Pandion. A son of Cecrops and Metiadusa, was likewise a king of Athens. Being expelled from Athens by the Metionidae, he fled to Megara, and there married Pylia, the daughter of king Pylas. When the latter, in consequence of a murder, emigrated into Peloponnesus, Pandion obtained the government of Megara. He became the father of Aegeus, Pallas, Nisus, Lycus, and a natural son, Oeneus, and also of a daughter, who was married to Sciron (Apollod. iii. 15.1; Paus. i. 5.2, 29.5; Eurip. Med. 660). His tomb was shown in the territory of Megara, near the rock of Athena Aethyia, on the sea-coast (Paus. i. 5.3), and at Megara he was honoured with an heroum (i. 41.6). A statue of him stood at Athens, on the acropolis, among those of the eponymic heroes (i. 5.3).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Sep 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Pandionidae (Pandionidai), a patronymic of Pandion, i. e. the sons of Pandion,
who, after their father's death, returned from Megara to Athens, and expelled
the Metionidae. Aegeus, the eldest among them, obtained the supremacy, Lycus the
eastern coast of Attica, Nisus Megaris, and Pallas the southern coast. (Apollod.
iii. 15.6; Paus. i. 5.4; Strab. ix.; Eustath. ad Hom.; Dionys. Perieg.1024.)
Megarus (Megaros), a son of Zeus, by a Sithnian or Megarian nymph. In the Deucalionian flood he is said to have escaped to the summit of Mount Gerania, by following the cries of cranes. (Paus. i. 40.1)
Towards the end of the 11th c. BC Doric tribes from Argolis
settled in Megaris and
built the first villages. Much later, five villages merged to found Megara. The
oldest finds go back to the 8th c. BC, and the first border clashes with neighbouring
Corinth started at around
the end of the century. The first colony was founded in Sicily (Megara
Hyblaea, 728 BC) at about the same time, and this was followed by other colonies
in the next century in Propontis, the most important being Byzantium
(660 BC). Ca. 600 BC Megara came under the rule of the tyrant Theagenes. The expansion
of Athens in the 6th
c. BC created serious problems for the city, which resulted in the loss of Salamis
and Nisaea.
In the 2nd half of the same century Megara's prosperity, which arose
from its flourishing industry, stockfarming and trade generally, was also reflected
in its architecture with the construction of many public buildings. The important
figures in this period were the engineer Eupalinos and the poet Theognis, at this
time when severe social upheavals were occurring. During the Persian Wars Megarian
ships took part in the naval battle of Salamis and Megarian hoplites in the Battle
of Plataea. A few years
later a war between Megara and Corinth broke out (460 BC) and the Megarians were
forced to ally themselves with Athens.
The Megarian Decree (432 BC), which excluded Megarian ships from every commercial
harbour controlled by the Athenian state, was one of the causes of the Peloponnesian
War, in the course of which the Megarians suffered terrible hardships.
In the 4th c. BC, in spite of the fact that the city was occasionally
embroiled in wars and disputes with Corinth in 395 BC, with Athens over the sacred
earth (orgas) shortly before 350 BC and with Philip II in 339 BC, Megara followed
a pacific policy which contributed to the expansion of its economy. For the first
time the city struck its own silver coin with symbols Apollo's head and a lyre.
Along with the great building activity, public places and sanctuaries were embellished
with works by the the great sculptors of the period, as well as the philosopers
Eucleides and Stilpon of the Philosophical School of Megara, were active at this
time. The capture of the city by Demetrios Poliorcetes in 307 BC and the seizure
of its numerous slaves were a great blow to the economy. During the Hellenistic
period Megara entered the Achaean and Boeotian League, In 146 BC it was taken
by the Romans, who destroyed it in 45 BC. The 2nd c. AD brought a new period of
growth and prosperity, especially under the emperor Hadrian, when many public
works were carried out. Politically Megara belonged to Boeotia until 395 AD, when
it was definitely destroyed by the Goths. In the 2nd half of the same century
Megara's prosperity, which arose from its flourishing industry, stockfarming and
trade generally, was also reflected in its architecture with the construction
of many public buildings. The important figures in this period were the engineer
Eupalinos and the poet Theognis, at this time when severe social upheavals were
occurring. During the Persian Wars Megarian ships took part in the naval battle
of Salamis and Megarian hoplites in the Battle of Plataea. A few years later a
war between Megara and Corinth broke out (460 BC) and the Megarians were forced
to ally themselves with Athens. The Megarian Decree (432 BC), which excluded Megarian
ships from every commercial harbour controlled by the Athenian state, was one
of the causes of the Peloponnesian War, in the course of which the Megarians suffered
terrible hardships. In the 4th c. BC, in spite of the fact that the city was occasionally
embroiled in wars and disputes with Corinth in 395 BC, with Athens over the sacred
earth (orgas) shortly before 350 BC and with Philip II in 339 BC, Megara followed
a pacific policy which contributed to the expansion of its economy. For the first
time the city struck its own silver coin with symbols Apollo'd head and a lyre.
Along with the great building activity, public places and sanctuaries were embellished
with works by the the great sculptors of the period, as well as the philosopers
Eucleides and Stilpon of the Philosophical School of Megara, were active at this
time. The capture of the city by Demetrios Poliorcetes in 307 BC and the seizure
of its numerous slaves were a great blow to the economy.
During the Hellenistic period Megara entered the Achaean and Boeotian
League, In 146 BC it was taken by the Romans, who destroyed it in 45 BC. The 2nd
c. AD brought a new period of growth and prosperity, especially under the emperor
Hadrian, when many public works were carried out. Politically Megara belonged
to Boeotia until 395
AD, when it was definitely destroyed by the Goths.
Megara. Located W of Eleusis on the Saronic Gulf, forming a buffer between
Attica and the Corinthia. The city may have been of some importance in the Bronze
Age. It emerges from the Dark Ages as a Dorian state. During the period of colonization,
it was in the forefront, founding important colonies including Megara Hyblaea,
Selinus, Chalcedon and Byzantium. The city experienced a tyranny under Theagenes
in the 7th c. B.C. and later came into direct collision with Athens over Salamis.
She did, however, for a short time in the 5th c. ally herself with her formidable
neighbor to the E, and built long walls to connect the city with the port. The
rapprochement with Athens was only temporary and Megara went back to her Dorian
compatriots, only to suffer Pericles' Megarian Decree of 432 B.C. Comparatively
little is known of Megara after the 5th c. B.C.; with a few exceptions her later
history is uneventful.
The ancient city lies on two hills and the saddle between them. Unfortunately
the modern town overlies the ancient remains and no systematic clearing has been
undertaken. The only major monument even partially brought to light is a large
fountain-house, apparently mentioned by Pausanias and assigned by him to the tyrant
Theagenes. The building, as cleared, is a rectangle (13.69 x ca. 21 m) consisting
of two parallel water reservoirs and draw basins. The front, or S, of the structure
is still under modern houses, but it probably carried a Doric porch from which
a fragmentary triglyph has been identified. The roof over the water reservoirs,
which was probably flat, was carried on five rows of seven eight-sided Doric piers.
The two reservoirs are separated by a thin orthostat wall which runs down the
center of the building on the middle line of piers. Each reservoir has a separate
inlet and outlet into two separate dip basins, and the parapet wall of the latter
is worn by the friction of countless amphoras. Recent studies indicate that the
building in its present form was constructed at the end of the archaic period
and thus cannot be associated with Theagenes. There is evidence for some damage
in the 3d c. A.D., perhaps associated with the Herulian invasion of 267, and a
final destruction in the late 4th c. A.D.
To the W of the fountain-house lies another building, only the corner
of which has been cleared. Its orientation is thought to suggest that it may be
contemporary with the fountain-house. Recent archaeological work at Megara has
been confined to chance finds and rescue operations, and some studies have been
undertaken on the city's fortifications.
