Listed 5 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "AKREFNION Ancient city THIVES".
A city on the site of the modern village, E of the ancient Lake Kopais.
lt lies at the foot of a tall hill linked to Mt. Ptoos to the E by a long rocky
ridge.
The site does not seem to have been occupied until the Geometric age.
The earliest finds, on the W slope of the acropolis, are Geometric terracottas,
particularly some small horses (now in the Thebes Museum)--a reminder that the
Kopais region was noted for horse-breeding. The city enjoyed a certain autonomy
in the 6th and 5th c. B.C., minted its coins, and. made a number of dedications
to the Ptoios Hero (cf. Ptoion). From 447 to 387 and from 378 to 338 it joined
Kopai and Chaironeia to form one of the 11 Boiotian districts. Independent in
the Boiotian Koinon, the city was untouched by the invasions and was responsible
for administering the Sanctuary of Ptoan Apollo. Even in the 1st c. A.D. it still
had some prestige, thanks to the influential Epaminondas, son of Epaminondas (IG
VII 2711-13).
The city of Akraiphia has not yet been excavated. The lower city was
on the N foothills of the Kriaria ridge; foundations dating from the Classical
and Hellenistic eras could still be seen at the end of the 19th c. An altar dedicated
to Zeus Soter, the city's chief divinity, stood on the agora; in his honor the
city organized the Soteria festivals, with their gymnastic and musical contests.
The Haghios Georgios Church, on the foothills of the mountain, seems to have been
erected on the site of the Temple of Dionysos; it is built largely with ancient
materials: monumental stone blocks, Ionic capitals and inscriptions, notably two
large stelai honoring Epaminondas of Akraiphia, and one stele bearing the text
of a speech delivered by Nero on November 28, A.D. 67 (in the Thebes Museum).
The acropolis, on the top of the hill, is built into the city ramparts.
A wall climbs straight from the lower city to the summit; it has no towers or
gates and is built of large rectangular blocks placed in regular courses. At the
top of the hill, the wall tums at an angle and starts to run SW along the wide
flat crest of the ridge; then it joins the narrow pass leading to Akraiphia from
the S (there is a gate in the rampart here), spans it, and climbs N again. After
that it disappears. In the most uneven parts of the wall a curious polygonal masonry
of nearly regular courses, slightly convex in surface is combined, at the wall
base, with regular masonry of horizontal courses with vertical or oblique facing
joints (SW and W section of the wall). The rampart, of gray limestone, is ca.
2 m thick. Despite the differences in masonry it dates from no earlier than the
4th c. B.C.d
A number of necropoleis have been discovered: W of the acropolis (late
and proto-Corinthian Geometric ware), E of it (Roman period), and in the plain
now crossed by the new national highway, between the Kopaic basin and Lake Iliki
(7th-4th c. B.C.).
P. Roesch, 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.
Ptoion belonged to Thebes up to 335 except in the two periods when Akraiphia was autonomous (550-480 and 456-446); after the cities were made independent it became part of the territory of Akraiphia.
(Akraiphia) or Acraephiae (Akraiphiai). A town in Boeotia at Lake Copais, in which the Thebans took refuge after their town had been destroyed by Alexander. It contained a temple of Dionysus.
Akraiphia (Steph. B. s. v.; Herod. viii. 135), Acraephia (Liv. xxxiii. 29; Plin. iv. 7. s. 12), Akraiphiai (Strab. p. 410), Akraiphion (Strab. p. 413), Akraiphnion (Paus. ix. 23. § 5: Ta Akaiphnia, Theopomp. ap. Steph. B. s. v.), Eth. Akraiphiaios, Akraiphios, Akraiphnios, Akraiphniotes, Akraiphnieus, (Steph. B. s. v.), Akraiphieus (Bockh, Inscr. 1587: nr. Kardhitza). A town of Boeotia on the slope of Mt. Ptoum (Ptoon) and on the eastern bank of the lake Copais, which was here called Akraiphis limne from the town. Acraephia is said to have been founded by Athamas or Acraepheus, son of Apollo; and according to some writers it was the same as the Homeric Arne. Here the Thebans took refuge, when their city was destroyed by Alexander. It contained a temple of Dionysus. (Steph. B. s. v.; Strab. p. 413; Paus. l. c.) At the distance of 15 stadia from the town, on the right of the road, and upon Mt. Ptoum, was a celebrated sanctuary and oracle of Apollo Ptous. This oracle was consulted by Mardonius before the battle of Plataea, and is said to have answered his emissary, who was a Carian, in the language of the latter. The name of the mountain was derived by some from Ptous, a son of Apollo and Euxippe, and by others from Leto having been frightened ptoeo by a boar, when she was about to bring forth in this place. Both Acraephia and the oracle belonged to Thebes. There was no temple of the Ptoan Apollo, properly so called; Plutarch (Gryllus, 7) mentions a tholos, but other writers speak only of a temenos, hieron, Chresterion or manteion. (Steph. B. s. v.; /Strab. l. c.; Paus. l. c., iv. 32. § 5; Herod. viii. 135; Plut. Pelop. 16.) According to Pausanias the oracle ceased after the capture of Thebes by Alexander; but the sanctuary still continued to retain its celebrity, as we see from the great Acraephian inscription, which Bockh places in the time of M. Aurelius and his son Commodus after A.D. 177. It appears from this inscription that a festival was celebrated in honour of the Ptoan Apollo every four years. (Bockh, Inscr. No. 1625.) The ruins of Acraephia are situated at a short distance to the S. of Kardhitza. The remains of the acropolis are visible on an isolated hill, a spur of Mt. Ptoum, above the Copaic sea, and at its foot on the N. and W. are traces of the ancient town. Here stands the church of St. George built out of the stones of the old town, and containing many fragments of antiquity. In this church Leake discovered the great inscription alluded to above, which is in honour of one of the citizens of the place called Epaminondas. The ruins near the fountain, which is now called Perdikobrysis, probably belong to the sanctuary of the Ptoan Apollo. The poet Alcaeus (ap. Strab. p. 413) gave the epithet trikaranon to Mt. Ptoum, and the three summits now bear the names of Palea, Strutzina, and Skroponeri respectively. These form the central part of Mt. Ptoum, which in a wider signification extended from the Tenerian plain as far as Larymna and the Euboean sea, separating the Copaic lake on the E. from the lakes of Hylae and Harma.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited May 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!
