Cynus

Cynus was an ancient town, being mentioned in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships in the Iliad.{{Cite Iliad|2.531}} It was reported to have been the residence of Deucalion and Pyrrha; the tomb of the latter was shown there. Beside Livy and Homer, Cynus is mentioned by other ancient authors, including Strabo,{{Cite Strabo|i. p.60, ix. p. 446, xiii. p. 615}} Pomponius Mela,{{Cite Mela|2.3}} Pliny the Elder,{{Cite Pliny|4.7.12}} and Ptolemy.{{Cite Ptolemy|3.15.10}}

Colonists from Cynus were said to have founded Autocane in Aeolis, situated opposite the island of Lesbos.{{Cite Strabo|13.1.68}} It was one of the places that suffered the destruction caused by a tsunami that took place after an earthquake in 426 BCE.{{Cite Strabo|1.3.20}} In 207 BCE, during the First Macedonian War, Cynus, which appears defined as an emporium of Opus, was the place to which the fleet of Publius Sulpicius Galba Maximus retired after failing in its attack against Chalcis.

Ancient sources describe Cynus as sitting opposite Aedepsus in Euboea, and at the distance of 60 stadia from Opus.{{Cite Strabo|ix. p.425}}{{Cite Pausanias|10|1|2}} Livy describes it as situated on the coast, at the distance of a mile from Opus.{{Cite Livy|28.6}}

It took its name from Cynus, son of Opus and father of Hodoedocus and Larymna.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DC%3Aentry+group%3D41%3Aentry%3Dcynus-bio-1 A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, Cynus]

The site is marked by a tower{{clarify|reason=still standing? or the ruins/foundations?|date=May 2025}}, called Paleopyrgo (or Pyrgos), and some Hellenic remains, about a mile to the south of the village of Livanates.{{Cite Barrington|55}}{{Cite DARE|29389}} The archaeological site is thus also referred to as Pyrgos Livanaton. The site was excavated between 1985 and 1995 by the 14th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities in Lamia. {{as of|2007}}, the findings of these excavations had only been made known in preliminary reports,See e.g. Ph. Dakoronia, 'The Transition from Late Helladic IIIC to the Early Iron Age at Kynos.', in LHIIIC Chronology and Synchronisms. Proceedings of the international workshop held at the Austrian Academy of Sciences at Vienna, May 7th and 8th, 2001, ed. S. Deger-Jalkotzy and M. Zavadil, Vienna 2003, pp. 37–51, with earlier references. but archaeologists have found items from the Bronze and Early Iron Age.

Kynos, like nearby Mitrou, Kalapodi, Elateia, and Lefkandi, shows continuous occupation throughout the transition from the Mycenaean palatial period to the Early Iron Age.

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Category:Populated places in Opuntian Locris

Category:Places in the Iliad

Category:Mycenaean sites in Central Greece

Category:Iron Age sites in Greece

Category:Former populated places in Greece

Category:History of Phthiotis

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