W. R. Biers, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
The town of Megara, the capital of Megaris, a small district in Greece between the Corinthian and Saronic Gulfs, bounded on the north by Boeotia, on the east and northeast by Attica, on the south by the territory of Corinth, and situated a mile from the sea, opposite the island of Salamis. Its citadel was called Alcathoe, from its reputed founder, Alcathous, son of Pelops. Its seaport was Nisaea, which was connected with Megara by two walls, built by the Athenians when they had possession of Megara, B.C. 461-445. In front of Nisaea lay the small island Minoa, which added greatly to the security of the harbour. In ancient times Megara formed one of the four divisions of Attica. It was next conquered by the Dorians, and was for a time subject to Corinth; but it finally asserted its independence, and rapidly became a wealthy and powerful city. Its power at an early period is attested by the flourishing colonies which it founded, of which Selymbria, Chalcedon, and Byzantium, and the Hyblaean Megara in Sicily, were the most important. After the Persian wars, Megara was for some time at war with Corinth, and was thus led to form an alliance with Athens, and to receive an Athenian garrison into the city, B.C. 461; but the oligarchical party having got the upper hand, the Athenians were expelled, B.C. 441. Megara is celebrated in the history of philosophy as the seat of a philosophical school, usually called the Megarian, which was founded by Euclid, a native of the city.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Megara, Megara-orum, sometimes Megara-ae: the territory he Megaris,
sometimes he Megarike, sc. ge: Eth. Megareus, Megarensis: Adj. Megarikos.
A city in Greece Proper.
I. SITUATION. The city of Megara is situated rather more than a mile from
the Saronic gulf, in a plain about 6 or 7 miles in length, and the same in breadth,
bounded to the westward by the range of the Geraneian mountains, to the eastward
by the range which terminates in the mountains called Kerata or the horns, and
to the south by the sea; while on the north the plain loses itself in a gradual
ascent. The city stood on a low hill with a double summit, on each of which there
was an acropolis, one named Caria (Karia), and the other Alcathoe (Alkathoe),
the former probably being on the eastern, and the latter on the western height,
upon which the modern village is chiefly situated. Immediately below the city
was a port-town named Nisaea (Nisaia and Nisaia), the port being formed by an
island called Minoa. The city was connected with its port-town by Long Walls.
II. HISTORY. There were two traditions respecting the early history of
Megara. According to the Megarians, the town owed its origin to Car, the son of
Phoroneus, who built the citadel called Caria and the temples of Demeter called
Megara, from which the place derived its name. (Paus. i. 39. § 5, i. 40. § 6.)
Twelve generations afterwards Lelex came from Egypt and gave the inhabitants the
name of Leleges, whence we read in Ovid (Met. vii. 443):
Tutus ad Alcathoen, Lelegeia moenia, limes Composito Scirone patet.
Lelex was succeeded by his son Cleson, the latter by his son Pylas,
whose son Sciron married the daughter of Pandion, king of Athens. But Nisus, the
son of Pandion, disputing with Sciron the possession of Megara, Aeacus, who had
been called in as arbiter, assigned the kingdom to Nisus and his posterity, and
to Sciron the command in war. Nisus was succeeded by Megareus, the son of Poseidon,
who had married Iphinoe, the daughter of Nisus; and Megareus was followed by his
son Alcathous, who built the other citadel named after him. Such was the account
of the Megarians, who purposely suppressed the story of the capture of their city
by Minos during the reign of Nisus. (Paus. i. 39. § § 5, 6, i. 41. § 5.)
The other tradition, which was preserved by the Boeotians and adopted
by the rest of Greece, differs widely from the preceding one. In the reign of
Pylas, Pandion being expelled from Athens by the Metionidae, fled to Megara, married
the daughter of Pylas, and succeeded his father-in-law in the kingdom. (Paus.
i. 39. § 4; Apollod. iii. 15.) The Metionidae were in their turn driven out of
Athens; and when the dominions of Pandion were divided among his four sons, Nisus,
the youngest, obtained Megaris. The city was called after him Nisa, and the same
name was given to the port-town which he built. When Minos attacked Nisus, Megareus,
son of Poseidon, came from Onchestus in Boeotia to assist the latter, and was
buried in the city, which was called after him Megara. The name of Nisa, subsequently
Nisaea, was henceforth confined to the port-town. (Paus. i. 39. § § 4, 6.) But
even the inhabitants of Megara were sometimes called Nisaei, to distinguish them
from the Megarians of Sicily, their colonists (Theocr. Id xii. 27.) Through the
treachery of his daughter Scylla, Nisus perished, and Minos obtained possession
of the city, and demolished its walls. They were subsequently restored by Alcathous;
son of Pelops, who came from Elis. In this work he was assisted by Apollo. (Paus.
i. 41. § 6; Theogn. 771; Ov. Met. viii. 14) It was further related, that Hyperion,
the son of Agamemnon, was the last king of Megara, and that after his death a
democratical form of government was established. (Paus. i. 43. § 3.)
Into the value of those traditions it would be useless to inquire.
It may, however, be regarded as certain, that Megara and its territory were in
early times regarded as part of Attica; and hence Strabo accounts for the omission
of their names in the Iliad, because they were comprehended along with the Athenians
under the general name of Ionians. (Strab. ix. p. 392.) The most certain event
in the history of Megara is its conquest by the Dorians. This event is connected
in tradition with the expedition of the Peloponnesians against Athens. The Dorian
invaders were defeated by the voluntary sacrifice of Codrus; but Megaris was notwithstanding
permanently conquered, and a Corinthian and Messenian colony founded at Megara.
The pillar at the isthmus of Corinth, which had hitherto marked the boundaries
of Ionia and Peloponnesus, was now removed; and Megara was henceforth a Dorian
state, and its territory included in Peloponnesus. (Strab. ix. p. 393; Scymn.
Ch. 502.) Megara, however, continued for some time to be subject to Corinth, and
it was not without frequent straggles and wars that it at length established its
independence. Megara appears not to have become the ruling city in the district
till it was independent of Corinth, since in earlier times it had been only one
of the five hamlets (komai), into which the country was divided, namely, the Heraeans,
Piraeans, Megarians, Cynosurians and Tripodiscaeans. (Plut. Quaest. Grace. c.
17, p. 387.)
After Megara had become an independent city, its prosperity rapidly
increased, and in the seventh century before the Christian era it was one of the
most flourishing commercial cities of Greece. For this it was chiefly indebted
to its admirable situation, which gave its inhabitants great facilities for the
prosecution of commerce both by land and sea. All the roads from Northern Greece
to Peloponnesus passed through their country, while their shores being washed
by the Corinthian and Saronic gulfs, enabled them to trade both with the West
and East. Megara founded some of the earlier Grecian colonies, both
in Sicily and Thrace. In B.C. 728 it established Megara Hyblaea in Sicily, in
712, Astacus in Bithynia, in 675 Cyzicus in the Propontis, in the following year
Chalcedon at the mouth of the Bosporus, and in 657 Byzantium opposite Chalcedon.
About this time, or rather later, Comedy is said to have been invented by the
Megarians. According to the common account, Susarion, a native of Tripodiscus
in Megaris, introduced comedy into Attica. But, with the increase of wealth, the
lower orders attempted to obtain a share in the government, which had hitherto
been exclusively in the hands of the Dorian conquerors; and Theagenes, the father-in-law
of Cylon, became tyrant or despot of Megara, by attacking the rich landed proprietors
and advocating the claims of the poor. (Aristot. Rhet. i. 2, Polit. v. 4.) He
embellished the city by the construction of a beautiful aqueduct, which continued
to exist down to the time of Pausanias (i. 40. § 1). Theagenes ruled about B.C.
630--600; but he was subsequently driven from power, and Megara was for some time
torn asunder by struggles between the aristocracy and democracy. The elegiac poet
Theognis, who belonged to the aristocracy, deplores the sufferings of his party,
and complains that the poor no longer paid the interest of their debts, and that
they plundered the houses of the rich and even the temples.
About the same time the Megarians were engaged in frequent contests
with their neighbours in Attica. The chief struggle between them was for the island
of Salamis, which was at length gained by the Athenians in consequence of the
well-known stratagem of Solon. (Paus. i. 40. § 5; Strab. ix. p. 394.) The Megarians
took their share in the Persian wars. They fought with 20 ships at the battles
of Artemisium and Salamis. (Herod. viii. 1, 45.) They repulsed a body of Persians
whom Mardonius sent to ravage their territory (Paus. i. 40. § 2), and finally
3000 of their troops fought at the battle of Plataea. (Herod. ix. 28.)
