Listed 100 (total found 131) sub titles with search on: Monuments reported by ancient authors for wider area of: "VIOTIA Prefecture GREECE" .
KORONIA (Ancient city) VIOTIA
(Paus. 9,34,3).Epimelius (=keeper of flocks).
(Paus. 9,34,3).
PLATEES (Ancient city) VIOTIA
Not far from the common tomb of the Greeks is an altar of Zeus, God of Freedom.
THIVES (Ancient city) VIOTIA
Within the sanctuary of Heracles and beyond the Chastiser stone is an altar of Apollo surnamed God of Ashes; it is made out of the ashes of the victims. The customary mode of divination here is from voices.
The altar was built by the sons of Praxiteles.
AKREFNION (Ancient city) THIVES
Before the expedition of the Macedonians under Alexander, in which Thebes was destroyed, there was here an oracle that never lied. Once too a mail of Europus, of the name of Mys, who was sent by Mardonius, inquired of the god in his own language, and the god too gave a response, not in Greek but in the Carian speech.
Oracle of Mount Ptoon, near Acraephia, in the territory of Thebes. Mythology affirmed that Tenerus, son of Apollo and Melia, was the first prophet here (Strabo, ix. p. 412). More interesting is it to know, on the same authority, that Pindar sang of this oracle. When Mys the Carian was sent by Mardonius to consult it, at the time of the Persian wars, the prophet answered him in the Carian language, so that the Thebans who accompanied him could not write down the reply, and Mys was obliged to do this himself (Herod. viii. 135). This oracle also was consulted by the Thebans before Leuctra (Pausan. iv. 32, § 5), but was destroyed in the general ruin of the Theban territory by Alexander (Pausan. ix. 23, § 3). In the time of Plutarch the whole district was desolate (Plut. Defect. Orac. 8).
EFTRISSIS (Ancient city) PLATEES
Oracle of Eutresis, between Thespiae and Plataea, in the neighbourhood of Leuctra. (Steph. Byz. s. v. Eutresis: Schol. ad Il. ii. 502.)
LEVADIA (Ancient city) VIOTIA
Oracle of Trophonius at Lebadea. One of the most celebrated of the Greek oracles, and in a place of sombre and impressive aspect, in Boeotia. There were different versions of the legend of Trophonius: the most dignified (found in Plut. Consol. ad Apoll. 14) tells us that Trophonius and Agamedes built the temple of Delphi, and, upon desiring a reward of the god, he told them that he would give them one on the seventh day; on which day they were found dead. Apollo made Trophonius a prophet; and the Boeotians were bidden to consult him at Lebadea on the means to put an end to a drought that afflicted the land. A swarm of bees led them to the sacred cave, and the oracle was established (Pausan. ix. 40, 1, 2). The rites necessary before consulting it were complicated and terrifying. First, the consultants had to purify themselves by spending some days in the sanctuary of the good spirit and good luck (Agathou Daimonos kai agathes Tuches); to live soberly and purely; to abstain from warm baths, but to bathe in the river Hercyna; to offer sacrifices to Trophonius and his children, to Apollo, Cronos, king Zeus, to Herb who holds the reins (Heniocha), and to Demeter Europe, who was said to have nursed Trophonius; and during each of these sacrifices a soothsayer examined the entrails of the victim. On the last night, the consultant had to sacrifice a ram to Agamedes. Only in the event of all the signs being favourable was admission to the cave granted. If it were granted: two boys, 13 years old, led the consultant again to the river Hercyna, and bathed and anointed him. The priests then made him drink from the well of.Lethe, that he might forget all his former thoughts, and from the well of Mnemosyne, that he might remember the visions he was about to receive. They showed him an ancient statue of Trophonius, which he adored; led him to the sanctuary, dressed him in linen garments, with girdles and a peculiar kind of shoes (krepides); and bade him descend a ladder into the cave. Close to the bottom was an opening into which he put his foot; some invisible power then drew his whole body through the opening. In each hand he held a honeycake to appease the subterranean deities. The vision then seen by him was carefully remembered, and told to the priests on his remounting to the light; and when he had recovered from his fears, the priests informed him of the meaning of the oracle. (Pausan. ix. 39, § 3 sqq.: cf. Philostr. Vit. Apoll. viii. 19.) But the vision sometimes left men melancholy for a long time. Epaminondas consulted this oracle just before the battle of Leuctra, and received from it the shield of Aristomenes, the Messenian hero (Pausan. iv. 32, § § 5, 6). It preserved a certain reputation even down to the time of Plutarch (de Orac. Defect. 5), though Sulla had plundered it. It was much consulted by the Romans (Origen, c. Celsus, vii. p. 355). Lebadea is the origin of the modern Livadia.
