Listed 15 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "AKREFNIA Municipality THIVES" .
AKREFNION (Ancient city) THIVES
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
KOPES (Ancient city) THIVES
Kopai: Eth. Kopaieus, (Thuc.Kopa+tes, Steph. B.: Topolia). A town
of Boeotia, and a member of the Boeotian confederacy, was situated upon the northern
extremity of the lake Copais, which derived its name from this town. It is mentioned
by Homer; but it was a small place, and its name rarely occurs in Grecian history.
It was still in existence in the time of Pausanias, who mentions here the temples
of Demeter, Dionysus and Sarapis. The modern village of Topolia occupies the site
of Copae. It stands upon a promontory in the lake which is connected with the
mainland by only a narrow causeway.
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
OLMONES (Ancient city) VIOTIA
Eth. Olmoneus. A village in Boeotia, situated 12 stadia to the left of Copae,
and 7 stadia from Hyettus. It derived its name from Olmus, the son of Sisyphus,
but contained nothing worthy of notice in the time of Pausanias. Forchhammer places
Olmones in the small island in the lake Copais, SW. of Copae, now called Trelo-Yani.
AKREFNION (Ancient city) THIVES
(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.
KOPES (Ancient city) THIVES
An ancient town in Boeotia, on the north side of the lake Copais, which derived its name from this place.
OLMONES (Ancient city) VIOTIA
Old form of Olmones.
GLAS (Acropolis) THIVES
Gla is the site of a stupendous Mycenaean fortress. Gla lies at the northeastern end of the Copais plain, and is encircled by massive walls 5.70 m thick and 3 km long. These walls gained Gla the title of the largest stronghold of its period.
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.
KOPES (Ancient city) THIVES
A city on the N bank of the former Lake Kopais, now Topolia, to the
NW of the Mycenaean fortress of Gla.
A small town living on the rich pasture lands of the Kopais and eel-fishing
in the Melas river, Kopai made up one of the 11 Boiotian districts from 447 to
387 and 378 to 338, together with Akraiphia and Chaironeia. Thereafter it was
autonomous in the Boiotian League. Its territory consisted of all the NE section
of the Kopais up to Cape Phtelio at the foot of Akraiphia, where an inscription
engraved in the rock marks the boundary of the two territories. At the end of
the 4th c. Krates of Chalkis attempted to drive a tunnel to carry off the waters
of the Kopais to the sea; the beginnings of galleries and a line of well-shafts
are still extant. The hill of Kopai, broken off from the shore of the ancient
lake, is linked to it by a raised causeway some 100 m long; it formed a peninsula
in the dry season and an island in times of flood. Made of large stone blocks,
the causeway was joined to a surrounding wall, part of which is preserved to the
N. To the E of the road, Frazer saw a broken bit of wall built of rough and rather
small stones; to the W the wall was polygonal, made of roughly bonded stones of
different sizes. Nothing can be seen of it today. The acropolis, on the hilltop,
was Underneath the modern village; the walls of the latter contain many ancient
stones, architectural blocks, and inscriptions, especially the Church of the Panagia.
A 6th c. B.C. relief of an Amazon and a metric epitaph of the 5th c. are in the
Thebes Museum. Kopai had a Sanctuary to Demeter Tauropolos (the bull is represented
on its coins), one to Dionysos, and one to Sarapis. The necropolis is N of the
causeway, on the mainland side. No excavations have been carried out at Kopai.
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.
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