Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "GOLGOI Ancient city CYPRUS".
Inland ca. 1.6 km NE of the village of Athienou and 17 km N-NW of
Kition. The ruins cover a sizable area on a hill sloping gently N to S in the
direction of the village. Remains of the ancient city wall can still be traced
in almost all its course. According to Sakellarios, who was the first to identify
this site, the perimeter of the circuit was 7 stadia. The necropolis lies to the
S within the village and to the SE. Two important temples excavated in the 19th
c. lie outside the walls by the Church of Haghios Photios about 3 km SE of the
village. The area of the city itself is now a field of ruins under cultivation.
The traditional founder of the town was Golgos from Sikyon in the
Peloponnese. This connection is further illustrated by an archaic limestone block
found here, now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. Carved in relief on this
block is a Chimaera, the symbol of Sikyon which appears on its coins. Golgoi must
have succeeded the nearby Late Bronze Age settlement at Bamboulari tis Koukouninas,
due N of Athienou. Nothing is known of the history of Golgoi although it is mentioned
by several ancient authors. Inscriptions attest an Aphrodite Golgia whose worship
was, according to Pausanias, earlier than the cult of Aphrodite at Paphos. And
although we know nothing about the existence of a kingdom of this name some coins
have been attributed to it. On the evidence of recent excavations near the E gate
the city seems to have flourished to the end of the 4th c. B.C. but another sector
of the town must have been inhabited down to Early Christian times.
Excavations on the site were started for the first time in 1969 and
were confined to the E sector by the E Gate, where a number of private houses
and workshops dating mainly from the 4th c. B.C., came to light; the lowest strata,
however, produced sherds of the archaic and Early Classical periods. Part of the
city wall is preserved to a height of 2.50 m; its lower course consists of rubble
with mudbricks above. The E Gate with steps leading up into the town has also
been cleared.
From a tomb comes a late archaic stone sarcophagus with low relief
decoration, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. One of the long sides
shows a hunting scene; the other, a banquet scene of four couches on which recline
one older and three younger men.
One of the short sides shows Perseus carrying off the head of Medusa
followed by his dog; the other, a fourhorse chariot with a beardless driver conveying
an elderly man, who probably represents the occupant of the sarcophagus. The cover
is in the form of a gable with four crouching lions at the ends.
K. Nicolaou, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
(Golgoi). A town in Cyprus, of uncertain site, a Sicyonian colony, and one of the chief seats of the worship of Aphrodite.
Golgi (Golgoi: Eth. Golgios, Golgia, Gol<*>eis, Steph. B.), a town
of Cyprus, famous for the worship of Aphrodite (Theocr. xv. 100; Lycophr. 589;
Catull. xxxvi. 15, Nupt. Pel. et Thet. 96), which, according to legend, had existed
here even before its introduction at Paphos by Agapenor. (Pausan viii. 5. § 2.)
The town is mentioned by Pliny (v. 35); but its position is not known. (Engel,
Kypros, vol. i. p. 145, vol. ii. p. 81.)
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