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
OGCHISTOS (Ancient city) VIOTIA
In my day there remained a temple and image of Onchestian Poseidon, and the grove which Homer too praised (Paus. 9,26,5).
A tradition of an oracle of Poseidon Hippios, at Onchestus in Boeotia, is preserved in the Homeric hymn to Apollo (230-238), with which compare Pausan. ix. 26, § 5, and, as emphasising the word Hippios, Hom. Il. xix. 405-417.
ORCHOMENOS (Archaeological site) VIOTIA
(Pint. de Orac. Defect. 44.)
PTOON MOUNTAIN (Mountain) STEREA HELLAS
A temple of Apollo (hence Apollo Ptous), near Thebes in Boeotia, oracle there consulted by Mardonius.
TEGYRA (Ancient city) ORCHOMENOS
Oracle of Tegyra. This lay not far from Abae, but just within the Boeotian frontier. Plutarch tells us that it flourished chiefly in the Persian wars, when it had a high priest Echecrates (Pelopid. 16), and promised the Greeks the victory over the Persians (Defect. Orac. 5). Tegyra was on one occasion declared by the Pythia herself to have been the birthplace of Apollo (Plutarch, Pelopid. 16; Defect. Orac. 5; Steph. Byz. s. v. Tegura).
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
THIVES (Ancient city) VIOTIA
After the sanctuary of Ammon at Thebes comes what is called the bird-observatory of Teiresias, and near it is a sanctuary of Fortune, who carries the child Wealth.
Oracle of Apollo Ismenius, south of Thebes. This was the national sanctuary of the Thebans, and oracles were given here, as at Olympia, by inspection of the entrails of victims (Herod. viii. 134) and by the shape of altar-flames (Soph. Oed. Tyr. 21). A stone at the entrance of the temple was pointed out as the seat on [p. 287] which Manto, the daughter of Tiresias, had prophesied. In this oracle a boy of good family and handsome appearance was selected yearly as priest and termed daphnephoros (laurel-bearer); and if in more than usually good position, dedicated a tripod before his year of office was over. (Pausan. ix. 10, § § 2-4; and compare Pindar, Pyth. xi. 7-10.) Herodotus saw three such tripods, inscribed with ancient Cadmean characters (v. 58-61). One was inscribed with the name of Amphitryon, and Pausanias (l. c.) says that it was dedicated on behalf of Heracles, and was the most remarkable of all the tripods he had seen. Possibly it was from this collection that a yearly tripod was sent to Dodona (Strabo, ix. p. 402). Before the disastrous conflict with Alexander, the Thebans are said to have asked of this oracle the meaning of a certain cobweb in the temple of Demeter, and to have received an ambiguous answer (Diodor. xvii. 10).
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited July 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Oracle of Apollo Spodios, also at Thebes. Here divination by voice-omens was practised, as at Smyrna. (Pausan. ix. 11, § 5.) This oracle, like the last, was of course destroyed by Alexander.
YITTOS (Ancient city) ORCHOMENOS
One was at Hyettus in Boeotia (Pausan. ix. 36, § 6); another at Bura, in Achaia. Those who consulted it prayed and put their questions, and then cast four dice painted with figures, and the answer was given according to the position of these figures (Pausan. vii. 25, § 6). Another oracle of Heracles was at Gades (Dio Cass. lxxvii. 20). Like Asclepius, Heracles was almost to be reckoned as a god; had he been merely the Greek son of Zeus and Alcmena, this would not have been so: but he was identified with foreign deities, such as Melkart.
