GORTYS
GORTYS or
GORTYNA (
Γόρτυς, Paus, 8.27.4;
Γόρτυνα,
Paus. 5.7.1, Pol. 4.60.3,
Plin. Nat. 4.6. s. 10), a town of Arcadia in the district Cynuria, situated near the river Gortynius (
Γορτύνιος), also called Lusius (
Λούσιος) nearer its sources, which was a tributary of the Alpheius, and was remarkable for the coldness of its waters.
The town is said to have been founded by Gortys, a son of Stymphalus, and is described by Pausanias as a village in his time, though it had formerly been a considerable city. Most of its inhabitants were removed to Megalopolis upon the foundation of the latter city in B.C. 371; but it must have continued to be a place of some importance, since Polybius says that it was taken by Euripidas, the general of the Eleians, in the Social War, B.C. 219.
At that time it was subject to Thelpusa.
It contained a celebrated temple of Asclepius, built of Pentelic marble, and containing statues of Asclepius and Hygieia by Scopas. Cicero alludes to this temple, when he says (
de Nat. Deer. 3.22) that near the river Lusius was the sepulchre of one of the Aeculapii, of whom he reckoned three. Its ruins are seen upon a height near the village of
Atzi'kolo. There are still remains of its principal gate and of its walls, consisting of polygonal masonry. (
Paus. 5.7.1,
8.4.8,
8.27.4,
28. § § 1, 2; Pol., Plin.
ll. cc.; Leake,
Morea, vol. ii. p. 24,
Peloponnesiaca, p. 233; Curtius,
Peloponnesos, vol. i. p. 349, seq.)
