As part of their long-standing collaboration, the Center for Spartan and Peloponnesian Studies at the University of Nottingham (United Kingdom) and the Municipality of Sparta have been organizing the successful online lecture series “Sparta Live!” since 2020 with the aim of promoting the history, archaeology, and understanding of ancient Sparta and Laconia at both the local and global levels.
On Thursday, February 9, 2023, at 7 p.m., the Sparta Live! series honored Kythira and hosted an online lecture by Mr. Aris Tsaravopoulos, archaeologist (Ministry of Culture and Sports), on the topic «Kythira and Laconia – A Relationship of Constant Interdependence.».
Summary of the online lecture:
This lecture examines the island of Kythira’s strong dependence on Laconia during antiquity. Beyond the administrative and economic spheres, this dependence extended—as recent archaeological research has shown—to the cultural and, in particular, the religious spheres, despite the remarkable continuation of the worship of Aphrodite, which appears to be a continuation of the worship of the Minoan Great Goddess and the Phoenician Astarte. Finally, an attempt will be made to explain why no remains of the sanctuary and temple of Aphrodite, mentioned by Pausanias in his *Description of Greece* in the 2nd century CE, have survived to this day.
The photographic material and ideas presented in this video are the intellectual property of Mr. Aris Tsaravopoulos; therefore, any republication, copying, or any other use of this presentation without his written permission. The Sparta Live! web series is the intellectual property of the University of Nottingham (United Kingdom).
