HYLATUS

a surname of Apollo derived from the town of Hyle in Crete, which was sacred to him. (Lycophr. 448, with Tzetzes' note; Steph. Byz. s. v. Hglê; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 596.)

From: A winter pilgrimage; being an account of travels through Palestine, Italy, and the island of Cyprus, accomplished in the year 1900. By Henry Rider Haggard

Our next expedition was to the site of ancient Curium, which is said by Herodotus to have been peopled by Argives. To reach this ruined city we passed the tower of Colossi and lunched in the police-station of the beautiful and fertile village of Episcopi.

By this spot is a well or pit which is said to be quite full of these broken statues. Probably they were thrown here on some occasion when the temple was sacked. Picking our path on horseback through the countless stones for two-thirds of a mile or so, we came to another and a larger temple. This was the great fane dedicated to Apollo Hylatus. A wonderful place it must have been when it stood here in its glory, peopled by its attendant priests and the crowd of worshippers flocking to its courts with gifts. The situation on that bold highland brow is superb and must be most splendid of all at dawn when the first level rays of the sunrise sweep its expanse. Doubtless the ancients placed the temple of their sun-god here that it might catch his arrows while darkness yet veiled the crowded town below, the wide, fertile plain which we call Episcopi, and the fields about the Norman tower of Colossi — compared to these old columns but a mushroom of yesternight.