Εμφανίζονται 5 τίτλοι με αναζήτηση: Πληροφορίες για τον τόπο για το τοπωνύμιο: "ΦΙΓΑΛΕΙΑ Αρχαία πόλη ΗΛΕΙΑ".
A polis within the district of Parrhasia. Geographically isolated,
Phigalia was linked historically with S Triphylia (viz., Lepreon) and the upper
Messenian plain. The city (1500 x 2500 m) spreads over an uneven plateau 300 m
above the deep gorge of the Neda river which permitted access to the coast of
Triphylia 15 km to the W. Citizens frequently aided Messenians in their wars and
revolts against Sparta; in reprisal, the Spartans beseiged and occupied Phigalia
several times in the 7th and 6th c. B.C. and between 421 to ca. 414 B.C. and again
ca. 401-395. In Hellenistic times Phigalia was a member of the Aitolian and Achean
Leagues; in the Roman period it went into decline, but has remained continuously
occupied.
The site is unexcavated, but chance finds indicate that the site was
occupied by the Late Bronze Age; considerable remains of the archaic, Classical,
and Roman periods lie exposed. Fortification walls are preserved for a length
of ca. one km along the E and N sides of the acropolis and stand to heights of
10 m in some parts. Stretches of the circuit may date as early as the 5th c. B.C.
but in the mid 4th c. B.C. portions were rebuilt for the addition of square and
circular towers. An outer, but uncharted, circuit of walls exists to the far W
of the city.
In the SE a Hellenistic fountain-house continues to function; nearby,
a Byzantine Chapel of the Panagia is built into the superstructure of an Ionic
building. In the W section a long stoa with shafts of several columns still in
situ delineates one side of an open, level area which appears to be the agora.
Adjacent, a destroyed chapel contains architectural members from a building of
the Classical period. An archaic kouros, found here in 1890, is now at Olympia
and perhaps is to be identified as the victor Arrachion (564 B.C.), described
by Pausanias. A Sanctuary to Athena is on a low hill to the W, overlooking the
agora.
The acropolis of the city (elev. 720 m) lies in the N sector. A Sanctuary
to Artemis Soteirias is on the crown, now occupied by a Church to Haghios Elias.
Chamber tombs line the scarps of surrounding hills. Numerous but unidentified
monuments are scattered throughout the confines of the city. Ancient sources attest
to the existence of a Polemarchion, a theater, a gymnasium, a Temple of Dionysos
Akratophoros, Sanctuaries of Hygeia and Asklepios, and Heroons of the Oresthasions
and Lepreos.
F. A. Cooper, 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.
Οι Φιγαλείς, που έρεπαν στο γλέντι και στην καλοζωία και ήταν λάτρεις του κρασιού και των ταξιδιών. Είχαν μάλιστα φτιάξει ναό αφιερωμένο στο Διόνυσο τον ακρατοφόρο, το άγαλμα του οποίου έλαμπε κόκκινο μέσα στα αμπέλια, βαμμένο με κινναβάρι (θειούχο υδράργυρο). Στα ρωμαϊκά χρόνια οι Φιγαλείς έκοψαν νομίσματα που εμφάνιζαν τη Νέδα με τη μορφή θεού που κρατάει στα χέρια του υδρία απ' όπου χύνεται νερό. Η πόλη ιδρύθηκε από τον Φίγαλο, γιό του Λυκάωνα, ιδρυτή της Λυκόσουρας. Σήμερα στο χώρο της αρχαίας Φιγαλείας σώζονται ερείπια του αρχαίου ναού της Αρτέμιδος με έναν εντυπωσιακό βωμό. Στη γύρω περιοχή διακρίνονται εύκολα τα τείχη του οχυρωματικού περιβόλου πάνω από τις απότομες πλαγιές και τους λόφους που κάποτε ήταν γεμάτα με τα αμπέλια των Φιγαλείων. Στον αρχαιολογικό χώρο οι ανασκαφές βρίσκονται σε εξέλιξη.
