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Modern Description: The cave is a short distance above, entered by a long (c. 70m), low, serpentine passageway which is cramped and airless and not for the faint-hearted. It opens eventually into a broad, low-roofed chamber, forested with thick stalagmites and stalactites. The Roman author Aulus Gellius accurately described the interior as a ‘spelunca taetra et horrida'. The cave has been investigated archaeologically (Prof. Yannos Lolos), and has yielded evidence of Neolithic use in the late 5th to early 4th millennium BC. One of its deepest recesses later functioned as a burial place in Mycenaean times. It acquired its name as the ‘Cave of Euripides' thanks to a consistent tradition that the tragedian, who may have been a native of Salamis, used the cave for a period as a place of retreat. The finding of a fragment of a glazed cup dedicated with the name ‘ΕΥΡΙΠΠ [-ΙΔΗΣ]' (sic) suggests that the tradition has a long history: the inscription of the name dates probably from the 2nd century AD, and should be seen in the context of a later cult of the poet at the site. Finds are on display in the Salamina archaeological museum.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_of_Euripides
Wikidata ID: Q5054950
Trismegistos Geo: 37803

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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