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GREEK City of Korykos in Cilicia -
Bronze 21mm (7.3 grams) Struck 100-10 B.C.
Reference: Sear 5545; B.M.C.21.66,1-4
Turreted head of Tyche right, AN behind.
Hermes standing left, holding phiale and caduceus;
ΚΩΡVKIΩΤΩΝ behind, ΔΙ / NI / AN in field to left.
A coastal town midway between the
mouths of the rivers Lamos and Kalykadnos, Korykos was
chiefly known for the nearby mountain grotto, called the
Korykian Cave, which was celebrated by the poets.
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Corycus (Greek:
Κώρυκος; also
transliterated Corycos or Korykos;
Armenian: Կոռիկոս)
was an ancient city in
Cilicia Trachaea,
Anatolia, located at the mouth of the Calycadnus
(now
Göksu); the site is now occupied by the town of
Kızkalesi (formerly Ghorgos),
Mersin Province,
Turkey.
The
city
Strabo does not mention a town of Corycus, but
reports a promontory so called at the location, but a
town Corycus is mentioned by
Livy (xxxiii. 20), and by
Pliny (v. 27), and
Pomponius Mela (i. 13), and
Stephanus of Byzantium (s. v. Κώρυκος). In antiquity
Corycus was an important harbor and commercial town. It
was the port of
Seleucia, where, in 191 BCE, the fleet of
Antiochus the Great was defeated by the
Romans. In the Roman times it preserved its ancient
laws; the emperors usually kept a fleet there to watch
over the pirates. Corycus was also a mint in antiquity
and some of its coins survive.
Corycus was controlled by the
Byzantine Empire.
Justinian I restored the public baths and a
hospital.
Alexios I Komnenos re-equipped the fortress, which
had been dismantled. At the beginning of the 12th
century the Byzantines built a supplementary castle on a
small island. This castle was later called "maidens
castle" (Turkish:
Kız kalesi),
because it was told that a king held his daughter here
in captivity until she was killed by a venomous snake.
It was prophesied she would die by a snake bite. So she
was taken to the sea castle to protect her, but a
serpent was taken by basket to the castle, she was
bitten and died. Soon after Corycus was conquered by the
Armenians, who held it till the middle of the 14th
century, as part of the
Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. In the 14th century,
the city was occupied temporarily by the
Turks, and for a time played an important part. The
city fell to the
Lusignans of
Cyprus. It was taken by the
Mamelukes, and again by
Peter I of Cyprus in 1361. In the late 14th century
it fell again to the Turks. From 1448 or 1454 it
belonged alternately to the
Karamanlis, the Egyptians, the Karamanlis a second
time, and finally to the
Osmanlis.
The ruins of the city are extensive. Among them are a
triumphal arch, a
necropolis with a beautiful
Christian tomb,
sarcophagi, etc. The two medieval castles, one on
the shore, the other in an islet, connected by a ruined
pier, are partially preserved; the former was reputed
impregnable. The walls of the castle on the mainland
contain many pieces of columns; and a mole of great
unhewn rocks projects from one angle of the fortress
about a hundred yards across the bay. Three churches are
also found, one decorated with frescoes. The walls of
the ancient city may still be traced, and there appear
to be sufficient remains to invite a careful examination
of the spot.
The city figures in the
Synecdemus of
Hierocles, and about 840 in
Gustav Parthey's Notitia Prima.
Ecclesiastically, it was a
see, suffragan of
Tarsus.
Lequien (II, 879) mentions five
Greek Orthodox bishops from 381 to 680; another is
known from an inscription (Waddington, Inscriptions
... d'Asie mineure, 341). One
Latin Bishop, Gerardus, was present at a
Council of Antioch about 1136; four are known in the
fourteenth century (Lequien,
III, 1197;
Eubel, I, 218). Corycus remains a
titular see of the
Roman Catholic Church, Coryciensis; the seat
is vacant since the death of the last bishop in 1967.
[1]
Corycian
Cave
In the Corycian Cave (now Cennet ve Cehennem), 20
stadia inland, says Strabo, the best
crocus (saffron)
grows. He describes this cave as a great hollow, of a
circular form, surrounded by a margin of rock, on all
sides of a considerable height; on descending into this
cavity, the ground is found to be uneven and generally
rocky, and it is filled with shrubs, both evergreen and
cultivated; in some parts the saffron is cultivated:
there is also a cave here which contains a large source,
which pours forth a river of pure, pellucid water, but
it immediately sinks into the earth, and flowing
underground enters the sea: they call it the Bitter
Water.
Pomponius Mela (i.13) has a long description of the
same place apparently from the same authority that
Strabo followed, but more embellished. This place is
probably on the top of the mountain above Corycus.
This place is famed in
Greek mythology. It is the
Cilician cave of
Pindar (Pythian Ode i. 31), and of
Aeschylus (Prom. Vinct. 350), and as
Arima, couch of Typhoeus, it is the lair of Zeus'
fiercest opponent, the giant
Typhon or Typhoeus.
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