A town in the southwest corner of Arcadia, on the frontiers of Messenia and Elis, which owes its celebrity in modern times to the remains of a splendid temple in its territory (i. e. at Bassae, some four miles distant), built in the time of Pericles. The sculptures, in alto-relievo, which ornamented the frieze in the interior, are now preserved in the British Museum. They represent the combat of the Centaurs and the Lapithae, and of the Greeks and the Amazons. The temple is, next to the Theseum at Athens, the most completely preserved architectural specimen of classic Greek art. It was built by Ictinus, one of the architects of the Parthenon, of gray stone and white marble. It was originally 125 1/2 feet long and 48 feet wide.
This text is cited Sep 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Phigalia (Pans.); Phigalea (Polyb. iv. 3); Phigaleia (Paus.; Rhianus,
ap. Steph. B. s. v.;), Phialia (Paus.); Phialeia (Polyb.); Eth. Phigaleus, Phialeus,
Phigaleites.
An ancient is town of Arcadia, situated in the south-western corner
of the country, close to the frontiers of Messenia, and upon the right bank of
the Neda, about halfway between the sources and the mouth of this river. The name
Phigalia was more ancient than that of Phialia, but the original name had again
come into use in the time of Pausanias (viii. 39. § 2). The at city was said to
have derived its more ancient name to from Phigalus, a son of Lycaon, its original
founder, and its later name from Phialus, a son of Lycaon, its second founder.
(Paus. l. c.; Steph. B.) In B.C. 659 the inhabitants of Phigalia were obliged
to surrender their city to the Lacedaemonians, but they in recovered possession
of it again by the help of a chosen body of Oresthasians, who, according to an
oracle, perished fighting against the Lacedaemonians, (Paus. viii. 39. § § 4,
5.) In B.C. 375 Phigalia was rent asunder by hostile factions; and the supporters
of the Lacedaemonian party, being expelled from the city, took possession of a
fortress in the neighbourhood named Heraea, from which they made excursions against
Phigalia. (Diod. xv. 40.) In the wars between the Aetolians and Achaeans, Phigalia
became for some time the head-quarters of the Aetolian troops, who from thence
plundered Messenia, till they were at length driven out by Philip of Macedon.
(Polyb. iv. 3, seq., 79, seq.) The Phigaleans possessed several peculiar customs,
respecting which Harmodius of Lepreum wrote a special work. This author relates
that they were given to excess both in eating and drinking, to which their cold
and ungenial climate may perhaps have contributed. (Athen. iv. p. 149, x. p. 442.)
Phigalia was still a place of importance when visited by Pausanias.
He describes it as situated upon a lofty and precipitous hill, the greater part
of the walls being built upon the rocks. There are still considerable remains
of the ancient walls above the modern village of Pavlitza. The city was upwards
of two miles in circumference. The rock, upon which it stood, slopes down towards
the Neda; on the western side it is bounded by a ravine and on the eastern by
the torrent Lymax, which flows into the Neda. The walls are of the usual thickness,
faced with masonry of the second order, and filled in the middle with rubble.
On the summit of the acropolis within the walls are the remains of a detached
citadel, 80 yards in length, containing a round tower at the extremity, measuring
18 feet in the interior diameter. In ancient times a temple of Artemis Soteira
stood on the summit of the acropolis. On the slope of the mountain lay the gymnasium
and the temple of Dionysus Acratophorus; and on the ground below, where the village
of upper Pavlitza stands, was the agora, adorned with a statue of the pancratiast
Arrachion, who lost his life in the Olympic games, and with the sepulchre of the
Oresthasians, who perished to restore the Phigaleans to their native city. (Paus.
viii. 39. § § 5, 6, 40. § 1.) Upon a rock, difficult of access, near the union
of the Lymax and the Neda, was a temple of Eurynome, supposed to be a surname
of Artemis, which was opened only once a year. In the same neighbourhood, and
at the distance of 12 stadia from the city, were some warm baths, traces of which,
according to the French Commission, are visible at the village of Tragoi, but
the waters have long ceased to flow. (Paus. viii. 41. § 4, seq.)
