Ancient Gortyn

By John Freedman

Posted January 19, 2022

Still another of the Cretan cities mentioned by Homer (could there be any greater claim to fame?), Gortyn - or the ruins that we have access to now - is a tantalizing place. Its history goes way back, as there is evidence of people living there as early as 7,000 BC. There is also evidence of the Minoans having been or lived here, although there is apparently no proof of any great local Minoan civilization as there is at Phaistos, Knossos, Kydonia, Zakros and Malia. The city began to flourish in approximately 1,000 BC, while reaching its peak and becoming the ruling city (or one of the ruling cities) on Crete over the last 300 years BC. When the Romans seized control of the island around 66 BC in order to rid Crete of pirates, Gortyn was the only major city to side with the Romans. This was a contentious time on Crete, and the major cities were often at odds, at best, or at war, at worst. Chris Moorey, in his A History of Crete (Haus Publishing, 2019), writes: "Gortyn...was more interested in leading the island as head of a federation. In fact, the ambitions of both cities (Gortyn and Knossos - JF) were often curbed by Lyttos and Kydonia, sometimes allied with each other, sometimes in conflict. To complicate things further, Lyttos, Gortyn and several other cities were also heavily influenced by Sparta, which became increasingly involved in Cretan politics (49)." The Gortynian alliance with Rome solidified its preeminent position on Crete, serving as the capital of the Crete et Cyrenaica province until the 4th century AD, then serving as the capital of independent Crete until 828 when the city was sacked by the Arabs. But one is warned against investing too much in the notion of Gortyn (or any other ambitious Cretan city) being supremely predominant. Again I lean on Chris Moorey's book to provide illuminating commentary: "The labyrinthine diplomacy of the day is illustrated well by events in 170 BC. Some years earlier, Gortyn and Kydonia, along with thirty other cities, had signed a treaty with Pergamum, a Greek city state on the coast of Anatolia (i.e, what we now know as Turkey - JF). When yet another dispute arose between Gortyn and Kydonia, Pergamum sent 300 troops in support of Kydonia agaainst its other ally! Again, the Romans intervened to keep the peace (52)." In the 6th century AD a Christian church was built in Gortyn and dedicated to St. Titus, a Cretan-born disciple of the Apostle Paul. Large portions of the St. Titus basilica remain intact and still rise up majestically among the olive groves of central Crete. This ancient structure, in itself, would be enough to make Gortyn a destination coveted by historians and history buffs, but it is not even the real prize here. That distinction goes to the Great Gortyn Law Code, a wall of 70-some tablets still standing and proclaiming the laws and rights of the inhabitants of this land. Written in the Dorian dialect and reading left-to-right and then right-to-left, it is the second-longest extant Greek inscription after that which Diogenes of Oenoanda left in the 2nd century AD. The Gortyn codex dates to the last 6th or early 5th century BC, and covers such topics as lawsuits, rape, adultery, marriage, divorce, inheritance and property rights. Moorey writes that, "There is some evidence that enslaved people here had more rihts than those in other parts of Greece, including Athens (57)." Women, in the event of divorce, were allowed to keep whatever property they entered the marriage with.

For those wishing to travel back to mythical times, Gortyn (also known in some sources as Gortys) lays claim to being the place where Zeus consummated his marriage (forced as it was) to Europa. They myth says that Zeus fell in love with the young Europa upon seeing her at play on a beach. Planning his abduction, Zeus took on the form of a bull and when the girl playfully sat on his back, he flew off with her to Crete, landing under a platan tree, where the sex act then took place. ExploreCrete.com writes: "At Gortys Zeus revealed himself to the princess in all his glory. According to legend, they made love under the plane tree, which has kept its leaves all through the winter ever since."

On a hill more or less to the west of the central remains of Gortyn one can see a grand Roman theater fitted into the landscape. Time has not been kind to it, but if you stand and stare at it long enough, you begin to see the features of seats, rows and aisles emerging from the hillside. Meanwhile, there is much more to be found strewn throughout the olive groves to the south of the basilica and walls bearing the Gortyn code of laws. My wife Oksana and I have yet to explore the area properly - one needs time and great patience - but, in a bit of a gallop through the area, we did run into numerous fascinating ruins, including crumbling columns, long, low walls, a temple of Egyptian gods, and several stone Roman roads that still stand out clearly in the bucolic surroundings.