A´NAPHE
A´NAPHE (
Ἀνάφη: Eth.
Ἀναφαῖος:
Anaphe,
Namfi or
Namfio), one of the Sporades, a small island in the south of the Grecian Archipelago, E. of Thera.
It is said to have been originally called Membliarus from the son of Cadmus of this name, who came to the island in search of Europa.
It was celebrated for the temple of Apollo Aegletes, the foundation of which was ascribed to the Argonauts, because Apollo had showed them the island as a place of refuge when they were overtaken by a storm. (Orpheus,
Argon. 1363, seq.;
Apollod. 1.9.26;
Apollon. 4.1706, seq.;
Conon 49; Strab. p. 484;
Steph. B. sub voce Plin. Nat. 2.87,
4.12;
Ov. Met. 7.461) There are still considerable remains of this temple on the eastern side of the island, and also of the ancient city, which was situated nearly in the centre of Anaphe on the summit of a hill. Several important inscriptions have been discovered in this place, of which an account is given by Ross, in the work cited below.
The island is mountainous, of little fertility, and still worse cultivated.
It contains a vast number of partridges, with which it abounded in antiquity also. Athenaeus relates (p. 400) that a native of Astypalaea let loose a brace of these birds upon Anaphe, where they multiplied so rapidly that the inhabitants were almost obliged to abandon the island in consequence. (Tournefort,
Voyage, &c., vol. i. p. 212, seq.; Ross,
Ueber Anaphe und Anaphäische Inschriften, in the Transactions of the Munich Academy for 1838, p. 401, seq.; Ross,
Reisen auf den Griechischen Inseln, vol. i. p. 401, seq.; Böckh,
Corp. Inscr. No. 2477, seq.)