Phigalia was surrounded by mountains, of which Pausanias mentions
two by name, Coilium (to Kotilion) and Elaeum (to Elaiom), the former to the left
of the city, at the distance of 30 stadia, and the latter to the right at the
distance of 30 stadia. As Cotilium lies to the NE. of Phigalia, and Pausanias
in this description seems to have looked towards the east, Mt. Elaeum should probably
be placed on the opposite side of Phigalia, and consequently to the south of the
Neda, in which case it would correspond to the lofty mountain of Kuvela. Mt. Elaeum
contained a cavern sacred to Demeter the Black, situated in a grove of oaks. Of
the position of Mt. Cotilium there is no doubt. On it was situated the temple
of Apollo Epicurius, which was built in the Peloponnesian War by Ictinus, the
architect of the Parthenon at Athens. It was erected by the Phigaleans in consequence
of the relief afforded by Apollo during the plague in the Peloponnesian War, whence
he received the surname of Epicurius. The temple stood in a place called Bassae,
and according to Pausanias excelled all the temples of Peloponnesus, except that
of Athena Alea at Tegea, in the beauty of the stone and the accuracy of its masonry.
He particularly mentions that the roof was of stone as well as the rest of the
building. (Paus. viii. 41. § § 7, 8.) This temple still remains almost entire,
and is next to the Theseium at Athens the best preserved of the temples of Greece.
It stands in a glen (whence the name Bassai, Dor. for Besse, Bessai) near the
summit of Mt. Cotilium, in the midst of a wilderness of rocks, studded with old
knotty oaks. An eye-witness remarks that there is certainly no remnant of the
architectural splendour of Greece more calculated to fascinate the imagination
than this temple; whether by its own size and beauty, by the contrast it offers
to the wild desolation of the surrounding scenery, or the extent and variety of
the prospect from its site. (Mure, Tour in Greece, vol. ii. p. 270.) A spring
rises about 10 minutes SW. of the temple, and soon afterwards loses itself in
the ground, as Pausanias has described. North of the temple was the highest summit
of the mountain, which one reaches in 10 minutes' time by a broad road constructed
by the Greeks. This summit was called Cotilum Kotilon), whence the whole mountain
derived the name of Cotilian; here was a sanctuary of Aphrodite, of which there
are still some traces. The grandeur of the ruins of the temple have given to the
whole of the surrounding district the name of the Columns (stous stulous or kolonnais).
The temple is at least two hours and a half from the ruins of the city, and consequently
more than the 40 stadia, which Pausanias mentions as the distance from Phigalia
to Cotilium; but this distance perhaps applies to the nearest part of the mountain
from the city.
In modern times the temple remained long unknown, except to the shepherds
of the country. Chandler, in 1765, was the first who gave any account of it; it
was subsequently visited and described by Gell, Dodwell, and others; and in 1812
the whole temple was very carefully examined by a body of artists and scholars,
who cleared away the ruins of the cella, and thus became acquainted with the exact
form of the interior of the building. The results of these labours are given by
Stackelberg, Der Apollotempel zu Bassa in Arkadien, Rom. 1826. The temple was
a peripteral building of the Doric order. The stone of which it is built is a
hard yellowish-brown limestone, susceptible of a high polish. It faces nearly
north and south, was originally about 125 feet in length and 48 in breadth, and
had 15 columns on either side, and 6 on either front. There were also 2 columns
in the pronaos and 2 in the posticum; so that the total number in the peristyle
was 42, of which 36 are standing. The cella was too narrow to allow of interior
rows of columns as in the Parthenon; but on either side of the cella five fluted
Ionic semi-columns projected from the walls, which supported the timbers of the
hypaethron. The frieze of the cella, representing contests between the Centaurs
and the Lapithae, and between Amazons and Greeks, is now in the British Museum.
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
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