| May 19, 2013 |
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| Information about the place
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|  SERIFOS (Island) KYKLADES |
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| Greek & Roman Geography (ed. William Smith) |
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Seriphos
Seriphos or Seriphus (Seriphos: Eth. Seriphios: Serpho), an island
in the Aegaean sea, and one of the Cyclades, lying between Cythnos and Siphnos.
According to Pliny (iv. 12. s. 22) it is 12 miles in circumference. It possessed
a town of the same name, with a harbour. (Scylax, p. 22; Ptol. iii. 15. § 31,)
It is celebrated in mythology as the place where Danae and Perseus were driven
to shore in the chest in which they had been exposed by Acrisius, where Perseus
was brought up, and where he afterwards turned the inhabitants into stone with
the Gorgon's head. (Apollod. ii. 4. § 3; Pind. Pyth. x. 72, xii. 18; Strab. x.
p. 487; Ov. Met. v. 242) Seriphos was colonised by Ionians from Athens, and it
was one of the few islands which refused submission to Xerxes. (Herod. viii. 46,
48.) By subsequent writers Seriphos is almost always mentioned with contempt on
account of its poverty and insignificance (Aristoph. Acharn. 542; Plat. Rep. i.
p. 329; Plut. de Exsil. 7. p. 602; Cic. de Nat. Deor. i. 3. 1, de Senect. 3);
and it was for this reason employed by the Roman emperors as a place of banishment
for state criminals. (Tac. Ann. ii. 85, iv. 21; Juv. vi. 564, x. 170; Senec. ad
Consol. 6.) It is curious that the ancient writers make no mention of the iron
and copper mines of Seriphos, which were, however, worked in antiquity, as is
evident from existing traces, and which, one might have supposed, would have bestowed
some prosperity upon the island. But though the ancient writers are silent about
the mines, they are careful to relate that the frogs of Seriphos differ from the
rest of their fraternity by being dumb. (Plin. viii. 58. s. 83; Arist. Mir. Ausc.
70; Aelian, Hist. An. iii. 37; Suidas, s. v. Batrachos ek Seriphou.) The modern
town stands upon the site of the ancient city, on the eastern side of the island,
and contains upwards of 2000 inhabitants. It is built upon a steep rock, about
800 feet above the sea. There are only a few remains of the ancient city. (Ross,
Reisen auf den Griech. Inseln, vol. i. p. 134, seq.; Fiedler, Reise, &c. vol.
ii. p. 106, seq.)
| This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited September 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks |
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| Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities |
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Seriphus, Seriphos
Now Serpho; an island in the Aegaean Sea, and one of the Cyclades.
It is celebrated in mythology as the island where Danae and Perseus landed after
they had been exposed by Acrisius, where Perseus was brought up, and where he
afterwards turned the inhabitants into stone with the Gorgon 's head. Seriphus
was colonized by Ionians from Athens, and it was one of the few islands which
refused submission to Xerxes. The island was employed by the Roman emperors as
a place of banishment for State criminals.
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| Ministry of Culture WebPages |
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| | SERIFOS (Village) SERIFOS |
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Traditional settlement of Serifos
In 1207 Siphnos was under the jurisdiction of the Duchy of Naxos.
Later, after vicissituses of various sorts, it came under the more stable sway
of the Catalan family Da Coronia in 1307.
The settlement in the fortress
(castro) of Siphnos is elipsidal in form because it follows the morphology of
the land. It is defensive in character and still preserves the form of its mediaeval
defensive system.
Two defense circuits along the western side are visible and on the
outer line there are a considerable number of single houses. The Latin cathedral
is in the centre and preserved nearby is the stele with the 14th century inscription
of Giannoule da Coronia.
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| | SERIFOS (Island) KYKLADES |
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Seriphos, Seriphus, Serifos, Seriphian, Seriphians
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