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Modern Description: Magnificently sited on the extremity of the northern cape of the ‘Great Harbour' north of Lindos, is the circular monument known as the ‘Tomb of Cleoboulos'. This is reached by a 30-minute walk which is rewarding for its tranquility and its fine views of Lindos. (From a signed junction half way down the road to the beach from the main plateia at the edge of the town, a path leads out onto the headland.) On the southern tip of the headland, is the circular ‘tomb' (9m in diameter and c. 1.70m high) conspicuously marking the entrance to the natural harbour above a steep drop into the sea. Its fine masonry—well-finished blocks of Lardos marble, regular in form, but not of identical size—and the meticulous precision of its construction would suggest building work of the 4th or 3rd century BC—certainly later than the (Archaic) age of Cleoboulos. At the corners of the entrance the stone is pleasingly drafted: below and to the right is the projection of part of the threshold. A cross engraved above the door records that the building was used in mediaeval times as a church dedicated to Aghios Aimilianos. The building may not have been solely a tomb, even though this remains a probable hypothesis: its similarity to the bases of other Hellenistic towers in the area, and in particular to the lighthouse tower of Akeratos on Thasos, would point to other possible interpretations of its function. Cleoboulos was considered one of the ‘Seven Sages'—a loosely defined grouping of early Greek thinkers and doers. He appears to have been an enlightened leader of Lindos in the early decades of the 6th century BC, and presided over the city's period of greatest prestige and prosperity. He may have had considerable contact with Solon of Athens; he was a talented poet, and like many of his generation had travelled to, and felt the influence of, Egypt and her culture. The immortal guiding epithet, ‘Nothing in excess', which was inscribed at the entrance to the Oracle at Delphi, is attributed to him.
Trismegistos Geo: 3622

Info: McGilchrist's Greek Islands

(From McGilchrist’s Greek Islands, © Nigel McGilchrist 2010, excerpted with his gracious permission. Click for the books)

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