Greek city of Elaia in Aeolis
 Bronze 12mm (3.94 grams) Struck 2nd-1st centuries B.C.
Reference: Sear 4206; B.M.C. 17.127,20
Head of Demeter right, wreathed with corn.
Torch; EΛ – AI / T – ΩΝ; all within corn wreath.

A coastal town situated south-west of Pergamon, Elaia served as a port for its more important neighbor during the time of the Pergamene Kingdom.

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In Greek mythology, Demeter was the goddess of the harvest, who presided over grains, the fertility of the earth, the seasons (personified by the Hours), and the harvest. One of her surnames is Sito (σίτος: wheat) as the giver of food or corn. Though Demeter is often described simply as the goddess of the harvest, she presided also over the sanctity of marriage, the sacred law, and the cycle of life and death. She and her daughter Persephone were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries that also predated the Olympian pantheon. Her Roman cognate is Ceres.

Elaea or Elaia was an ancient city of Aeolis, Asia, the port of Pergamum; the site is not precisely determined but is near Zeytindağ, İzmir Province, Turkey.

According to the present text of Stephanus of Byzantium, it was also called Cidaenis (Greek: Κιδαινίς), and was founded by Menestheus; but it seems likely that there is some error in the reading Cidaenis. Strabo places Elaea south of the river Caicus, 12 stadia from the river, and 120 stadia from Pergamum. The Caicus enters a bay, which was called Elaiticus Sinus, or the bay of Elaea. Strabo calls the bay of Elaea part of the bay of Adramyttium, but incorrectly. He has the story, which Stephanus has taken from him, that Elaea was a settlement made by Menestheus and the Athenians with him, who joined the war against Troy; but Strabo does not explain how it could be an Aeolian city, if this story was true. Elaea minted coins, which bear the head and name of Menestheus. Some argue that these are some evidence of its Athenian origin; but others, including William Smith discount the connection. Herodotus (i. 149) does not name Elaea among the Aeolian cities. Strabo makes the bay of Elaea terminate on one side in a point called Hydra, and on the other in a promontory Harmatus; and he estimates the width between these points at 80 stadia. Thucydides (viii. 101) places Harmatus opposite to Methymna, from which, and the rest of the narrative, it is clear that he fixes Harmatus in a different place from Strabo. The exact site of Elaea seems to be uncertain. William Martin Leake, in his map, fixes it at a place marked Kliseli, on the road from the south to Pergamum. Scylax (p. 35), Pomponius Mela (i. 18), Pliny (v. 32), and Ptolemy (v. 2), all of whom mention Elaea, do not help us to the precise place; all we learn from them is, that the Caicus flowed between Pitane and Elaea.

Elaea was located near the modern town of Zeytindağ, according to the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World.

The name of Elaea occurs in the history of the kings of Pergamum. According to Strabo, from Livy (xxxv. 13), travellers who would reach Pergamum from the sea, would land at Elaea. One of the passages of Livy shows that there was a small hill (tumulus) near Elaea, and that the town was in a plain and walled. Elaea was damaged by an earthquake in the reign of Trajan, at the same time that Pitane suffered.

<span class="mw-headline" id="History" history

Aeolis or Aeolia was an area that comprised the west and northwestern region of Asia Minor, mostly along the coast, and also several offshore islands (particularly Lesbos), where the Aeolian Greek city-states were located. Aeolis incorporated the southern parts of Mysia which bounded it to the north, Ionia to the south, and Lydia to the east.

Geography

Aeolis was an ancient district on the western coast of Asia Minor. It extended along the Aegean Sea from the entrance of the Hellespont (now the Dardanelles) south to the Hermus River (now the Gediz River). It was named for the Aeolians, some of whom migrated there from Greece before 1000 BC. Aeolis was, however, an ethnological and linguistic enclave rather than a geographical unit. The district often was considered part of the larger northwest region of Mysia.

History

According to Homer’s description, Odysseus, after his stay with the Cyclopes, reached the island of Aeolia, who provided him with the west wind Zephyr.

In early times, by the 8th century BC, the Aeolians’ twelve most important cities were independent, and formed a league (Dodecapolis): Cyme, Larissa (also called Phriconis), Neonteichos, Temnus, Cilla, Notion, Aegiroessa, Pitane, Aegae, Myrina, Gryneion, and Smyrna.

The most celebrated of the cities was Smyrna (modern Izmir, Turkey), but in 699 BC, Smyrna became part of an Ionian confederacy. The remaining cities were conquered by Croesus, king of Lydia (reigned 560-546 BC). Later they were held successively by the Persians, Macedonians, Seleucids, and Pergamenes.

Attalus III, the last king of Pergamum, bequeathed Aeolis to Rome in 133 BC. Shortly afterward, it was made part of the Roman province of Asia. At the partition of the Roman Empire (395 AD), Aeolis was assigned to the East Roman (Byzantine) empire and remained under Byzantine rule until the early 15th century, when the Ottoman Turks occupied the area.