Amyclae
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Amykles Αμύκλες |
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 Amykles
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| Coordinates: 37°2′N 22°26′E / 37.033°N 22.433°ECoordinates: 37°2′N 22°26′E / 37.033°N 22.433°E | |
| Country | Greece |
| Administrative region | Peloponnese |
| Regional unit | Laconia |
| Municipality | Sparti |
| Municipal unit | Sparti |
| Population (2011) | |
| • Rural | 694 |
| Community | |
| • Population | 1,000 (2011) |
| Time zone | EET (UTC+2) |
| • Summer (DST) | EEST (UTC+3) |
| Vehicle registration | AK |
Amykles (Greek: Αμύκλες) is a village in Laconia, southern Greece. It lies in the plain by the Eurotas river, 6 km south of Sparta, east of the Taygetus mountains, along the Greek National Road 39 from Sparta to Gytheio. It was named after the ancient town Amyclae, the ruins of which are situated 2 km northeast of the village.
According to some sources, the ancient town Amyclae (Ancient Greek: Ἀμύκλαι - Amyklai) was founded by Amyclas of Sparta, the son of Lacedaemon. In the second century AD, the traveller Pausanias was informed that the archaic site of Amyklai had its ancient origin as an Achaean stronghold that predated the "Dorian invasion", and modern archaeology has supported that view. The Bronze Age settlement lay on the slopes above the modern village of Amykles. It was conquered by the Spartans as the fifth of the surrounding settlements whose subjection initiated the history of Sparta, in the eighth century BC; the inhabitants of Amyklai took their places among the perioikoi, members of autonomous groups of free but non-citizen inhabitants of Sparta.
About the same time, there was erected at Amyklai the Sanctuary of Apollo, enclosing within its temenos the tumulus of Hyakinthos, a pre-Hellene divinity whose cult was conflated with that of Apollo, in the annual festival of the Hyakinthia. There have been finds of sub-Mycenaean votive figures and of votive figures from the Geometric period, but with a gap in continuity between them: "it is clear that a radical reinterpretation has taken place" Walter Burkert has observed, instancing many examples of this break in cult during the "Greek Dark Ages", including Amyklai (1985, p 49).
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