Crissa

Coordinates: 38°28′16″N 22°28′08″E / 38.4712°N 22.469°E / 38.4712; 22.469
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38°28′16″N 22°28′08″E / 38.4712°N 22.469°E / 38.4712; 22.469 Crissa or Krissa (

Metapontium in Magna Graecia (modern Italy) is said to have been a colony of Crissa.[8]

Near Crissa, but established later, was a seaport named Cirrha. In course of time the seaport town of Cirrha increased at the expense of Crissa; and the sanctuary of Pytho grew into the town of Delphi, which claimed to be independent of Crissa. Thus Crissa declined, as Cirrha and Delphi rose in importance. Cirrha was destroyed in the First Sacred War; but the fate of Crissa is uncertain. It is not improbable that Crissa had sunk into insignificance before this war, and that some of its inhabitants had settled at Delphi, and others at Cirrha.

Between Crissa and Cirrha was a fertile plain, bounded on the north by Parnassus, on the east by

Amphissa, which was situated at the head of that part of the plain.[9][10] This plain, as lying between Crissa and Cirrha, might be called either the Crissaean or Cirrhaean, and is sometimes so designated by the ancient writers; but, properly speaking, there appears to have been a distinction between the two plains. The Cirrhaean plain was the small plain near the town of Cirrha, extending from the sea as far as the modern village of Xeropegado
, where it is divided by two projecting rocks from the larger and more fertile Crissaean plain, which stretches as far as Crissa and Amphissa. The small Cirrhaean plain on the coast was the one dedicated to Apollo after the destruction of Cirrha. The name of the Crissaean plain in its more extended sense might include the Cirrhaean, so that the latter may be regarded as a part of the former. The boundaries of the land dedicated to the god were inscribed on one of the walls of the Delphian temple.

The ancient town of Crissa gave its name to the

Pleistus,[11] and at the foot of Mount Cirphis.[12]

As of the mid-19th century, ancient Crissa's ruins could still be seen at a short distance from the modern village of Chrisso, surrounding the church of the Forty Saints. They consist of very ancient polygonal walls, still as high as 10 feet (3.0 m) in some parts, and as broad as 18 feet (5.5 m) on the northern side, and 12 feet (3.7 m) on the western.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainSmith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Crissa". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.

References

  1. ^ Homer. Iliad. Vol. 2.520.
  2. ^ Homeric Hymn to Apollo, 438.
  3. ^ Homeric Hymn to Apollo, 1. 269.
  4. ^ Nonnus, Dionysiaca, pp. 127, 358.
  5. ^ Pindar, Pyth., 5.46.
  6. ^ Homeric Hymn to Apollo, 1.282; where the position of Delphi is clearly described under the name of Crissa.
  7. ^ Pindar, Isthm. 2.26.
  8. ^ Strabo. Geographica. Vol. vi. p.264. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
  9. ^ Herodotus. Histories. Vol. 8.32.
  10. ^ Strabo. Geographica. Vol. ix. p.419. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
  11. ^ Pausanias (1918). "8.8". Description of Greece. Vol. 10. Translated by W. H. S. Jones; H. A. Ormerod. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann – via Perseus Digital Library.
  12. ^ Strabo. Geographica. Vol. ix. p.418. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.

External links

Media related to Krisa (Akropolis) at Wikimedia Commons

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