Editing Amathus (section)

===Pre-history and ancient era===
[[File:Ancient kingdoms of Cyprus en.svg|thumb|Ancient kingdoms of Cyprus]]
The pre-history of Amathus survives in both myth and [[archaeology]].<ref>T. Petit, "Eteocypriot myth and Amathousian reality," ''JMA'' '''12''' (1999:108-20)</ref> No traces of human activity was detected in the site before the earliest [[Iron Age]], {{circa|1100}} BC,<ref name="OCD"/><ref>M. Iacovou, "Amathous, an early Iron Age polity in Cyprus: the chronology of its foundation", ''[[Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus]]'' (2002) pp 101-22.</ref><ref name=":0">{{cite journal |last=Aupert |first=Pierre |date=November 1997 |title=Amathus during the First Iron Age |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |volume=308 |issue=308 |pages=19–21 |doi=10.2307/1357406 |jstor=1357406 |s2cid=153426308}}</ref> and no town is mentioned in the space between [[Kition]] and [[Kourion]] in the list of Cypriot cities from [[Medinet Habu]].<ref name=":0"/> 
The city's legendary founder was [[Cinyras]], linked with the birth of [[Adonis]], who called the city after his mother Amathous.<ref name=":1">[[Stephanus of Byzantium]], s.v. ''[https://topostext.org/work/241#A82.9 Amathous]''</ref> According to a version of the [[Ariadne]] legend noted by [[Plutarch]],<ref>Plutarch, ''[[Biography|vita]]'' of Theseus (20.3-.5), citing the lost text of an obscure Amathusan mythographer, [[Paeon of Amathus|Paeon]].</ref> [[Theseus]] abandoned Ariadne at Amathousa, where she died giving birth to her child and was buried in a sacred tomb. According to Plutarch's source, Amathousians called the [[sacred grove]] where her shrine was situated the Wood of Aphrodite Ariadne. {{clarification needed span|text=More purely Hellenic|date=May 2024}} myth would have Amathus settled instead by one of the sons of [[Heracles]],<ref name=":1"/> named Amathes (Ἀμάθης),<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DA%3Aentry+group%3D18%3Aentry%3Damathes-bio-1 A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, Amathes]</ref> thus accounting for the fact that he was worshiped there.
 
It was said in antiquity that the people of Amathus were [[Autochthon (ancient Greece)|autochthonous]], most likely Eteocyprian or "[[Pelasgian]]".<ref name="OCD"/> Their non-Greek language is confirmed on the site by [[Eteocypriot]] inscriptions in the [[Cypriot syllabary]] which alone in the Aegean world survived the [[Bronze Age collapse]] and continued to be used down to the 4th century BC.<ref>Baurain, C. 1984. Réflexions sur les origines d’Amathonte d’après les sources littéraires, in P. Aupert and M.- C. Hellmann (eds) Amathonte I. Testimonia 1. Auteurs ancients, Monnayage, Voyageurs, Fouilles, Origines, Géographie: 109–117. Paris: École Française d’Athènes/Éditions Recherche sur les Civilisations.</ref>
 
