses of Southern Euboea,”
AJA 29 (1925) 398-412
I; K. A. Gounaropoulos,
Historia tes Nesou Euboias (n.d.); W. P. Wallace, “The Demes of Eretria,”
Hesperia 16 (1947) 115-46; id.,
“The Euboian League and its Coinage,”
NNM 134
(1956); L. H. Sackett et al., “Prehistoric Euboia . . . ,”
BSA 61 (1966) 33-11O
MP; T. Zappa,
Ta Styra tes Euboias
(1967).
M. B. WALLACE
