Corycus

The city

Strabo does not mention a town of Corycus, but reports a promontory so called at the location, but a town Corycus is mentioned by Livy (xxxiii. 20), and by Pliny (v. 27), and Pomponius Mela (i. 13), and Stephanus of Byzantium (s. v. Κώρυκος). In antiquity, Corycus was an important harbor and commercial town. It was the port of Seleucia, where, in 191 BCE, the fleet of Antiochus the Great was defeated by the Romans. In the Roman times it preserved its ancient laws; the emperors usually kept a fleet there to watch over the pirates. Corycus was also a mint in antiquity and some of its coins survive.

Corycus was controlled by the Byzantine Empire. Justinian I restored the public baths and a hospital. The admiral Eustathios Kymineianos re-fortified the island on the orders of Alexios I Komnenos at the beginning of the 12th century, adding a supplementary castle on a small island. This castle was later called "maidens castle", because it was told that a king held his daughter here in captivity until she was killed by a venomous snake. It was prophesied she would die by a snake bite. So she was taken to the sea castle to protect her, but a serpent was taken by basket to the castle, she was bitten and died. Corycus was conquered by the Armenians soon after it was rebuilt by the Byzantines.

Until the mid-14th century the Armenians held both the mainland and island castles, which guarded this strategic port for the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia. Simon, the Baron of Koŕikos, attended the coronation of King Levon I in 1198/99. Subsequent Armenian nobles maintained authority in the area (with a few brief interruptions) until 1360, when Peter I, the King of Cyprus, removed the Mamelukes and assumed suzerainty. In the late 14th century it was seized again by the Turks. From 1448 or 1454 it belonged alternately to the Karamanids, the Egyptians, the Karamanids a second time, and finally to the Ottoman Empire.

Archaeological surveys published in 1982 and 1987 found that the Armenians maintained (with occasional repairs) the mainland castle’s simple Byzantine plan with its rectangular double walls, square towers, and two chapels, all of which were built with masonry taken from the nearby late antique city. The only original Armenian construction is one small chapel. Kizkalesi on the island has the extensive remains of Armenian rebuilding. The island was once connected to the mainland fort by a breakwater.

The ruins of the city are extensive. Among them are a triumphal arch, a necropolis with a beautiful Christian tomb, sarcophagi, etc. The two medieval castles, one on the shore, the other in an islet, connected by a ruined pier, are partially preserved; the former was reputed impregnable. The walls of the castle on the mainland contain many pieces of columns; and a mole of great unhewn rocks projects from one angle of the fortress about a hundred yards across the bay. Three churches are also found, one decorated with frescoes. The walls of the ancient city may still be traced, and there appear to be sufficient remains to invite a careful examination of the spot.

Bishopric

The city figures in the Synecdemus of Hierocles, and in a Notitia Episcopatuum of about 840. The bishopric of Corycus was a suffragan of Tarsus, the capital of the Roman province of Cilicia Prima, to which Corycus belonged. Of the bishops of the see, Germanus was at the First Council of Constantinople in 381; Sallustius took part in the Council of Ephesus in 431 and a synod held in Tarsus in 434, and was represented at the Council of Chalcedon by his metropolitan bishop Theodorus, who signed the acts of the council on his behalf; Archelaus went to a synod called by Patriarch Menas of Constantinople in 536; Cyprianus was at the Second Council of Constantinople in 553; and Ioannes participated in the Third Council of Constantinople in 680 and the Trullan Council in 692. During the crusades, Corycus was the seat of Latin Church bishops, one of whom, named Gerardus, took part in a council at Antioch in 1136. No longer a residential bishopric, Corycus is today listed by the Catholic Church as a titular see.

Two Armenian inscriptions that were discovered at the castles of Korykos were credited to its construction to Levon I and then to Hetum I.

Corycian Cave

In the Corycian Cave (now Cennet ve Cehennem), 20 stadia inland, says Strabo, the best crocus (saffron) grows. He describes this cave as a great hollow, of a circular form, surrounded by a margin of rock, on all sides of a considerable height; on descending into this cavity, the ground is found to be uneven and generally rocky, and it is filled with shrubs, both evergreen and cultivated; in some parts the saffron is cultivated: there is also a cave here which contains a large source, which pours forth a river of pure, pellucid water, but it immediately sinks into the earth, and flowing underground enters the sea: they call it the Bitter Water. Pomponius Mela (i.13) has a long description of the same place apparently from the same authority that Strabo followed, but more embellished. This place is probably on the top of the mountain above Corycus.

