Gytheio
Gytheio (
Greek, Modern: "ύθειο, Ancient/
Katharevousa: -on), also
Gythio,
Githeio or
Githio is a town of
Laconia in
Greece, long known as the
seaport of
Sparta some 30 miles inland. It lies at the northwestern end of the
Gulf of Laconia, in a fertile small plain around the mouth of the
Gythius River.
The reputed founders of ancient
Gythium were
Heracles and
Apollo, who frequently appear on its coins: the former of these names may point to the influence of
Phoenician traders, who, we know, visited the Laconian shores at a very early period. In classical times it was a community of
Periokoi, politically dependent on Sparta, though doubtless with a municipal life of its own.
In
455 BC, during the
first Peloponnesian War, it was burned by the Athenian admiral
Tolmides. In
370 BC Epaminondas besieged it unsuccessfully for three days. Its fortifications were strengthened by the tyrant
Nabis, but in
195 BC it was invested and taken by
Titus and
Lucius Quintius Flamininus, and, though recovered by Nabis two or three years later, was recaptured immediately after his murder (
192 BC) by
Philopoemen and
Aulus Atilius, and remained in the
Achaean League until the league's dissolution in
146 BC.
Subsequently Gythium formed the most important of the
Eleutherolaconian towns, a group of twenty-four, later eighteen, communities leagued together to maintain their autonomy against Sparta and declared free by
Caesar Augustus. The highest officer of the confederacy was the general, who was assisted by a treasurer (
rauias), while the chief magistrates of the several communities bore the title of
ephors.
Pausanias (iii. 21 f.) has left us a description of the town as it existed in the reign of
Marcus Aurelius, the agora, the Acropolis, the island of
Cranae (Marathonisi) where
Paris celebrated his nuptials with
Helen of Troy, the Migonium or precinct of
Aphrodite Migonitis (occupied by the modern town), and the hill Larysium (Koumaro) rising above it. The numerous remains extant, of which the theatre and the buildings partially submerged by the sea are the most noteworthy, all belong to the Roman period.
The modern Gythio opened a port in the
1960s. It is the
See of the
Diocese of Gytheion and
Oitylo, headed by a
Metropolitan bishop of the
Orthodox Church of Greece.
From
2003 to
2004, the show which broadcasted on
Mega Channel Vendetta, a drama-like show which is about a person that has its relatives in the
Mani Peninsula was filmed here for a few episodes.
The geography of Gythio includes houses align with the hill and the
Laconian Gulf. The port is situated around its main street which is also
GR-37 which links
Areopoli and
GR-86. Pine trees are situated in the west and rocky mountains in the north.
Gytheio is well known for its gorgeous girls and its delicious sea food.
| Year | Communal population | Change | Municipal population |
|---|
| 1981 | 4,354 | - | - |
| 1991 | 4,259 | 95/2.18% | 7,542 |
A famous Gytheio native is
Tzanis Tzanetakis (b.
September 12,
1927) who is a
Greek politician*
Mapquest - Gytheio, street map not yet available
*Coordinates:
*
G. Weber,
De Gytheo et Lacedaemoniorum rebus navalibus (Heidelberg, 1833)
*
W. M. Leake,
Travels in the Morea, i. 244 foll.
*
E. Curtius,
Peloponnesos, ii. 267 foll. Inscriptions:
Le Bas-Foucart,
Voyage archéologique, ii. Nos. 238-248 f.
*
Collitz-Bechtel,
Sammlung d. griech. Dialekt-Inschriften, iii. Nos. 4562-4573;
British School Annual, x. 179 foll.