After the Persian War the Megarians were involved in hostilities with
the Corinthians respecting the boundaries of their territories. This led the Megarians
to desert the Peloponnesian alliance, and unite themselves with the Athenians,
B. C 455. In order to secure their communication with Megara, the Athenians built
two Long Walls connecting the city with Nisaea; and they garrisoned at the same
time the town of Pegae, on the Corinthian gulf. (Thuc. i. 103.) But ten years
afterwards the Megarians revolted from Athens, and having obtained the assistance
of some Peloponnesian troops, they slew the Athenian garrison, with the exception
of those who escaped into Nisaea. They continued to hold Nisaea nd Pegae, but
they also surrendered these towns in the thirty years' truce made in the same
year (445) with Sparta and her allies. (Thuc. i. 114, 115.) The Athenians thus
lost all authority over Megaris; but they were so exasperated with the Megarians,
that they passed a decree excluding them from their markets and ports. This decree
pressed very hard upon the Megarians, whose unproductive soil was not sufficient
to support the population, and who obtained most of their supplies from Attica:
it was one of the reasons urged by the Peloponnesians for declaring war against
Athens. (Thuc. i. 67, 139; Aristoph. Acharn. 533.) In the Peloponnesian War the
Megarians suffered greatly. In the first year of the war the Athenians invaded
Megaris with a very large force, and laid waste the whole territory up to the
city walls. At the same time the Athenian fleet blockaded the harbour of Nisaea,
so that Megara was in the situation of a besieged city cut off from all its supplies.
This invasion was repeated by the Athenians once in every year, and sometimes
even twice; and the sufferings which the people then endured were remembered by
them many centuries afterwards, and were assigned to Pausanias as the reason why
one of their works of art had not been finished. (Thuc. ii. 31; Plut. Per. 30;
Paus. i. 40. § 4.)
In the fifth year of the Peloponnesian War (B.C. 427), the Athenians
under Nicias took possession of the island of Minoa, which lay in front of Nisaea,
and left a garrison there, by which means the port of Nisaea was still more effectively
blockaded. (Thuc. iii. 51.) Of the position of this island, and of the causeway
connecting it with the mainland, we shall speak presently. In the eighth year
of the Peloponnesian War (B.C. 424), the democratical party in Megara fearing
the return of the aristocratical exiles, who were at Pegae, entered into negotiations
with the Athenians to surrender their city to them. The Athenians still held Minoa;
and the Long Walls and Nisaea were occupied by an Athenian garrison. The Athenians
were admitted within the Long Walls by their friends in Megara, and after a siege
of two days they took Nisaea.1 Megara was saved by Brasidas, who advanced to the
relief of the city with a large Peloponnesian force, and, after offering battle
to the Athenians, which they declined, was admitted within the city. The aristocratical
exiles were now recalled, and a strict and exclusive oligarchy established, which
lasted for some time. (Thuc. iv. 66 - 74.) A few months afterwards the Megarians
captured the Long Walls from the Athenians and levelled them to the ground; but
the Athenians still continued to hold Nisaea and Minoa. (Thuc. iv. 109.) In the
truce concluded between the Athenians and Peloponnesians in the following year,
it was settled that the line of demarcation between the Athenians in Nisaea and
Minoa, on one side, and the Megarians and their allies in Megara, on the other,
should be the road leading from the gate of Nisaea near the monument of Nisus
to the Poseidonium or temple of Poseidon, and from the latter in a straight line
to the causeway leading to Minoa. (Thuc. iv. 117.)
From this time Megara is seldom mentioned in Grecian history. Its
prosperous condition at a later period is extolled by Isocrates, who says that
it possessed the largest houses of any city in Greece, and that it remained at
peace, though placed between the Peloponnesians, Thebans, and Athenians. (Isocr.
de Pac. p. 183, ed. Steph.) Megara surrendered to Philip after the battle of Chaeroneia.
(Aelian, V. H. vi. 1.) After the death of Alexander it was for some time in the
power of Cassander; but his garrison was expelled by Demetrius Poliorcetes, who
proclaimed the freedom of the city B.C. 307. (Diod. xx. 46; Plut. Demetr. 9.)
Subsequently it again passed into the hands of the Macedonian kings, but it was
united by Aratus to the Achaean League. (Polyb. ii. 43.) In the war between the
Achaean League and the Romans, Megara surrendered to Metellus without a contest.
(Paus. vii. 15. § 11.) It is mentioned by Sulpicius, in his well-known letter
to Cicero (ad Fam. iv. 5), as one of the ruined cities of Greece. It still existed
in the time of Strabo (ix. p. 393), and it was subsequently made a Roman colony.
(Plin. iv. 7. s. 11.) Pausanias relates that it was the only city of Greece which
Hadrian refused to assist, on account of the murder by its inhabitants of Anthemocritus,
the Athenian herald (Paus. i. 36. § 3); but we learn from inscriptions that a
new tribe at Megara was called Adrianis, in honour of the emperor, and that Sabina,
the emperor's wife, was worshipped here under the title of nea Demeter (Bockh,
Inscr. vol. i. p. 566); and even Pausanias himself describes a temple of Apollo
of white marble, built by Hadrian (i. 42. § 5). It continued to coin money under
the Antonines and subsequent emperors; and it appears in the Tabula Peuting. as
a considerable place. In the fifth century its fortifications were repaired by
Diogenes, an officer of the emperor Anastasius (Chandler, Inscr. Ant. 130); but
from this time it appears to have rapidly sunk, and was frequently plundered by
the pirates of the Mediterranean.
Megara was celebrated on account of its philosophical school, which
was founded there by Eucleides, a disciple of Socrates, and which distinguished
itself chiefly by the cultivation of dialectics. The philosophers of this school
were called the Megarici (hoi Megarikoi, Strab. ix. 393). It was, also less creditably
distinguished for its courtezans, who were called Megarian Sphinxes. (Megarikai
Sphinges, Suid. s. v.; comp. Plant. Pers. i. 3. 57.) The Megarians were addicted
to the pleasures of the table. (Tertull. Apolog. 39.) They had a bad character
throughout Greece, and were regarded as fraudulent, perfidious, and ignorant;
but they may have owed much of this bad character to the representations of their
enemies, the Athenians. (Aelian, V. II. xii. 56; Schol. ad Aristoph. Pac. 248;
Suid. s. v. Megareon axioi meridos, i. e. contemptible people.) Of the Megarian
games and festivals we have three kinds mentioned; the Dioclean, celebrated in
honour of the hero Diocles (Schol. ad Theocr. xii. 28; Schol. ad Pind. Ol. xiii.
155; Schol. ad Aristoph. Acharn. 774), the Alcathoan, celebrated in honour of
Alcathous, and the Smaller Pythian, in honour of the Pythian Apollo, whose worship
was very ancient in Megara. (Philostr. Vit. Soph. i. 3; Schol. ad Pind. Nem. v.
84, Ol. xiii. 155; Krause, Die Pythien, Nemeen und Isthmien, p. 66.)
Dion Chrysostom (Orat. vi.) says that Megara is one day's journey
from Athens, and Procopius (Bell. Vand. i. 1) makes it 210 stadia. According to
modern travellers the journey takes 8 hours. (Dodwell, Classical Tour, vol. ii.
p. 177.)
III. TOPOGRAPHY OF THE CITY AND ITS PORT-TOWN. Pausanias has given a particular
description of the public buildings of Megara (Paus. i. 40, seq.). He begins his
account with the aqueduct of Theagenes, which was supplied with water from the
fountain of the nymphs called Sithnides. The aqueduct was remarkable for its magnitude
and numerous columns. Near it was an ancient temple, containing a statue of Artemis
Soteira, statues of the twelve gods said to be by Praxiteles, and images of the
Roman emperors. Beyond, in the Olympieium, or inclosure of Zeus Olympius, was
a magnificent temple, containing a statue of the god, which was never finished,
owing to the distress occasioned by the Athenians in the Peloponnesian War. From
thence Pausanias ascended to the citadel, named Caria, passing by a temple of
Dionysus Nyctelius, a sanctuary of Aphrodite Apostrophia, an oracle of Night,
and a roofless temple of Zeus Cronius. Here, also, was the Megarum, or temple
of Demeter, said to have been founded by Car during his reign.
