Hylates
divinity and aspect of Apollo worshiped on Cyprus
Hylates (Ancient Greek: Ὑλάτης) was a god worshipped on the island of Cyprus who was later likened to the Greek god Apollo. His name probably derives from ὑλακτέω [ʰylaktéō] "barking" or ὕλη [ʰýlē] "forest".
An important sanctuary was located in Kourion.
Stephanus of Byzantium also mentions the Cypriot cities of Amamassos, Erystheia, Hyle, and Tembros as places where Apollo Hylates was worshipped.
John Tzetzes adds that Apollo received the epithet Hylates from Hyle, a location near the region of Kourion.
The Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates in Kourion
The sanctuary is located about 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) west of the ancient town of Kourion along the road which leads to Pafos. It was one of the main religious centres of ancient Cyprus, where Apollo was worshipped as god of the woodlands. It seems that the worship of Apollo on this site began as early as the eighth century BC and continued until the fourth century AD. The site has undergone many extensions and alterations in different periods. The majority of the monuments as they can be seen today belong to the site's first century AD restorations. A wall from which one could enter the site via the Kourion Gate and the Pafos Gate surrounds the sanctuary.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hylates” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.