Ancient Historically, Antikyra was an important town. In
antiquity, it was associated with the still-older settlement of Kyparissos which was noted as the primary port of
Mycenaean Phocis in
Homer's
Iliad. The name literally means "
cypress" but was
glossed as deriving from the town's
mythical founder Cyparissus, son of
Orchomenus and brother of
Minyas. The
Catalogue of Ships states the Phocians who joined the
Trojan War sailed from Kyparissos to join the main fleet at
Aulis before it sailed for
Troy. The reputed graves of the
heroes Schedios and
Epistrophos, the Phocian admirals, were maintained through Roman times. The name Antikyra was said to have derived from an "Antikyreos" or "Anticyreus" who cured
Hercules's insanity with local
hellebore.
Black and
white hellebore were the main reason for the town's fame in the ancient world. Both grew nearby and were regarded by
Greek medicine as cures for forms of
insanity, melancholy,
gout, and
epilepsy. The circumstance gave rise to a number of
Greek and
Latin expressions, like Αντικυρας σε δει or "naviget Anticyram," and to frequent allusions in
Greek and
Roman literature. Pausanias claims that black hellebore was used as a
laxative, whilst white hellebore was used as an
emetic. Antikyra was destroyed in 346 BC by
Philip II of
Macedon amid the
Third Sacred War. It recovered enough to quickly begin construction of a temple to
Artemis with a cult statue commissioned to
Praxiteles by 330 BC. Antikyra was then besieged, destroyed, and rebuilt several times during the
Roman Republic's
Macedonian Wars. In 198 BC, it was sacked by
Titus Quinctius Flamininus, who choose it as winter base for his army. During the 2nd century BC, Antikyra struck autonomous bronze coins with the head of
Poseidon on the
obverse and
Artemis bearing a torch and an arch on the reverse.
Pausanias visited the city during the third quarter of the 2nd century and gave a detailed account of it in his
Description of Greece. He notes the grave of Schedios and Epistrophos, a temple to
Poseidon with a bronze statue of the god standing with one foot resting on a dolphin, a hand upon this thigh and a trident in his other hand, two
gymnasia (one including a statue of
Xenodamos, who won the
pangration at the
Olympics in AD 67 owing to the participation of the
emperor Nero), an
agora with many bronze statues, a sheltered well, and two temples of
Artemis outside the town walls. One was dedicated to Artemis
Diktynna; the other held Praxiteles's sculpture and, according to a newly discovered inscription, was dedicated to Artemis
Eileithyia.
Medieval Under the
Byzantines, the city served as a
bishopric. (A large 5-
nave basilica with a mosaic floor was unearthed in the 1980s.) A large earthquake destroyed most of the city around AD 620. During the 14th century, the city was named Port de Arago while its fortress was held by the
Catalans, probably under the aegis of the
county of Salona (mod.
Amphissa). It became known as Aspra Spitia or
Asprospitia under the
Turks.
Modern Aspra Spitia's connection with the ancient Antikyra was established by
William Martin Leake in 1806 when he found an inscription mentioning its name. The area was subsequently excavated by Lolling, Dittenberger, Fossey, the 10th Archaeological Ephorate, and the 1st Byzantine Ephorate. During this period, an archaic temple of
Athena was discovered, along with its
severe style bronze idol, a large part of the 4th-century BC
ashlar fortification with 2 rectangular towers, and an early Christian
bath with a
hypocaust. In 1836, after
Greek independence, the municipality Antikyraia was established, containing the villages
Desfina (the seat of the municipality), Aspra Spitia and Moni Agiou Ioannou Prodromou. In 1912, the municipality was replaced by the new community Desfina. Antikyra became a separate community in 1929, but was merged back into Desfina in 1935. The community Antikyra was re-established in 1943. In the 1950s and '60s,
Aluminum of Greece developed the country's largest
aluminum plant to exploit nearby
bauxite deposits. A new town was developed for its workers under the name Aspra Spitia; this is now known as
Paralia Distomou.
Greenpeace has complained of the effects of the red mud dumped into the bay from the plant. At the 2010
Kallikratis reform, Antikyra was merged with its neighbors to form
Distomo-Arachova-Antikyra. ==See also==