Anticyra (Thessaly)

38°51′10″N 22°25′50″E / 38.852784°N 22.430528°E / 38.852784; 22.430528

Map showing ancient Thessaly. Anticyra is shown to the centre bottom, south of Lamia.

Antikyra or Anticyra (Ancient Greek: Αντίκυρα, romanized: Antíkyra[1] or Ἀντίκιρρα[2] - Antíkirra or Ἀντίκυρρα[3] - Antíkyrra or Ἀντίκυραι[4] - Antíkyrae) was an ancient Greek city and polis (city-state) on the right bank of the Spercheios near its mouth on the Malian Gulf in district of Malis in Thessaly.[5][6][7] To its south lay Mount Oeta. To distinguish it from the city of the same name in Phocis (now Boeotia), the Thessalian Antikyra was often distinguished as Malian Antikyra.[citation needed] Both were famed for their black and white hellebore, a prized herb in ancient Greek medicine.[8]

The editors of the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World tentatively identify the site of Anticyra at the modern village of Kostalexis (Κωσταλέξης) in the municipality of Lamia.[9]


  1. ^ This form was used by Roman authors.
  2. ^ Strabo. Geographica. Vol. pp. 418, 434. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
  3. ^ Ptolemy. The Geography. Vol. 3.15.4.
  4. ^ Stephanus of Byzantium. Ethnica. Vol. s.v.
  5. ^ Mogens Herman Hansen & Thomas Heine Nielsen (2004). "Thessaly and Adjacent Regions". An inventory of archaic and classical poleis. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 709–710. ISBN 0-19-814099-1.
  6. ^ Chisholm 1911, p. 124.
  7. ^ Public Domain Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Anticyra". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.
  8. ^ Hahnemann 1812, p. 584.
  9. ^ Richard Talbert, ed. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. p. 55, and directory notes accompanying. ISBN 978-0-691-03169-9.