Below the northern side of the Acropolis Caria was the tomb of Alcmena
near the Olympieium. Hence Pausanias was conducted by his Megarian guide to a
place called Rhus (Rhous; comp. Plut. Thes. 27), because the waters from the neighbouring
mountains were collected here, until they were turned off by Theagenes, who erected
on the spot an altar to Achelous. It was probably this water which supplied the
fountain of the Sithnides. Near this place was the monument of Hyllas; and not
far from the latter were temples of Isis, Apollo Agraeus, and Artemis Agrotera,
which was said to have been dedicated by Alcathous after he had slain the Cithaeronian
lion. Below these were the heroum of Pandion, and the monuments of Hippolyte,
queen of the Amazons, and Tereus, who married Procne.
On the ascent to the citadel Alcathoe, Pausanias saw, on the right
hand, the sepulchre of Megareus, and near it the hearth of the gods called Prodomeis,
to whom Alcathous sacrificed when he was going to build the walls. Here was the
stone upon which Apollo laid his lyre, when he was assisting Alcathous, and which,
on being struck, returned a sound like that of a harp. (Comp. Theogn. 771; Ov.
Met. viii. 14) Beyond was the council-house (bouleuterion) of the Megarians, formerly
the sepulchre of Timalcus ; and on the summit of the Acropolis was a temple of
Athena, containing a statue of the goddess, entirely gilded, with the exception
of the face, hands, and feet, which were of ivory. Here, also, were temples of
Athena Nice, or Victory, and Aeantis. The temple of Apollo was originally of brick,
but had been rebuilt of white marble by Hadrian. Here, also, was a temple of Demeter
Thesmophorus, in descending from which occurred the tomb of Callipolis, daughter
of Alcathous.
On the road leading to the Prytaneium the traveller passed the heroum
of Ino, the heroum of Iphigeneia, and a temple of Artemis said to have been erected
by Agamremnon. In the Prytaneium were tombs of Menippus, son of Megareus, and
Echepolis, son of Alcathous; near which was a stone called Anaclethra, because
here Demeter sat down and called her daughter. Pausanias next mentions the sepulchres
of those Megarians who had fallen in battle against the Persians, and the Aesymnium,
so named from its founder, which contained a monument of the heroes of Megara.
There were several sepulchral monuments on the way from the Aesymnium to the heroum
of Alcathous, in which the public records were preserved in the time of Pausanias.
Beyond was the Dionysium or temple of Dionysus; close to which was the temple
of Aphrodite, containing several statues by Praxiteles. Near the latter was a
temple of Fortune, with an image of the goddess by Praxiteles. A neighbouring
temple contained statues of the Muses, and a Jupiter in brass, by Lysippus. In
the Agora stood the tombs of Coroebus and of the athlete Orsippus, the former
of which was ornamented by some of the most ancient specimens of sculpture which
Pausanias had seen in Greece. On descending from the Agora by the street called
Straight, there stood, a little to the right, the temple of Apollo Prostaterius,
with a statue of the god of great merit, as well as other statues by Praxiteles.
In the ancient gymnasium, near the gates called Nymphades, was a pyramidal stone,
called by the natives Apollo Carinus, and a temple of the Eileithyiae. On the
road to the port of Nisaea was a temple of Demeter Malophorus. The Acropolis of
Nisaea still remained; on descending from the Acropolis there was the tomb of
Lelex on the sea-side. Near Nisaea was a small island, called Minoa, where the
fleet of the Cretans was moored during the war against Nisus.
Megara still retains its ancient name, but it is a miserable place.
It occupies only the western of the two ancient citadels, and as this was probably
Alcathoe, the town on the summit is on the site of the temple of Athena. There
are hardly any remains of antiquity at Megara. On the eastern acropolis there
are a few remains of the ancient walls. None of the numerous temples mentioned
by Pausanias can be identified; and only one of them is marked by the frusta of
some Ionic columns. The magnificent aqueduct of Theagenes has disappeared; and
some imperfect foundations and a large fountain on the northern side of the town
are the only remains of the celebrated fountain of the Sithnide nymphs.
Of the Long Walls, uniting Megara with Nisaea, we have already spoken.
They are noticed by Aristophanes under the name of ta Megarika skele (Lysistr.
1172). They were destroyed by the Megarians themselves, as we have already seen,
in the eighth year of the Peloponnesian War, but they were subsequently restored
by Phocion. Strabo speaks of them as if they still existed in his time (ix. p.
391), but they would seem to have fallen to ruin before that of Pausanias, as
he makes no mention of them. According to Thucydides (iv. 66) they were 8 stadia
in length, but according to Strabo (l. c.) 18 stadia.
The position of Nisaea and Minoa has given rise to much dispute, as
the localities described by Thucydides do not agree with the present features
of the coast. The subject has been briefly discussed by Colonel Leake (Northern
Greece, vol. ii. p. 401), and more fully by Dr. Arnold (Thucyd. vol. ii. p. 393)
and Lieut. Spratt. (London Geographical Journal, vol. viii. p. 205.) Thucydides
represents Minoa as an island close to Nisaea, and united to the latter by a bridge
over a morass. On Minoa the Megarians had built a fortress (Thuc. iii. 51). Strabo
(ix. p. 39) calls Minoa a promontory (akra). He says that, after the Scironian
rocks, we come to the promontory Minoa, forming the harbour of Nisaea. Pausanias
(i. 44. § 3), however, agrees with Thucydides in calling it an island ; but it
may be observed that the expression of Strabo (akra) is not inconsistent with
its being an island, as stated by Thucydides and Pausanias. The difficulty in
determining the site of Minoa and Nisaea arises from the fact, that there is at
present no island off the coast which can be identified with Minoa. At the distance
of nearly a mile and a half from Megara there is a small rocky peninsula, and
further off two islands, the inner one of which affords shelter to a few of the
small class of coasters. Hence it has been supposed that the inner island was
Minoa, as it forms the port of the Megarians of the present day. But this island
is distant from the promontory about 200 yards, with 7 fathoms of water between
them ; consequently they could never have been connected by a bridge. It might,
indeed, be argued, that the peninsula was once an island ; but this is disproved
by the fact that its isthmus is of equal height with its extremity. Moreover there
are no ancient remains, either on this island or the peninsula.
Other writers, among whom are Colonel Leake and Dr. Arnold, suppose
the promontory of Tikho, further to the east, at the entrance of the strait of
Salamis, to have been Minoa, since it may at one time have been an island. Accordingly,
the statement of Strabo respecting the length of the Long Walls, is preferred
to that of Thucydides. But this promontory is nearly 3 miles in length, which
is larger than is implied in the description of Thucydides (iii. 51), who speaks
of it as fortified only by a single fort. Moreover, Pausanias calls Minoa a small
island. Lieutenant Spratt has offered a more probable solution of the difficulty.
He supposes Minoa to be a rocky hill, surmounted by a ruined fortress, and standing
on the margin of the sea south of Megara, at the distance of little more than
a geographic mile, thus agreeing with the 8 stadia of Thucydides. That this hill
was once a peninsula, appears evident from the dry beds of two rivers, which pass
close to its base ; one on each side. The eastern bed winds round the back of
the hill, leaving only a narrow neck of elevated ground between it and that on
the west side: and it is, therefore, clear, that when these two rivers had communication
with the sea, the intermediate neck of land, with this hill, would have been a
peninsula, or promontory. These two river beds were once the only outlets of the
mountain streams which issue from the valleys on the north side of Mont Geraneia
; for the ancient course of the eastern bed, although now ploughed over and cultivated,
can be traced through the plain to the northward, as far as its junction with
that river, whose torrent at present flows in an easterly direction towards the
shallow bay of Tikho, crossing the site of the Long Walls which connected Megara
with Nisaea and Minoa, and losing themselves in the swamps bordering that bay.
