Amyclaeus

A surname of Apollo, derived from the town of Amyclae in Laconia, where he had a celebrated sanctuary. His colossal statue there is estimated by Pausanias1 at thirty cubits in height. It appears to have been very ancient, for with the exception of the head, hands, and feet, the whole resembled more a brazen pillar than a statue. This figure of the god wore a helmet, and in his hands he held a spear and a bow. The women of Amyclae made every year a new χιτὼν (chitōn) for the god, and the place where they made it was also called the Chiton.2 The sanctuary of Apollo contained the throne of Amyclae, a work of Bathycles of Magnesia, which Pausanias saw.3

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References

Notes

  1. Description of Greece iii, 19.2.
  2. ibid. iii, 16.2.
  3. ibid. iii, 18.6 ff.; comp. Welcker. Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Auslegung der alten Kunst i, 2, 280 ff.

Source

  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.

This article incorporates text from Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) by William Smith, which is in the public domain.