KYTHERA
Greece.
An island S of the Peloponnesos. The sources (
Il. 10.268;
Paus. 3.23.1) speak
of the ancient port of Skandia, which is probably modern Kastri. The island belonged to Argos, but in Classical
times on was under Sparta. The ancient city of Kythera
is identified with the summit now called Palaiokastro, at
the center of the island, where traces of an enclosing
wall, probably archaic, are visible. Near the church of
Haghios Kosmas, on the SW slopes of the mountain,
rose the sanctuary of Aphrodite (
Hdt. 1.105.3). Near
Kastri on the SE side of the island was a Minoan settlement, begun toward EM I-II, with Mycenaean pottery in
the ultimate phase. At Kastraki there have been finds of
EH I-Il. There is a small museum at Khora.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
V. Stais,
Deltion 1 (1915) 191ff; L.
Bürchner-Maull,
RE XII, 1 (1924) 207-18; H. Waterhouse & R. Hope Simpson, “Prehistoric Laconia, Part
II,”
BSA 56 (1961) 148ff
PI; G. L. Huxley & J. N.
Coldstream, “Kythera, First Minoan Colony,”
ILN 6630,
249 (1966) 28-29; id.,
Kythera, Excavations and Studies (1972)
MPI;
EAA Suppl. (1970) 227.
M. G. PICOZZI