Although vestiges of the walls are not found in the bed of the river, yet, on
examining the ground near it, the evidence is convincing that its present course
does cross their site, as, at a short distance from it, on the Megarian side,
their foundations may be traced in a direction transverse to the course of the
river, and towards the castellated hill before mentioned. The dry watercourse
on the western side of this isolated hill can be traced to within two or three
hundred yards of the eastern one; and having no communi-cation with any other
mountain stream, it may not be unreasonable to suppose that formerly the river
split there into two branches or mouths. This hill would then have been an island,
as Thucydides calls Minoa. The subsequent deposit of earth brought down by the
above mentioned stream, would have joined the hill to the mainland.
If this hill is the site of Minoa, the town of Nisaea must have been
near it; and Lieut. Spratt discovered many vestiges of an ancient site on the
eastern side of the hill, between the sea and a low rock which stands in the plain
a short distance to the northward. Among these remains are four small heaps of
ruins, with massive foundations, in one of which there are three broken shafts
of small columns erect, and wanting apparently only the fourth to complete the
original number. Probably they were monuments or temples; and two Greek churches,
which are now in ruins, but standing on two ancient foundations, will not be unfavourable
to the supposition. Another church, Agios Nikolaos, which is perfect, also occupies
the site of an ancient building, but it stands nearer to the sea. (Lieut) Spratt
further supposes that he has discovered remains of the ancient causeway. Between
the base of the hill on its north side, and the opposite bank of the dry bed of
a former river, there are three platforms of heavy buildings, one of which lies
immediately at the foot of the hill, another on the edge of the opposite bank,
and the third nearly central; and as the course of that former river-bed clearly
and indisputably passes between them, it is more than probable that the bridge
of communication may be recognised in these ruins. He also says, that distinct
remains of an ancient mole are to be seen extending from the south-eastern end
of the hill, and curving to the eastward, so as to have formed a harbour between
the hill and those ruins, which is in accordance with the statement of Strabo,
that the port of Nisaea was formed by the promontory of Minoa.
IV. TERRITORY OF MEGARA. Megaris occupied the greater part of the large
Isthmus, which extends from the foot of Mt. Cithaeron to the Acrocorinthus, and
which connects Northern Greece with the Peloponnesus. The southern part of this
Isthmus, including the Isthmus properly so called, belonged to Corinth; but the
boundaries of Megaris and Corinth differed at an earlier and a later period. Originally
Megaris extended as far as Crommyon on the Saronic, and Thermae on the Corinthian,
gulfs, and a pillar was set up near the Isthmus proper, marking the boundaries
between Peloponnesus and Ionia; but subsequently this pillar was removed, and
the territory of Corinth reached as far as the Scironian rocks and the other passes
of the Geraneian mountains. (Strab. ix. pp. 392, 393.) Towards the N., Megaris
was separated from Boeotia by Mt. Cithaeron, and towards the E. and NE. from Attica
by some high land, which terminates on the west side of the bay of Eleusis in
two summits, formerly called Kerata or The Horns (ta Kerata), and now Kandili.
(Strab. ix. p. 395; Diod. xiii. 65; Plut. Them. 13.) Here there is an immense
deposit of conchiferous limestone, which Pausanias also noticed (i. 44. § 6).
The river Iapis, which flowed into the sea a little to the W. of the Horns, was
the boundary of Megaris and Attica. The extreme breadth of Megaris from Pagae
to Nisaea is estimated by Strabo (viii. p. 334) at 120 stadia; and, according
to the calculation of Clinton, the area of the country is 143 square miles. Megaris
is a rugged and mountainous country, and contains no plain, except the one in
which its capital, Megara, was situated. This plain was called the White Plain
(to Leukon pedion, Schol. ad Hom. Od. v. 333, ed. Mai; Etymol. M. s. v. Leukothea),
and is the same as Cimolia (Kimolia, Diod. xi. 79), which produced the Creta Cimolia
or fullers' earth, and which Leake erroneously regards as a place (Northern Greece,
vol. ii. p. 413). The main range of Mt. Cithaeron runs from W. to E., forming
the boundary between Boeotia and Attica; but it is also prolonged southwards along
the shores of the Corinthian gulf, and gradually rises into a new chain, which
stretches across Megaris from W. to E., parallel to Mt. Cithaeron. This chain
is highest on the western side, where it attains the height of 4217 feet (Paris),
and gradually sinks down on the eastern side towards the Saronic gulf. On its
western side it runs out into the promontory Aegiplanctus (Aigiplanktos, Aesch.
Agam. 303, with Schol.), and also into those of Olmiae and Heraeum in the Corinthian
territory. On its eastern side the island of Salamis and the surrounding rocks
are only a continuation of this chain. The mountains were called Geraneia in antiquity
(Geraneia, Thuc. i. 105; Paus. i. 40. § 7), and are said to have received this
name because, in the deluge of Deucalion, Megarus, the son of Zeus and a Sithonian
nymph, was led by the cries of cranes (geranoi) to take refuge upon their summit.
Towards the south the Geraneian mountains sink down into the plain of the Isthmus,
while to the south of the Isthmus there rises another chain of mountains called
the Oneian. Strabo (viii. p. 380) confounds the Geraneia with the Oneia; and erroneously
represents the latter extending as far as Boeotia and Cithaeron. His error has
misled many modern writers, who, in consequence, speak of the Geraneia as a portion
of the Oneia. (Curtius, Peloponnesos, vol. i. p. 25.)
The Geraneian mountains are almost, if not entirely, calcareous. They
form the true boundary of Northern Greece, and rise above there Isthmus of Corinth
like a vast wall from sea to sea. Three roads lead across these mountains into
Peloponnesus. One runs from the western coast of Megaris, across the rocky peninsula
of Perakhora, the ancient Peiraeum of Corinth, down to the Corinthian gulf. It
was the road by which armies frequently marched from Peloponnesus into Northern
Greece, but in ordinary intercourse was not much used on account of its length.
The second road passes through the centre of the Geraneia, and is called the road
of the great Dervenia from the narrow pass (Turk. Derveni), which leads between
two masses of rock, and where guards were stationed in Turkish times. According
to Gell the top of this pass was anciently fortified with a wall. The same writer
says that, from the top of this pass to Corinth the distance is 8 hours 37 minutes,
and to Megara 2 hours 33 minutes. This road is now little used. The third road,
which leads along the eastern coast of Megaris, is the shortest way between Megara
and Corinth, and therefore has been the chief line of communication between Peloponnesus
and Northern Greece from the earliest times to the present day. This road, soon
after leaving Megara, runs for several miles along a narrow ledge or terrace,
cut in the rock half-way up the sides of the cliffs. On his right hand the traveller
has the precipitous rock, while on his left it descends perpendicularly to the
sea, which is 600 or 700 feet beneath him. The road, which is now narrow and impracticable
for carriages, was made wide enough by the emperor Hadrian for two carriages to
pass abreast. From the higher level the road descends to the brink of the water
by a most rugged and precipitous path cut between walls of rock. This pass is
the celebrated Scironian rocks of antiquity, now called Kake - skala, or bad ladder
(Hai Skeironides petrai, Strab. ix. p. 391; hai Skironides and hai Skirades, Polyb.
xvi. 16; Skeironos aktai, Eur. Hippol. 1208; the road itself he Skironis hodos,
Herod. viii. 71; Scironia saxa, Plin. iv. 7. s. 11). According to a Megarian tradition,
these rocks derived their name from Sciron, a polemarch of the Megarians, who
was the first to make a footpath along the rocks (Paus. i. 44. § 6); but, according
to the more common tradition, they were so called from the robber Sciron. Near
the southern end of the pass, where the road [p. 317] begins to descend, we must
place the Molurian rock (he Molouris), from which Ino or Leucothea threw herself
with her son Melicertes (Palaemon) into the sea; and close by were the execrable
rocks (enageis), from which Sciron used to throw strangers into the sea, and from
which lie was himself hurled by Theseus. (Paus. i. 44. § 7, seq.) The tortoise
at the foot of the rock, which was said to devour the robbers, was probably a
rock called by this name from its shape, and which gave rise to the tale (kata
ten kaloumenen chelonen, /un>Diod. iv. 59). On the summit of the mountain was
a temple of Zeus Aphesius. On descending into the plain was the temple of Apollo
Latous, near which were the boundaries of Megaris and the Corinthia. (Paus. i.
44. § § 9, 10.)