This place is famed in Greek mythology. It is the Cilician cave of Pindar (Pythian Ode i. 31), and of Aeschylus (Prom. Vinct. 350), and it is the lair of Zeus' fiercest opponent, the monster Typhon or Typhoeus.

Gallery

File:Korykos Land Castle 1011.jpg|Land castle of Korykos Southwest front File:Korykos Land Castle 6959 panorama.jpg|Land castle of Korykos Southwest and southeast front File:Korykos Land Castle 6961.jpg|Land castle of Korykos Southwest and southeast front File:Korykos Land Castle 3255.jpg|Land castle of Korykos View from necropolis across the road File:Korykos land castle view from west 1119.jpg|Land castle of Korykos Northwest front File:Korykos land castle view northwest walls 1129.jpg|Land castle of Korykos Northeast side File:Korykos Land Castle 1144.jpg|Land castle of Korykos Channel along Northeast side File:Korykos Land Castle 1148.jpg|Land castle of Korykos Spolia File:Korykos Land Castle 3229.jpg|Land castle of Korykos View northeast with possible harbour entrance File:Korykos Land Castle 2184.jpg|Land castle of Korykos Channel along Northeast side File:Korykos Land Castle 1154.jpg|Land castle of Korykos Southeast side File:Korykos Land Castle 1112.jpg|Land castle of Korykos Southeast front File:Korykos Land Castle 1169.jpg|Land castle of Korykos Inside southeast walls File:Korykos Land Castle 1172.jpg|Land castle of Korykos Interior looking northeast File:Korykos Land Castle 3238.jpg|Land castle of Korykos Interior File:Korykon Necropoli and churches 6987.jpg|Korykon Soldier's grave File:Korykon Necropoli and churches 6997.jpg|Korykon Necropolis and castles File:Korykon Necropoli and churches 7001.jpg|Korykon Sarcophagus File:Korykon Necropoli and churches 3270.jpg|Korykon Sarcophagi and church File:Kızkalesi to Ayas inland walk - Monastery church 3870.jpg|Korykon Church File:Kızkalesi to Ayas inland walk - Monastery church 3872.jpg|Korykon Church File:Kızkalesi to Ayas inland walk - Church of the Holy Sepulchre a computer generated view of east part 3275.jpg|Korykon Church File:Korykon Necropoli and churches 1247.jpg|Korykon Church File:Korykon Necropoli and churches 1242.jpg|Korykon Church File:Kızkalesi to Ayas inland walk - Church of the Holy Sepulchre as seen from Holy Street 1219.jpg|Korykon Church File:Korykon Necropoli and churches 7036.jpg|Korykon Church

References

• Smith, William (editor); Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, "Corycus", London, (1854)
• Blue Guide, Turkey, The Aegean and Mediterranean Coasts (), pp. 550–51.

References

1. (2016). "The Eerdmans Encyclopedia of Early Christian Art and Archaeology, ed., Paul Corby Finney". William B. Eerdmans Publishing.
2. (1987). "The Fortifications of Armenian Cilicia: Dumbarton Oaks Studies XXIII". Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University.
3. Edwards, Robert W., “Ecclesiastical Architecture in the Fortifications of Armenian Cilicia: First Report, ''Dumbarton Oaks Papers'' 36, 1982, pp.173-75, pls.38-42.
4. [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04402b.htm Siméon Vailhé, "Corycus"] in ''[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]'' (New York 1908)
5. John Fulton, Index Canonum: The Greek Text, an English Translation, and a Complete Digest of the Entire Code of Canon Law of the Undivided Primitive Church (Wipf and Stock Publishers, 16 Sep 2014 page 151.
6. Michel Lequien, [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_86weAemI-e4C ''Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus''], Paris 1740, Vol. II, coll. 879-882
7. Pius Bonifacius Gams, [http://www.wbc.poznan.pl/dlibra/doccontent?id=65154&dirids=1 ''Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae''], Leipzig 1931, p. 435
8. link. (2019-07-09 , p. 210; [https://archive.org/stream/hierarchiacathol06eubeuoft#page/184/mode/1up vol. 6], pp. 184–185)
9. H. Rudt de Collenberg Wipertus, [http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/mefr_0223-5110_1982_num_94_2_2669 ''Le royaume et l'Église de Chypre face au Grand Schisme (1378-1417) d'après les Registres des Archives du Vatican''], in ''[[Mélanges de l'École française de Rome]]'', t. 94, n° 2, 1982, pp. 638 e 652
10. ''Annuario Pontificio 2013'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2013 {{ISBN. 978-88-209-9070-1), p. 874
11. Langlois, op. cit (supra, note 21), 48.