Amathus was built on the coastal cliffs with a natural harbour and flourished at an early date, soon requiring several cemeteries. Greeks from [[Euboea]] left their pottery at Amathus from the 10th century BC. During the post-Phoenician era of the 8th century BC, a [[palace]] was erected and a port was also constructed, which served the trade with the [[Greeks]] and the [[Levant]]ines. A special burial ground for infants, a ''[[tophet]]''<ref>Agelarakis A., Kanta A., and N. Ch. Stampolidis, “The Osseous Record in the Western Necropolis of Amathous: an Archaeo-Anthropological Investigation”,  Eastern Mediterranean, Cyprus-Dodecanese-Crete 16th-6th c. B.C., Proceedings of the International Symposium: The Eastern Mediterranean, Cyprus-Dodecanese-Crete 16th-6th c. B.C., Rethymnon, Crete, 1998: 217-232</ref><ref>Agelarakis A., “The Amathous (tophet) cremations in Cyprus”, In D. Christou on “Human Cremations at the Western Necropolis of Amathous”  <Cremations in Bronze and Early Iron Age>, Proceedings of Int. Symposium.  Ministries of the Aegean and of Culture,  Greece, 2001:  201-204</ref> served the culture of the [[Phoenicia]]ns. For the Hellenes, high on the cliff a temple was built, which became a worship site devoted to [[Aphrodite]], in her particular local presence as ''[[Amathusia|Aphrodite Amathusia]]'' along with a bearded male Aphrodite called ''[[Aphroditos]]''.<ref>Macrobius, ''Saturnalia'' III, 8. Hesychius ''s.v'' Ἀφρόδιτος. Catullus 68, 51, calling the Amathusian Aphrodite ''duplex'', confirms the attribution to Amathus.</ref> The excavators discovered the final stage of the Temple of Aphrodite, also known as [[Aphrodisias]], which dates approximately to the 1st century BC. According to the legend, it was where festive [[Adonia]] took place, in which athletes competed in hunting wild boars during sport competitions; they also competed in dancing and singing, all to the honour of Adonis.
[[File:Poisson polychrome terre cuite chypre amathonte Louvre AM 976.jpg|thumb|Fish, polychromic terracotta, 5th century BCE, found in Amathus, depicting a [[grey triggerfish]] (''Balistes capriscus'')]]
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Apollo Amathus.jpg|thumb|portrait|left|Apollo Temple at Amathus-[[Limassol]]]] -->
The earliest remains hitherto found on the site are tombs of the early [[Iron Age]] period of Graeco-[[Phoenicia]]n influences (1000-600 BC). Amathus is sometimes identified<ref>For example by E. Oberhummer, ''Die Insel Cypern'', i., 1902, pp. 13-14.</ref> with ''Qartiḫadasti'' (Phoenician "New-Town") in the Cypriote tribute-list of [[Esarhaddon]] of [[Assyria]] (668 BC) and some Phoenician inscriptions from the island, although others identify this ''Qartiḫadasti'' with [[Kition]] or a part of it.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Yon |first=Marguerite |last2=Childs |first2=William A. P. |date=1997 |title=Kition in the Tenth to Fourth Centuries B. C. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1357405 |journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research |issue=308 |pages=11–12 |doi=10.2307/1357405 |issn=0003-097X}}</ref> It certainly maintained strong [[Phoenicia]]n sympathies, for it was its refusal to join the philhellene league of [[Onesilus|Onesilos]] of [[Salamis, Cyprus|Salamis]] which provoked the revolt of Cyprus from [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid Persia]] in 500-494 BC,<ref>[[Herodotus]], v. 105</ref> when Amathus was besieged unsuccessfully and avenged itself by the capture and execution of Onesilos.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Amathus|volume=1|page=783|first=John Linton|last=Myres|authorlink=John Myres}}</ref> Herodotus reports
:"Because he had besieged them, the Amathusians cut off Onesilos’ head and brought it to Amathous, where they hung it above the gates. As it hung there empty, a swarm of bees entered it and filled it with honeycomb.<ref>The [[mytheme]] of bees in the carcase, familiar from the legend of [[Samson]] ( Judges 14:8, a lion's carcase) and the Greek myth of [[Aristaeus]] (a bullock carcase), and in [[Virgil]]'s ''[[Georgics]]'', is examined by Othniel Margalith, "Samson's Riddle and Samson's Magic Locks" ''[[Vetus Testamentum]]'', '''36'''.2 (1986:.</ref> When they sought advice about this event, an oracle told them to take the head down and bury it, and to make annual sacrifice to Onesilos as a hero, saying that it would be better for them if they did this. The Amathusians did as they were told and still perform these rites in my day." (''Histories'' 5.114)

Amathus was a rich and densely populated kingdom with a flourishing agriculture (grain<ref>[[Strabo]] 340, quoting the mid-6th century writer [[Hipponax]].</ref> and sheep) and copper mines situated very close to the northeast [[Tenta, Cyprus|Kalavasos]].<ref>See [[Ovid]], ''Metamorphoses'' x. 220, 227. 531.</ref><ref name="EB1911"/><ref>G. Mariti, i. 187; L. Ross, ''Inselreise,'' iv. 195; W. H. Engel, ''Kypros,'' i. 111 ff.</ref>
[[File:Limestone sarcophagus- the Amathus sarcophagus MET DT257.jpg|thumb|5th century BC [[Amathus sarcophagus]] found in Amathus integrates Greek, Eteocypriot and Oriental features]]