Seteia
SETEIA (Σετηΐα or Σεγηΐα εἴσχυσις, Ptol. 2.3.2), an estuary on the W. coast of Britannia Romana, opposite the isle of Mona, into which the Dee discharges itself.
[T.H.D]City on the N coast of E Crete. The ancient site is probably under the modern town, which goes back certainly to the Venetian period. Another site nearby has been suggested (Petras), but the only good harbor, then as now, is on the W side of the bay, sheltered from the N wind.
Little is known of its history. One of the Seven Sages, Myson, was born at Eteia or Etis, probably to be identified with Seteia. No coins are known, and it may never have been a fully independent city in antiquity, but a dependency of inland Praisos, serving as its port on the N coast: an early 3d c. inscription of Praisos refers to the Setaetai making overseas voyages on behalf of Praisos. When that city was destroyed (145-140) the Praisians may have continued to hold Seteia; later it was a bishop's see.
Objects belonging to the EM, MM, and LM, Archaic, Classical, Roman and Byzantine periods have been found at the modern town site, but few remains of buildings: only some Roman walls at the river mouth on the S side, and a Classical wall on the SW side. Part of the ancient site may now be submerged, owing to local subsidence. On the coast at Petras, 3 km E-SE of the town, are remains of a major Minoan site, with EM, MM, and LM finds but hardly a trace of post-Minoan settlement, so that it is unlikely to be Seteia. On the E side of a headland just E of Petras, called Karavopetra or Trypeti, is a rock cutting—a “shipshed” for a guardship, probably for protection against piracy.
BIBLIOGRAPHYBürchner, “Eteia,” RE VI (1909) 706; id., “Setaia,” ibid. II, A2 (1923) 1894-95; J.D.S. Pendlebury et al., BSA 33 (1932-33) 96f; M. Guarducci, ICr III (1942) 142-47, 164-66; C. Davaras, ArchEph (1967) 84-90M; S. Spyridakis, Ptolemaic Itanos and Hellenistic Crete (1970) 29-32.
D. J. BLACKMAN