Listed 7 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "KEA Island KYKLADES".
Near the tip of Attica, the island is favorably situated on principal
shipping lanes. It has more water than most islands and once bore a second name,
Hydrousa. Small plains and terraced slopes provide arable land and there are deposits
of useful minerals, including miltos. Not surprisingly, it has been inhabited
since Neolithic times. The word Keos (with omega) is almost certainly not Greek,
presumably pre-Greek.
In Early Classical times there was a tetrapolis, but in the days of
Strabo (10.5.6; C486) the cities were only two. Ioulis having taken over Koressia
and Karthaia having absorbed Poieessa. The history and antiquities of the island
have been examined sporadically by modern scholars but few sites have been systematically
excavated and much remains unknown.
Koressia (originally Koressos, another Prehellenic name), at the W
end of the great natural harbor on the NW coast of the island, was and is now
the principal port. Ancient walls are visible on the rocky heights behind it,
and on an upper terrace are remains of a temple. Among chance finds in the town
are bits of excellent Attic pottery and a fine kouros of the third quarter of
the 6th c. (National Museum 3686).
Ioulis, the most important of the Classical poleis and the chief modern
town (Kea, Chora), is inland, high on the steep hillsides S of the harbor. Parts
of walls are exposed, architectural fragments and pieces of marble sculpture and
inscriptions have been found, but the place has not been excavated. About a km
NE of the town a mighty figure of a reclining lion, carved in high relief on a
rough boulder, rests isolated on the slopes. It is 9 m long; a work probably of
the early 6th c., seen undoubtedly by Simonides and Bacchylides, who were natives
of Ioulis.
Karthaia, on the SE coast at the foot of deep gorges which descend
from the highlands, is now called Poles and is all but deserted. Parts were investigated
by Brondsted in 1812. There are massive walls of masonry and remains of various
buildings, among which are a Temple of Athena in excellent style of the early
5th c. and one of Apollo.
Poieessa (Poiessa, Poiassa; now Poises) was on the W coast, above
a small, rich valley. Ancient walls can be seen on the rocky hills; it has not
been excavated.
Between Poieessa and Koressia there were Temples of Apollo Smintheus
and Athena Nedousia, the latter said to have been founded by Nestor on his voyage
homeward from Troy (Strabo 10.5.6). A big watchtower, probably of the 4th c. B.C.,
shaken but remarkably well preserved, stands at the village of Haghia Marina.
At many places along the coasts and on the high ground in the interior potsherds,
bits of roof tiles, and building blocks testify to extensive occupation in Greek
and Roman times.
The promontory of Haghia Irini at the inner (E) end of the great harbor,
was the site of a flourishing town in the Bronze Age. In it was a free-standing
building, a temple, which served religious purposes from the Middle Helladic period
onward. Destroyed by earthquake in the 15th c. B.C., it was rebuilt and modified
repeatedly in Mycenaean times and thereafter. One of the small rooms became a
shrine and in it, around 700 B.C., was carefully preserved the head of one of
the large terracotta female statues which had stood in the temple some eight centuries
earlier. Graffiti and small votive offerings show that the shrine was sacred to
Dionysos from the 6th c. The area seems to have been revered at least until late
Hellenistic times.
J. L. Caskey, 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.
(Keos) or Cea. An island in the Aegean Sea, now Zea: one of the Cyclades, between the Attic promontory Sunium and the island Cythnus, celebrated for its fertile soil and its genial climate. Its chief town was Iulis, the birthplace of Simonides, whence we read of the Ceae munera neniae.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Keos, Keos, Kiata, usually Cea by the Latin writers, Eth. Keios; Ion.
Keios: Zea. An island in the Aegaean sea, and one of the Cyclades, situated about
13 English miles SE. of the promontory of Sunium in Attica. The island is 14 English
miles in length from north to south, and 10 in breadth from east to west. Pliny
(iv. 12. s. 20) says that Ceos was once united to Euboea, and was 500 stadia in
length, but that four-fifths of it were carried away by the sea. According to
the legend, preserved by Heraclides Ponticus (Pol. c. 9), Ceos was originally
called Hydrussa, and was inhabited by nymphs, who afterwards crossed over to Carystus,
having been frightened away from the island by a lion; whence a promontory of
Ceos was called Leon. Ovid apparently alludes to this legend (Her. xx. 221): Insula,
Carthaeis quondam celeberrima Nymphis, Cingitur Aegaeo, nomine Cea, maria.
Heraclides Pont. further states that a colony was afterwards planted
in the island by Ceos from Naupactus. In the historical times it was inhabited
by Ionians (Herod. viii. 46; Schol. ad Dionys. Per. 526); and the inhabitants
fought on the side of the Greeks at the battles of Artemisium and Salamis. (Herod.
viii. 1, 46.)
Ceos once possessed four towns, Iulis, Carthaea, Coressia, and Poeeessa,
but in the time of Strabo the two latter had perished, the inhabitants of Coressia
having been transferred to Iulis and those of Poeeessa to Carthaea. (Strab. viii.
p. 486; comp. Plin. l. c.)
This extract is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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