This second largest island of the Dodecanese
chain, lies between Rhodes
and Crete. It is rather rectangular
in shape and its terrain is mountainous, the highest peak being Kali Limni at
1,214 metres above sea level. Most of its settlements are to be found on its south
coast, which is relatively flat. Near the north coast is a small island called
Saria, with which Karpathos
used to be united. On this islet, at the site called Palatia,
there are some ruins belonging to the ancient
town of Nisyros.
Karpathos’ capital and main port is Pigadia
or Karpathos on the southeast coast. It was built primarily with funds sent
home by immigrants to the United
States and it does not reflect the local architectural style found in the
older villages.
Southwest of the capital is Menetes,
whose history started after the Middle Ages, and Arkassa
which has been identified as the site of ancient
Arkesia. Here the ruins of a Christian Basilica of 5th/6th c. A.D can still
be seen.
Thirteen kilometres to the northwest, you come to Piles,
mountainous Othos to the
northeast with its folk art museum, and Volada,
a traditional village with houses whose interior decoration is well worth a look.
Further north, near the west coast, is Messohori,
where there is a genuine Karpathian house open to the public. Note its characteristic
wooden ornamentation and the pebble mosaic floor. Still further north, almost
cut off from the rest of the island, is its most important village, Olimbos,
which is accessible only from Diafani,
Karpathos’ second port.
Olimbos sits
on a hlllside overlooking the Aegean.
Founded sometime between the 10th and 15th century, it was originally fortified
to afford its residents protection from the pirates. The highest spot in the village
used to be crowned with a tower. Even today Olimbos
has preserved its local architecture intact, both in the interiors and exteriors
of the houses. Its citizens take pride in maintaining their traditions and still
speak a dialect which contains several Dorian words and idioms. Karpathos has
many beautiful beaches: Finiki
and Amfiarti to the southwest, Makriyialos to the southeast,
Agia Irini on the west coast and Agios
Nikolaos on the east.
Homeric Hymns
Crapathus, island between Crete and Rhodes, participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships (Il. 2.676).
An island S.W. of the Peloponnese (Hdt. 3,45).
Carpathos, which the poet calls Crapathos, is high, and has a circuit of two hundred stadia. At first it was a Tetrapolis, and it had a renown which is worth noting; and it was from this fact that the sea got the name Carpathian. One of the cities was called Nisyros, the same name as that of the island of the Nisyrians. It lies opposite Leuce Acte in Libya, which is about one thousand stadia distant from Alexandreia and about four thousand from Carpathos.
Karpathos. An island in the S Aegean. According to Diodorus (5.54.4) it was a Minoan domain, later colonized by the Argives. We know the names of three cities from the Classical age: Karpathos, Arkaseia, and Brikous; and the locality of the Eteokarpathioi. The cities paid tribute to the Delio-Attic League, and at the end of the 5th c. B.C. came under Rhodian domination. Potidaion, the port of Karpathos, is identified with modern Pighadia on the SE coast, where tombs have been found containing Minoan (MM IIIB and LM IA) and Mycenaean (LH IIIA-B) ceramics. The site of Karpathos is uncertain; at Arkaseia, on the SW coast, the Cyclopean walls of the acropolis are visible, and at Brykous, on the NW coast, sections of the enclosing walls of the 4th-3d c. B.C.
M. G. Picozzi, 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.
Carpathus (Karpathos; Carpathum, Plin.; in Hom. Il. ii. 676, Krapathos:
Eth. Karpathios: Skarpanto), an island in the sea between Crete and Rhodes, which
was named after it the Carpathian sea. (Karpathion pelagos, Strab. x. p. 488 Carpathium
mare, Hor. Carm. i. 35. 8.) Carpathus is described by the ancient authorities
as 100 stadia in length (Scylax, p. 56), and 200 stadia in circuit (Strab. p.
489); but according to Bondelmonte, the old Italian traveller, it is 70 Italian
miles in circumference. The island consists for the most part of lofty and bare
mountains, full of ravines and hollows; and the coast is generally steep and inaccessible.
The principal mountain, which is in the centre of the island, and is called Lastos,
appears to be 4000 feet in height.
Carpathus is said to have been subject to Minos and to have been afterwards
colonized by Argive Dorians. (Diod. v. 54.) It always remained a Doric country.
At the time of the Trojan war it is mentioned along with Nisyrus, Casus and Cos
(Hom. Il. ii. 676); but at a later period it was under the rule of the Rhodians.
It would seem never to have possessed complete independence, as no autonomous
coins of Carpathus have been discovered; while Rhodian coins are commonly found
in the island.
Carpathus appears to have been well peopled in antiquity. According
to Scylax, it contained three towns; according to Strabo, four. The only name
which Strabo gives is Nisyrus (Nisuros). Ptolemy (v. 2. § 33) mentions another
town, called Poseidium (Poseidion). The name of a third, Arcesine (Arkesine),
is only preserved in an inscription containing the tribute of the Athenian allies.
The site of Arcesine has been determined by Ross. It is now called Arkassa, and
is situated upon a promontory in the middle of the west coast of the southern
part of the island. Poseidium was situated upon a corresponding cape upon the
eastern side of the island, and is now called Pigadin or Posin.
There are ruins of an ancient town upon a rock, Sokastron, off the
western coast, and of another town upon the island Saria, which is ten miles in
circuit, and is separated by a narrow strait from the northern extremity of Carpathus.
The ruins in Saria, which are called Palatia, may possibly be those of Nisyrus.
(Comp. the names Saria, Nismria.
Ptolemy mentions two promontories, one called Thoanteium (Thoanteion),
probably the southern extremity of the island, the modern Akroteri, and the other
Ephialtium (Ephialtion), which Ross conjectures to be a promontory S. of Poseidium,
of which the modern name Aphiartis is perhaps a corruption. The accompanying map
of Carpathus is taken from Ross, who is the only modern traveller that has given
an account of the island. (Comp. Herod. iii. 45; Dionys. Per. 500; Plin. iv. 12.
s. 23, v. 31. s. 36; Pomp. Mel. ii. 7; Steph. B. s. v.; Ross, Reisen auf den Griech.
Inseln, vol. iii. p. 50.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Perseus Coin Catalog
Carpathius, Joannes (Ioannes Karpathios), a bishop of the island of Carpathos, of uncertain date.
At the request of the monks of India he wrote to them a consolatory work in 100
chapters, entitled pros tous apo Indias protrepsantas monachous parakletikon (Phot.
Cod 201). This work is still extant, and a Latin translation of it by J. Pontanus
is printed at the end of his "Dioptrae Philippi Solitarii", Ingolstadt, 1654,
and in the "Bibliotheca Patrum" xii. The Greek original, as well as some other
ascetic works of his, are still extant in MS.
Foods: various kinds of bread and barley donuts which accompany the
local salty cheese or the meriari (made from full cream milk), the small pastries,
kouloumbotes olives, sesame, egg and thin “kouloures”- biscuits, makarounes,
vegetable pies, drilla, mezithra ofto (goat’s meat stuffed with rice), pihti,
kavroumas, sitaka and others.
Sweets: xilikopites, baklava (made very differently from the usual
baklava), sweet mezithra cheese pies, sweet sesame pies and sitakopita etc.
(Text: Manolis Makris)
This text is cited February 2004 from the Dodekanissos
Union of Municipalities & Communities pamphlet.
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