Megaris contained only one town of importance, Megara with its harbour
Nisaea, which have been already described. The other towns in the country were
Aegosthena and Pegae (Doric Pagae), on the Alcyonian or Corinthian gulf; Tripodicus
and Rhus in the interior; Phibalis, on the confines of Attica (Schol. ad Aristoph.
Acharn. 802); and Phalycon and Polichne of which the site is uncertain. There
was also a fortress, Geraneia situated on one of the mountains of this name, but
its position is also uncertain (Scylax, p. 15; Plin. iv. 7. s. 11); it is apparently
the same place as the Ereneia (Ereneia) of Pausanias (i. 44. § 5). Scylax mentions
a place Aris, but instead of Pegai, teichos Geraneia, Aris, it has been conjectured
that we ought to read Pegai teichos, Geraneia akris or akra. Whether there was
a place of the name of Isus in Megaris seems doubtful.
1. On this occasion Thucydides (iv. 66) calls Megara he ano polis, in contradistinction
to the port-town. This expression cannot refer to the acropolis of Megara, as
some critics interpret it.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
The fountain was built in ca. 500 B.C. The front side of the building
was occupied by a portico with five Doric columns, and at the back of this was
a narrow cistern for the drawing up of water. Two more large cisterns, separated
by a parapet, were used for the collection of water. The roof was supported by
35 octagonal columns made of poros stone, while the walls were built of large
limestone blocks in the isodomic system.
The site of the spring was located in 1898 and partly uncovered in
1900. The excavation of the monument was carried out in 1957 and 1958 by J. Papademetriou.
After 1959, the water-tight plastering on the walls of the cisterns, was consolidated.
This text is cited Sept 2003 from the Hellenic Ministry of Culture URL below, which also contains image.
430 - 360
Euclid, student of the eleatic school initially, and then of Socrates school, is considered the founder of the Megarian school. During the Peloponesian war, because the state of Megara belonged to the Spartan alliance, Euclid would sneak into Socrates's classes - in Athens - in a woman's disguise, putting his life in danger. After Socrates's execution Plato makes honorary reference to Euclid in his writings. Being a student both of the eleatic school and of Socrates, Euclid has been influenced by both schools thus giving him fatherhood of the Megarian school which supported a mixture of the two philosophies. He combined the Socratic philosophy that virtue is knowledge with the Eleatic concept of the universe as a changeless unity that can be understood only by philosophical reflection
None of the six Euclid's philosophical dialogues, reported by Laertius, has been retained. Reported as distinguished successors of Euclid are Euvoulides and Diodoros Cronus who developed this sophism excessively.
Euclides, (Eukleides). A native of Megara, founder of the Megaric,
or Eristic sect. Endowed by nature with a subtle and penetrating genius, he early
applied himself to the study of philosophy. The writings of Parmenides first taught
him the art of disputation. Hearing of the fame of Socrates, Euclid determined
to attend upon his instructions, and for this purpose removed from Megara to Athens.
Here he long remained a constant hearer and zealous disciple of the moral philosopher;
and when, in consequence of the enmity which subsisted between the Athenians and
Megareans, a decree was passed by the former that any inhabitant of Megara who
should be seen in Athens should forfeit his life, he frequently came to Athens
by night, from the distance of about twenty miles, concealed in a long female
cloak and veil, to visit his master. Not finding his propensity to disputation
sufficiently gratified in the tranquil method of philosophizing adopted by Socrates,
he frequently engaged in the business and the disputes of the civil courts. Socrates,
who despised forensic contests, expressed some dissatisfaction with his pupil
for indulging a fondness for controversy. This cir cumstance probably proved the
occasion of a separation between Euclid and his master; for we find him, after
this time, at the head of a school in Megara, in which his chief employment was
to teach the art of disputation. Debates were conducted with so much vehemence
among his pupils that Timon said of Euclid that he had carried the madness of
contention from Athens to Megara. That he was, however, capable of commanding
his temper appears from his reply to his brother, who, in a quarrel, had said,
"Let me perish if I be not revenged on you.""And let me perish,"
returned Euclid, "if I do not subdue your resentment by forbearance and make
you love me as much as ever."
In argument Euclid was averse to the analogical method of reasoning,
and judged that legitimate argument consists in deducing fair conclusions from
acknowledged premises. He held that there is one supreme good, which he called
by the different names of Intelligence, Providence, God; and that evil, considered
as an opposite principle to the sovereign good, has no existence. The supreme
good, according to Cicero, he defined to be that which is always the same. In
this doctrine, in which he followed the subtlety of Parmenides rather than the
simplicity of Socrates, he seems to have considered good abstractly as residing
in the Deity, and to have maintained that all things which exist are good by their
participation of the first good, and, consequently, that there is, in the nature
of things, no real evil. It is said that when Euclid was asked his opinion concerning
the gods, he replied, "I know nothing more of them than this: that they hate
inquisitive persons."
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Eucleides (Eukleides), a native of Megara, or, according to some less probable accounts, of Gela. He was one of the chief of the disciples of Socrates, but before becoming such, he had studied the doctrines, and especially the dialectics, of the Eleatics. Socrates on one occasion reproved him for his fondness for subtle and captious disputes. (Diog. Laert. ii. 30.) On the death of Socrates (B. C. 399), Eucleides, with most of the other pupils of that philosopher, took refuge in Megara, and there established a school which distinguished itself chiefly by the cultivation of dialectics. The doctrines of the Eleatics formed the basis of his philosophical system. With these he blended the ethical and dialectical principles of Socrates. The Eleatic dogma, that there is one universal, unchangeable existence, he viewed in a moral aspect, calling this one existence the Good, but giving it also other names (as Reason, Intelligence, &c.), perhaps for the purpose of explaining how the real. though one, appeared to be many. He rejected demonstration, attacking not so much the premises assumed as the conclusions drawn, and also reasoning from analogy. He is said to have been a main of a somewhat indolent and procrastinating disposition. He was the author of six dialogues, none of which, however, have come down to us. He has frequently been erroneously confounded with the mathematician of the same name. The school which lie founded was called sometimes the Megaric, sometimes the Dialectic or Eristic. (Diog. Laert. ii. 106-108; Cic. Aead. ii. 42; Plut. de Fratr. Am. 18.)
A noble aristocrat who lived an unsettled life as in his time a number of political changes occured in Megara and throughout Greece. Because he was a member of the defeated aristocratic party ge was exiled and moved to Sicilly, Euboea, Viotia and Sparta. Even though he was welcome in all these states he always longed to return home. Indeed he returned home, sided with the new order of things but deeply inside him he remained an aristocrat and never changed his political beliefs. In his elegies, of which only 1389 verses have survived, the reader can see the poet's prejudice for the aristocrats against the democrats.
Theognis. Of Megara, an ancient elegiac and gnomic poet, said to have flourished B.C. 548 or 544. He may have been born about 570, and would therefore have been eighty at the commencement of the Persian Wars, 490, at which time we know from his own writings that he was alive. Theognis belonged to the oligarchical party in his native city, and in its fates he shared. He was a noble by birth, and all his sympathies were with the nobles. They are, in his poems, the agathoi and esthloi, and the commons the kakoi and deiloi, terms which, in fact, at that period, were regularly used in this political signification, and not in their later ethical meaning. He was banished with the leaders of the oligarchical party, having previously been deprived of all his property; and most of his poems were composed while he was an exile. Most of his political verses are addressed to a certain Cyrnus, the son of Polypas. The other fragments of his poetry are of a social, most of them of a festive, character. They place us in the midst of a circle of friends who formed a kind of convivial society; all the members of this society belonged to the class whom the poet calls "the good." The collection of gnomic poetry which has come down to us under the name of Theognis contains, however, many additions from later poets. The genuine fragments of Theognis, with some passages which are poetical in thought, have much that helps us to understand his times.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Theognis. Of Megara, an ancient elegiac and gnomic poet, whose reputed works form
the most extensive collection of gnomic poetry, that has come down to us under
any one name; but, unfortunately, the form in which these remains exist is altogether
unsatisfactory. Most of our information respecting the poet's life is derived
from his writings.
