Mount Cynthus (, ''Kýnthos'') is located on the isle of

Delos Delos (; ; ''Dêlos'', ''Dâlos''), is a small Greek island near Mykonos, close to the centre of the Cyclades archipelago. Though only in area, it is one of the most important mythological, historical, and archaeological sites in Greece. ...

, part of the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

Cyclades The CYCLADES computer network () was a French research network created in the early 1970s. It was one of the pioneering networks experimenting with the concept of packet switching and, unlike the ARPANET, was explicitly designed to facilitate i ...

Mythology

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

Leto In ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion, Leto (; ) is a childhood goddess, the daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe (Titaness), Phoebe, the sister of Asteria, and the mother of Apollo and Artemis.Hesiod, ''Theogony' ...

gave birth to

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

and

Artemis In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Artemis (; ) is the goddess of the hunting, hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, transitions, nature, vegetation, childbirth, Kourotrophos, care of children, and chastity. In later tim ...

on this island, having been shunned by

Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

' wife

Hera In ancient Greek religion, Hera (; ; in Ionic Greek, Ionic and Homeric Greek) is the goddess of marriage, women, and family, and the protector of women during childbirth. In Greek mythology, she is queen of the twelve Olympians and Mount Oly ...

who was extremely jealous of his liaison with Leto. They respectively carry the epithets of Cynthius and Cynthia—the latter eventually becoming a female given name, still current in English-speaking and other Western countries. The byname "Cynthia" was also applied to

Selene In ancient Greek mythology and Ancient Greek religion, religion, Selene (; , meaning "Moon")''A Greek–English Lexicon's.v. σελήνη is the goddess and personification of the Moon. Also known as Mene (), she is traditionally the daughter ...

, the

moon goddess A lunar deity or moon deity is a deity who represents the Moon, or an aspect of it. These deities can have a variety of functions and traditions depending upon the culture, but they are often related. Lunar deities and Moon worship can be foun ...

, due to her close association with Artemis, as well as the goddess Diana, Artemis's Roman counterpart.Pannen
p. 96

Description

Mount Cynthus is a bare granite rock not more than high. It was probably the

acropolis An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens ...

of the ancient town, and seems to have been surrounded by a wall. On its sides are many architectural fragments of white marble, and on its summit are the foundations and remains of a large building of the Ionic order. In antiquity two flights of steps led up to the summit of the mountain; the one on the northern, and the other on the western side. On the western side is an ancient gate, of which "the roof is formed of two stones rudely shaped, and resting against each other at an angle so obtuse that the rise is only , above a breadth of ". The theatre stood at the western foot of Mount Cynthus, facing Rheneia, and not far from the

stoa A stoa (; plural, stoas,"stoa", ''Oxford English Dictionary'', 2nd Ed., 1989 stoai, or stoae ), in ancient Greek architecture, is a covered walkway or portico, commonly for public use. Early stoas were open at the entrance with columns, usually ...

of Philip. Its extremities were supported by walls of white marble of the finest masonry, but of a singular form, having had two projections adjacent to the orchestra, by which means the lower seats were in this part prolonged beyond the semicircle, and thus afforded additional accommodation to spectators in the situation most desirable. The diameter, including only the projections, is . The marble seats have all been carried away, but many of the stones which formed their substruction remain. Immediately below the theatre, on the shore, are the ruins of a stoa, the columns of which were of granite. In a small valley which leads to the summit of Mount Cynthus, leaving the theatre on the left, many ruins of ancient houses are observable; and above them, in a level at the foot of the peak, there is a wall of white marble, which appears to have been the cell of a temple. Here lies an altar, which is inscribed with a dedication to

Isis Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

by one of her priests, Ctesippus, son of Ctesippus of Chius. Like many others, remaining both in this island and in Rheneia, it is adorned with bulls' heads and festoons. Another fragment of an inscription mentions Sarapis; and as both these were nearly in the same place where Spon and Wheler found another in which Isis,

Anubis Anubis (; ), also known as Inpu, Inpw, Jnpw, or Anpu in Ancient Egyptian (), is the god of funerary rites, protector of graves, and guide to the underworld in ancient Egyptian religion, usually depicted as a canine or a man with a canine hea ...

Harpocrates Harpocrates (, Phoenician language, Phoenician: 𐤇𐤓𐤐𐤊𐤓𐤈, romanized: ḥrpkrṭ, ''harpokratēs'') is the god of silence, secrets and confidentiality in the Hellenistic religion developed in History of Alexandria#Ptolemaic era ...

, and the

Dioscuri Castor and Pollux (or Polydeuces) are twin half-brothers in Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology, known together as the Dioscuri or Dioskouroi. Their mother was Leda (mythology), Leda, but they had different fathers; Castor was the mortal ...

were all named, it is very probable that the remains of white marble belonged to a temple of Isis. Among them is a portion of a large shaft pierced through the middle, in diameter; and there is another of the same kind, in diameter, half-way up the peak of Cynthus. As the nominal centre of the

archipelago, Mount Cynthus offers superb views of the innermost islands:

Mykonos Mykonos (, ; ) is a Greek island, part of the Cyclades, lying between Tinos, Syros, Paros and Naxos. The island has an area of and rises to an elevation of at its highest point. At the 2021 census, there were 10,704 inhabitants, most of ...

Naxos Naxos (; , ) is a Greek island belonging to the Cyclades island group. It is the largest island in the group. It was an important centre during the Bronze Age Cycladic Culture and in the Ancient Greek Archaic Period. The island is famous as ...

Paros Paros (; ; ) is a Greek island in the central Aegean Sea. Part of the Cyclades island group, it lies to the west of Naxos (island), Naxos, from which it is separated by a channel about wide. It lies approximately south-east of Piraeus. The Co ...

Syros Syros ( ), also known as Siros or Syra, is a Greece, Greek island in the Cyclades, in the Aegean Sea. It is south-east of Athens. The area of the island is and at the 2021 census it had 21,124 inhabitants. The largest towns are Ermoupoli, Ano S ...

, and Rheneia. In modern times, this island is a major archaeological site and a tourist spot.

References

External links

Delos map
{{Coord, 37, 23, 43, N, 25, 16, 21, E, type:mountain_source:nlwiki_region:GR-L, display=title Apollo Artemis Delos Landforms of Mykonos Leto Places in Greek mythology Mountains of Greece Mountains of the South Aegean