Gortyn Crete - Law Code, Acropolis, Titus
“Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ…To Titus, my true child in a common faith; Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior…This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order…” Titus 1:1,4,5
Last week we posted on the excavations just south of the main east - west road and the entrance to visitor center and developed area of the Gortyn archeological park. Today we are sharing some pictures of the more developed / visitor ready area. The Basilica of St Titus at Gortyn commemorates the ministry of Titus on Crete, where Titus is considered Crete’s first bishop, and where some traditions indicated that he was martyred. The basilica is from the 6th century AD (built on an earlier church) built in a cross shape with barrel vault over the apse still intact.
Gortyn itself has evidence of settlement from the 7th century BC on. It was an important city in the Hellenistic and Roman eras and is mentioned in the Apocrypha in such a way that it is clear there was an active Jewish community here - though no synagogue has yet been found. We know from the account of Pentecost in the book of Acts that there were Jews from Crete present. At the back of the restored Odeion is one of the most interesting archeological finds at the site - the Gortyn Law Code. Written around 450 BC it deals all kinds of aspects of daily life from marriage and divorce to social class distinctions, adoption, property rights and women’s rights. The inscription was discovered on large stones in the columns of the theater, and then more in the Odeon, and then some of the stones found repurposed over the centuries in other buildings. It is now partially reconstructed at the back of the Odeion. The code was written alternating right to left then left to right (boustrophedon writing style).
We can see that work has begun on the ruins of the theater across a creek bed from the Odeion. Driving around the west end of the site, we thought about hiking up to the acropolis. This seemed to involved crossing some private land and angering some large goats (and also looked really tiring LOL) - so we opted for drone shots instead!. There are ruins of a 7th c temple of Athena (can’t say that we could pick out those ruins in the photos), remains of Roman walls and an aqueduct.
Biblical law, the Ten Commandments, shares a purpose with the ancient Gortyn Law code - to regulate and ground our lives together for good order. It’s evidence of the law “written on our hearts” that ancient law codes speak to some of the same failures inherent in human nature that are dealt with in the Biblical commandments. Unlike man made law codes, God’s law shows us our faults so that we can see the need for our Savior Jesus, whom Titus was placed on Crete to proclaim!
Gortyn, Crete. Looking toward the Odeion, theater and acropolis.
