Cnidus

Cni´dus, otherwise Gnidus, a town and peninsula of Doris in Caria, jutting out from the south-west part of Asia Minor, between the islands of Rhodes and Cos. It was celebrated for the worship of Venus. The Romans wrote to this city in favor of the Jews (1Ma 15:23), and St. Paul passed it in his way to Rome (Act 27:7).

A town and peninsula of Doris in Caria, jutting out from the southwest corner of Asia Minor, between the islands of Rhodes and Cos. It had a fine harbor, and was celebrated for the worship of Venus. Paul passed by it in his voyage to Rome, Mal 27:7 .\par

Cni’dus. (Hebrew, nidus). A city of great consequence, situated at the extreme south west of the peninsula of Asia Minor, on a promontory now called Cape Crio, which projects between the islands of Cos and Rhodes. See Act 21:1. It is now in ruins.

A magnificent city S.W. of Asia Minor, in Caria on the promontory, now cape Crio, projecting between the islands Cos and Rhodes (Act 21:1). Passed by Paul in sailing from Myra, N. of Rhodes, to Crete. The promontory is what was originally an island, joined to the mainland by an artificial causeway, forming two harbors, one on the N. the other on the S.

(Κνίδος, of unknown etymol.; by the Romans often called Gnidus) is mentioned in 1Ma 15:23, as one of the Greek cities which contained Jewish residents in the second century before the Christian era, and in Act 27:7, as a harbor which was passed by Paul after leaving Myra, and before running under the lee of Crete. It was a city of great consequence, situated at the extreme southwest of the peninsula (Mela, 1:16, 2) of Doris (Ptolemy, 10:2,10), in Asia Minor, SEE CARIA, on a promontory which projects between the islands of Cos and Rhodes (Pliny, 5:29; see Act 21:1); in fact, an island, so joined by an artificial causeway to the main land as to form two harbors, one on the north, the other on the south (see Smith’s Dict. of Class. Geogr. s.v.). All the remains of Cnidus show that it must have been a city of great magnificence (see Mannert, VI, 3, 234 sq.). Its inhabitants were originally Lacedaemonian colonists (Herod. 1:174). It was celebrated for the worship of Venus, whose famous statue, executed by Praxiteles, stood in one of her three temples there (Strabo, 14, p. 965; Pliny Hist. Nat. 36, 15; Hom. Odyss. 1, 30), and was the birthplace of Etesias and other noted ancients (Pausanias, 1:1, 3). It is now a mere heap of ruins, and the modern name of the promontory is Cape Krio (Clarke’s Travels, 3. 261). The place has been fully illustrated by Beaufort (Karamania, p. 81), Hamilton (Researches, 2, 39), and Texiar (Asie Mineure); see also Leake (Northern Greece, 2, 177; Asia Minor, p. 226), with the Drawings in the Ionian Antiquities, published by the Dilettanti Society, and the English Admiralty Charts, Nos. 1533, 1604.

Cnidus (nî’dus). A Greek city at the extreme southwestern corner of Asia Minor, now in ruins, on Cape Crio.

[Cni’dus]

City and seaport on the extreme S.W. corner of Asia Minor. Act 27:7. The spot is now called Cape Krio .

CNIDUS.—A city of Caria, in S.W. of Asia Minor. It was the dividing point between the S. and W. coasts of Asia Minor, and at this point St. Paul’s ship changed its course in the voyage to Rome (Act 27:7). It contained Jewish inhabitants as early as the 2nd cent. b.c. (1Ma 15:23), and had the rank of a free city.

A. Souter.

City on the promontory of Caria, Asia Minor, between the islands Coos and Rhodes. Saint Paul sailed by Gnidus on his journey to Rome (Acts 17).

nı̄´dus, knı̄´dus (Κνίδος, Knı́dos, “age”): A city of Caria in the Roman province of Asia, past which, according to Act 27:7, Paul sailed. At the Southwest corner of Asia Minor there projects for 90 miles into the sea a long, narrow peninsula, practically dividing the Aegean from the Mediterranean. It now bears the name of Cape Crio. Ships sailing along the southern coast of Asia Minor here turn northward as they round the point. Upon the very end of the peninsula, and also upon a small island off its point was the city of Cnidus. The island which in ancient times was connected with the mainland by a causeway is now joined to it by a sandy bar. Thus were formed two harbors, one of which could be closed by a chain. Though Cnidus was in Caria, it held the rank of a free city. There were Jews here as early as the 2nd century bc.

The ruins of Cnidus are the only objects of interest on the long peninsula, and as they may be reached by land only with great difficulty, few travelers have visited them; they may, however, be reached more easily by boat. The nearest modern village is Yazi Keui, 6 miles away. The ruins of Cnidus are unusually interesting, for the entire plan of the city may easily be traced. The sea-walls and piers remain. The acropolis was upon the hill in the western portion of the town; upon the terraces below stood the public buildings, among which were two theaters and the odeum still well preserved. The city was especially noted for its shrine of Venus and for the statue of that goddess by Praxiteles. Here in 1875-78 Sir C. Newton discovered the statue of Demeter, now in the British Museum. See also the Aphrodite of Cnidus in the South Kensington Museum, one of the loveliest statues in the world. From here also came the huge Cnidian lion. The vast necropolis West of the ruins contains tombs of every size and shape, and from various ages.

(Êíßäïò)

Cnidus was a city of Caria, at the S.W. angle of Asia Minor, between the islands of Cos and Rhodes. It lay at the end of a long peninsula-Triopium-which juts into the aegean Sea and forms the southern shore of the Sinus Ceramicus. Strabo (XIV. ii. 15) accurately describes it: ‘Cnidus has two harbours, one of which is a close harbour, fit for receiving triremes, and a naval station for twenty ships. In front of the city is an island, seven stadia in circuit; it rises high, in the form of a theatre, and is joined by a mole to the mainland, making Cnidus in a manner two cities, for a great part of the inhabitants live on the island, which shelters both the harbours.’ In the lapse of time the mole has become a sandy isthmus. The situation of the city in the highway of the seas gave it much commercial importance. It was a free city of the Roman Empire. Jews were settled there in the Maccabaean period (1Ma_15:23).

St. Paul’s ship of Alexandria sailed from Myra ‘slowly’ and ‘with difficulty,’ probably on account of adverse winds rather than of calms, taking ‘many days’ to come ‘over against Cnidus.’ The distance between the two ports was 130 miles, which with a fair wind could have been run in one day. After passing the point which divides the southern from the western coast, the ship was in a worse position than before, having no longer the advantage of a weather shore, and being exposed to the full force of the N.W. winds-called Etesian-which prevail in the aegean towards the end of summer. Instead of taking a straight course to the north of Crete-the wind not permitting this (ìὴ ðñïóåῶíôïò ἡìᾶò ôïῦ ἀíÝìïí)-she had to run under the lee of the island. Some interpret St. Luke’s words as meaning that the crew made a vain attempt to reach Cnidus, ‘the wind not allowing’ them; but there was apparently no reason why they should not have entered the southern harbour, which was well sheltered from N.W. winds.

Literature.-C. T. Newton and R. P. Pullan, Hist. of Discoveries at Halicarnassus, Cnidus and Branchidae, 1863; T. Lewin, St. Paul, 1875, ii. 190; Conybeare-Howson, St. Paul, 1856, ii. 390ff.; W. Smith, Dict. of Gr. and Rom. Geog. i. [1856] 638ff.

James Strahan.