He was a native of Megara, the capital of Megaris, not of Megara Hyblaea,
in Sicily; as Harpocration justly argues from a line of his poetry (v. 783), in
which he speaks of his going to Sicily, evidently as to a country which was not
his native land, and as appears also from other passages of his writings. Harpocration
is, however, in error, when he charges Plato with having fallen into a mistake,
in making Theognis a citizen of Megara in Sicily (Leg. i.); for we can have no
hesitation in accepting the explanation of the Scholiast on Plato, that Theognis
was a native of Megara in Greece, but received also the citizenship as an honour
from the people of Megara Hyblaea, whom he is known to have visited, and for whom
one of his elegies was composed, as is proved by internal evidence. From his own
poems also we learn that, besides Sicily, he visited Euboea and Lacedaemon, and
that in all these places he was hospitably received. The circumstances which led
him to wander from his native city will presently appear.
The time at which Theognis flourished is expressly stated by several
writers as the 58th or 59th Olympiad, B. C. 548 or 544. It is evident, from passages
in his poems, that he lived till after the commencement of the Persian wars, B.
C. 490. These statements may be reconciled, by supposing that he was about eighty
at the latter date, and that he was born about B. C. 570. Cyril and Suidas make
him contemporary with Phocylides of Miletus.
Both the life and writings of Theognis, like those of Alcaeus, are
inseparably connected with the political events of his time and city. The little
state of Megara had been for some time before the poet's birth the scene of great
political convulsions. After shaking off the yoke of Corinth, it had remained
for a time under the nobles, until about the year B. C. 630, when Theagenes, placing
himself at the head of the popular party, acquired the tyranny of the state, from
which he was again driven by a counter revolution, about B. C. 600. The popular
party, into whose hands the power soon fell again, governed temperately for a
time, but afterwards they oppressed the noble and rich, entering their houses,
and demanding to eat and drink luxuriously, and enforcing their demand when it
was refused; and at last passing a decree that the interest paid on money lent
should be refunded (palintokia, Plut. Quaest. Graec. 18). They alto banished many
of the chief men of the city; but the exiles returned, and restored the oligarchy
(Arist. Polit. v. 4.3). Several such revolutions and counter-revolutions appear
to have followed one another; but we are not informed of their dates.
Theognis was born and spent his life in the midst of these convulsions,
to which a large portion of his poetry relates, most of that portion having evidently
been composed at a time when the oligarchical party was oppressed and in exile.
To this party Theognis himself belonged, and in its fates he shared. He was a
noble by birth; and all his sympathies were with the nobles. They are, in his
poems, the agathoi and esthloi, and the commons the kakoi and deiloi, terms which,
in fact, at that period, were regularly used in this political signification,
and not in their later ethical meaning.(1)
It would seem that, in that particular revolution, from which Theognis
suffered, there had been a division of the property of the nobles, in which he
lost his all, and was cast out as an exile, barely escaping with his life, " like
a dog who throws every thing away in order to cross a torrent"; and that
he had also to complain of treachery on the part of certain friends in whom he
had trusted. In his verses he pours out his indignation upon his enemies, " whose
black blood he would even drink". He laments the folly of the bad pilots by whom
the vessel of the state had been often wrecked, and speaks of the common people
with unmeasured contumely. Amidst all these outbursts of passion, we find some
very interesting descriptions of the social change which the revolution had effected.
It had rescued the country population from a condition of abject poverty and serfdom,
and given them a share in the government. "Cyrnus" he exclaims, " this
city is still a city, but the people are others, who formerly knew nothing of
courts of justice or of laws, but wore goat-skins about their ribs, and dwelt
without this city, like timid deer. And now they are the good (agathoi); and those
who were formerly noble (esthloi) are now the mean (deiloi): who can endure to
see these things? " The intercourse of common life, and the new distribution of
property, were rapidly breaking down the old aristocracy of birth, and raising
up in its place an aristocracy of wealth. "They honour riches. and the good marries
the daughter of the bad, and the bad the daughter of the good, wealth confounds
the race (emixe genos). Thus, wonder not that the race of citizens loses its brightness,
for good things are confounded with bad". These complaints of the debasement of
the nobles by their intermixture with the commons are embittered by a personal
feeling; for he had been rejected by the parents of the girl he loved, and she
had been given in marriage to a person of far inferior rank (pollon emou kakion);
but Theognis believes that her affections are still fixed on him. He distrusts
the stability of the new order of things, and points to a new despotism as either
established or just at hand.
Most of these political verses are addressed to a certain Cyrnus,
the son of Polypas; for it is now generally admitted that the same Polupaides,
which has been sometimes supposed to refer to a different person, is to be understood
as a patronymic, and as applying to Cyrnus. From the verses themselves, as well
as from the statements of the ancient writers, it appears that Cyrnus was a young
man towards whom Theognis cherished a firm friendship, and even that tender regard,
that pure and honourable paidepastia, which often bound together men of different
ages in the Dorian states. From one passage it appears that Cyrnus was old enough,
and of sufficient standing in the city, to be sent to Delphi as a sacred envoy
(theoros) to bring back an oracle, which the poet exhorts him to preserve faithfully.
There is another fragment, also of a political character, but in a different tone,
addressed to a certain Simonides; in which the revolution itself is described
in guarded language, which indicates the sense of present danger; while in the
verses addressed to Cyrnus the change is presupposed, and the poet speaks out
his feelings, as one who has nothing more to fear or hope for.
The other fragments of the poetry of Theognis are of a social, most
of them of a festive character. They "place us in the midst of a circle of friends.
who formed a kind of eating society, like the philislia of Sparta, and like the
ancient public tables of Megara itself". All the members of this society belong
to the class whom the poet calls "the good". He addresses them, like Cyrnus and
Simonides, by their names, Onomacritus, Clearistus, Democles. Demonax, and Timagoras,
in passages which are probably fragments of distinct elegies, and in which allusion
is made to their various characters and adventures; and he refers, as also in
his verses addressed to Cyrnus, to the fame conferred upon them by the introduction
of their names in his poems, both at other places, where already in his own time
his elegies were sung at banquets, and in future ages. A good account of these
festive elegies is given in the following passage from Muller: "The poetry of
Theognis is full of allusions to symposia: so that from it a clear conception
of the outward accompaniments of the elegy may be formed. When the guests were
satisfied with eating, the cups were filled for the solemn libation; and at this
ceremony a prayer was offered to the gods, especially to Apollo, which in many
districts of Greece was expanded into a paean. Here began the more joyous and
noisy part of the banquet, which Theognis (as well as Pindar) calls in general
komos, although this word in a narrower sense also signified the tumultuous throng
of the guests departing from the feast. Now the Comos was usually accompanied
with the flute : hence Theognis speaks in so many places of the accompaniment
of the flute-player to the poems sung in the intervals of drinking; while the
lyre and cithara (or phorminx) are rarely mentioned, and then chiefly in reference
to the song at the libation. And this was the appropriate occasion for the elegy,
which was sung by one of the guests to the sound of a flute, being either addressed
to the company at large, or (as is always the case in Theognis) to a single guest".
Schneidewin traces a marked distinction in the style and spirit of those portions
of the poems of Theognis, which he composed in his youth and prosperity, and those
which he wrote in his mature age, and when misfortunes had come upon him.
As to the form in which the poems of Theognis were originally composed,
and that in which the fragments of them have come down to us, there is a wide
field for speculation. The ancients had a collection of elegiac poetry, under
his name, which they sometimes mention as elegeia, and sometimes as epe, and which
they regarded as chiefly, if not entirely, of a gnomic character (Plat. Menon.).
