Gryneion
City in Aiolis, 30 km S of Pergamon, a member of the Aiolian League. Its settlement by Greeks is not recorded, and legend spoke of an earlier town founded by the Amazon Gryne. The city was enrolled in the Delian Confederacy, with a tribute of 1000 to 2000 dr. In 335 B.C. Gryneion was captured from the Persians by Parmenio and its people enslaved. During the Hellenistic period the city fell to the status of a dependency of Myrina.
Gryneion was noted chiefly for the temple and oracle of Apollo, described by Strabo (622) as a costly temple of white marble; Pausanias (1.21.7) spoke of a beautiful grove of Apollo. Pliny (HN 5.121), on the other hand, says there is nothing now but a harbor where Gryneion once existed. Surprisingly little is known of the oracle of Gryneian Apollo, and it has been doubted whether it functioned at all after the Classical period. However, a consultation by the men of Kaunos about 200 B.C. and the visit by Aelius Aristides in the 2d c. A.D. (Or. 51.7-8) show that its activity did in fact continue.
Virtually nothing now remains on the site. The tiny promontory at Temaşalik is largely occupied by a large rectangular mound which is supposed to have carried the temple, but no convincing remains of it have been found. The city must have stood on the mainland, but here again nothing is to be seen. A small excavation brought to light only several sarcophagi of about 500 B.C. and a late Roman mosaic pavement. The harbor mentioned by Pliny is in fact of poor quality.
BIBLIOGRAPHYC. Schuchhardt, Altertümer von Pergamon I, 1 (1912) 98; G. E. Bean, JHS 74 (1954) 85, no. 21 (oracle); id., Aegean Turkey (1966) 110-12.
G. E. BEAN- Hdt. 1.149
- grove of Apollo at: Paus. 1.21.7