Xenophon says that "this poet discourses of nothing else but respecting the virtue
and vice of men, and his poetry is a treatise (sungramma) concerning men, just
as if any one skilled in horsemanship were to write a treatise about horsemanship"
(Xenoph. ap. Slob. Florileg. lxxxviii). To the same effect Isocrates mentions
Hesiod, Theognis, and Phocylides, as confessedly those who have given the best
advice respecting human life (kai gar toutous phasi men aristous gegenesthai sumboulous
toi bioi toi ton anthropon); and, from the context, it may it inferred that the
works of these poets were used in Greek education (Isocrat. ad Nicoel. 42). Suidas
enumerates, as his works, an Elegy eis tous sothentas ton Supakousion en tei poliorkiai;
Gnomic Elegies, to the amount of 2800 verses (Gnomai di elegeias eis epe bo);
a Gnomology in elegiac verse, and other hortatory counsels, addressed to Cyrnus
(kai pros Kurnon, ton autou epomenon, Gnomologian di edegeion kai heteras hupothekas
parainetikas). Suidas adds, that these poems were all of the epic form (ta panta
epikos), a phrase which can only be explained by taking the word epic in that
wide sense, of which we have several other instances, one of which (Plat. Men.)
has been noticed above, as including poems in the elegiac verse; for all the remains
of Theognis which we possess are elegiac, and there is no sufficient reason to
suppose that he wrote any epic poems, properly so called, or even any gnomic poems
in hexameter verse. Had he done so, the fact would surely have been indicated
by the occasional appearance of consecutive hexameters in the gnomic extracts
from his poems. The passage of Plato, sometimes quoted to show that he wrote epic
poetry, seems to us to prove, if anything, the very opposite.
The poems, which have come down to us, consist of 1389 elegiac verses,
consisting of gnomic sentences and paragraphs, of one or more couplets; which
vary greatly in their style and subjects, and which are evidently extracted from
a number of separate poems. Even in the confused account of Suidas we trace indications
of the fact, that the poetry of Theognis consisted of several distinct elegies.
In what state the collection was in the time of Suidas, we have not sufficient
evidence to determine; but, comparing his article with his well-known method of
putting together the information which he gathered from various sources, we suspect
that the work which he calls Gnomai di elegeias eis epe bo, was a collection similar
to that which has come down to us, though more extensive, and with which Suidas
himself was probably acquainted, and that he copied the other titles from various
writers, without caring to inquire whether the poems to which they referred were
included in the great collection. Xenophon, in the passage above cited, refers
to a collection of the poetry of Theognis; though not, as some have supposed,
to a continuous gnomic poem; and it is evident that the collection referred to
by Xenophon was different from that which has come down to us, as the lines quoted
by him as its commencement are now found in the MSS. as vv. 183--190.
The manner in which the original collection was formed, and the changes
by which it has come into its present state, can be explained by a very simple
theory, perfectly consistent with all the facts of the case, in the following
manner.
Theognis wrote numerous elegies, political, convivial, affectionate,
and occasional, addressed to Cyrnus, and to his other friends. In a very short
time these poems would naturally be collected, and arranged according to their
subjects, and according to the persons to whom they were addressed; but at what
precise period this was done we are unable to determine: the collection may have
been partly made during the poet's life, and even by himself; but we may be sure
that it would not be left undone long after his death.
In this collection, the distinction of the separate poems in each
great division would naturally be less and less regarded, on account of the uniformity
of tile metre, the similarity of the subjects, and -in the case especially of
those addressed to Cyrnus- the perpetual recurrence of the same name in the different
poems. Thus the collection would gradually be fused into one body, and, first
each division of it, and then perhaps the whole, would assume a form but little
different from that of a continuous poem. Even before this had happened, however,
the decidedly gnomic spirit of the poems, and their popularity on that account,
would give rise to the practice of extracting from them couplets and paragraphs,
containing gnomic sentiments; and these, being chosen simply for the sake of the
sentiment contained in each individual passage, would be arranged in any order
that accident might determine, without reference to the original place and connection
of each extract, and without any pains being taken to keep the passages distinct.
Thus was formed a single and quasi-continuous body of gnomic poetry, which of
course has been subjected to the common fates of such collections; interpolations
from the works of other gnomic poets, and omissions of passages which really belonged
to Theognis; besides the ordinary corruptions of critics and transcribers. Whatever
questions may be raised as to matters of detail, there can be very little doubt
that the socalled poems of Theognis have been brought into their present state
by some such process as that which has been now described.
In applying this theory to the restoration of the extant fragments
of Theognis to something like their ancient arrangement, Welcker, to whom we are
indebted for the whole discovery, proceeds in the following manner. First, he
rejects all those verses which we have the positive authority of ancient writers
for assigning to other poets, such as Tyrtaeus, Mimniermus, Solon, and others;
provided, of course, that the evidence in favour of those poets preponderates
over that on the ground of which the verses have been assigned to Theognis. Secondly,
he rejects all passages which can be proved to be merely parodies of the genuine
gnomes of Theognis, a species of corruption which he discusses with great skill.
Thirdly, he collects those passages which refer to certain definite persons, places,
seasons, and events, like the epigrams of later times; of these he considers some
to be the productions of Theognis, but others manifest additions. His next class
is formed of the convivial portions of the poetry; in which the discrimination
of what is genuine from what is spurious is a matter of extreme difficulty. Fifthly,
he separates all those paragraphs which are addressed to Polypaides; and here
there can be no doubt that he has fallen into an error, through not perceiving
the fact above referred to, as clearly established by other writers, that that
word is a patronymic, and only another name for Cyrnus. Lastly, he removes from
the collection the verses which fall under the denomination of paidika, for which
Suidas censures the poet; but, if we understand these passages as referring to
the sort of intercourse which prevailed among the Dorians, many of them admit
of the best interpretation and may safely be assigned to Theognis, though there
are others, of a less innocent character, which we must regard as the productions
of later and more corrupt ages. The couplets which remain are fragments from the
elegies of Theognis, mostly addressed to Cyrnus, and referring to the events of
the poet's life and times, and the genuineness of which may, for the most part,
be assumed; though, even among these, interpolations may very probably have taken
place, and passages actually occur of a meaning so nearly identical, that they
can hardly be supposed to have been different passages in the works of the same
poet, but they seem rather to have been derived from different authors by some
compiler who was struck by their resemblance.
The poetical character of Theognis may be judged of to a great extent,
from what has already been said, and it is only necessary to add that his genuine
fragments contain much that is highly poetical in thought, and elegant as well
as forcible in expression.
Commentary:
(1) For a full illustration of the meanings of these words, see
Welcker's Prolegomena ad Theogn., and an excellent note in Grote's History of
Greece: "The ethical meaning of these words is not absolutely unknown, yet
rare, in Theognis: it gradually grew up at Athens, and became popularized by the
Socratic school of philosophers as well as by the orators. But the early or political
meaning always remained, and the fluctuation between the two has been productive
of frequent misunderstanding. Constant attention is necessary, when we read the
expressions hoi agathoi, esthloi, beltistoi, kalokagathoi, chpestoi, &c.,
or on the other hand, hoi kakoi, deiloi, &c., to examine whether the context
is such as to give to them the ethical or the political meaning".
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Sep 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
560 - 500
Architect, son of Nafstrofos, known for his famous aqueduct "Efpalinos tunnel" at Samos (530 b.C.) The tunnel, as it was admired and described by Herodotus, was constructed to supply water from a spring to the capital city of Samos. For this purpose, Efpalinos, had to "pierce" the mountain Kastro. The tunnel is 1000m. long (7 stadia) and its walls have been lined with small-size polygonal stones in order to prevent earth from falling. Now architects admire Efpalinos for his advanced knowledge in hydraulics.
Founder of Byzantium, named after him, which was ihabited by the citizens of Megara in 658 b.C. Coins of the ancient city-state bear his head. He was a daring navigator, son of Poseidon (Neptune) the mythical god of the seas. His mother was Kreoussa and he was born circa 687 b.C. When the citizens sent for instructions to the oracle of Delfi as to where they should establish a new settlement they were given the obscure reply: "across the blind people". However none knew a city with this name.
During that summer, quite a few citizens of Megara led by Byzas boarded their vessels setting for a journey to the unknown. They had faith in their leader though. Thus, after much wandering the Megarian fleet reaches the port of Chalcedon in safety. Chalkedon was a settlement of Megarians which had been inhabited 17 years before, in 674 b.C. Soon Byzas realised that the "land of the blind" was Chalcedon as they had failed to understand that the shore across their city was of much greater strategic importance. Moreover, according to Stravon, fishing was an easy matter across the sea. (see Geographika). Having this vision, Byzas led the Megarians to the coast across Chalcedon where they founded the new city and named it BYZANTIUM in 657 b.C.. This city was destined to play a historically significant role in the following years.
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