AKREFNION (Ancient city) THIVES
It was located at a distance of fifteen stades away from the city (Paus. 9,23,5).
ALALKOMENES (Ancient city) VIOTIA
ANTIKYRA (Ancient city) VIOTIA
The road to Anticyra is at first up-hill. About two stades up the slope is a level place, and on the right of the road is a sanctuary of Artemis surnamed Dictynnaean, a goddess worshipped with great reverence by citizens. The image is of Aeginetan workmanship, and made of a black stone. From the sanctuary of the Dictynnaean goddess the road is downhill all the way to Anticyra.
This extract is from: Pausanias. Description of Greece (ed. W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., & H.A. Ormerod, 1918). Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
The image of Artemis is one of the works of Praxiteles.
ELIKON (Mountain) VIOTIA
With many statues made by the best artists of the ancient times (Paus. 9,29,5 - 9,30,3 & 3,31,1-3).
KOPES (Ancient city) THIVES
(Paus. 9,24,1).
(Paus. 9,24,1).
(Paus. 9,24,1).
KORONIA (Ancient city) VIOTIA
Before reaching Coroneia from Alalcomenae we come to the sanctuary of Itonian Athena. It is named after Itonius the son of Amphictyon, and here the Boeotians gather for their general assembly. In the temple are bronze images of Itonian Athena and Zeus; the artist was Agoracritus, pupil and loved one of Pheidias. In my time they dedicated too images of the Graces.
With an ancient image, the work of Pythodorus of Thebes; in her hand she carries Sirens. For the story goes that the daughters of Achelous were persuaded by Hera to compete with the Muses in singing. The Muses won, plucked out the Sirens' feathers (so they say) and made crowns for themselves out of them.
LEVADIA (Ancient city) VIOTIA
Demeter Europa was the nurse of Trophonius.
There is also a sanctuary of Apollo (Paus. 9,39,4).
(Paus. 9,39,4). It is the first time that a sanctuary of that name is mentioned (Ekd. Athinon, Pausaniou Periegissis, vol. 5, p. 249, note 3).
ORCHOMENOS (Archaeological site) VIOTIA
At Orchomenus is a sanctuary of Dionysus.
The oldest sanctuary is one of the Graces. They worship the stones most, and say that they fell for Eteocles out of heaven. The artistic images were dedicated in my time, and they too are of stone.
...They were changed into comets by Pluto and Persephone, and had a sanctuary near Orchomenus (Ovid, Met.xiii. 685). [p. 1031]
PLATEES (Ancient city) VIOTIA
The Plataeans have also a sanctuary of Athena surnamed Warlike; it was built from the spoils given them by the Athenians as their share from the battle of Marathon. It is a wooden image gilded, but the face, hands and feet are of Pentelic marble. In size it is but little smaller than the bronze Athena on the Acropolis, the one which the Athenians also erected as first-fruits of the battle at Marathon; the Plataeans too had Pheidias for the maker of their image of Athena. In the temple are paintings: one of them, by Polygnotus, represents Odysseus after he has killed the wooers; the other, painted by Onasias, is the former expedition of the Argives, under Adrastus, against Thebes. These paintings are on the walls of the fore-temple, while at the feet of the image is a portrait of Arimnestus, who commanded the Plataeans at the battle against Mardonius, and yet before that at Marathon.
There is also at Plataea a sanctuary of Demeter, surnamed Eleusinian.
STIRIS (Ancient city) DISTOMO
In Stiris is a sanctuary of Demeter surnamed Stiria. It is of unburnt brick; the image is of Pentelic marble, and the goddess is holding torches. Beside her, bound1 with ribbons, is an image of Demeter, as ancient as any of that goddess that exists.
TANAGRA (Ancient city) VIOTIA
There are sanctuaries of Hermes Ram-bearer and of Hermes called Champion. They account for the former surname by a story that Hermes averted a pestilence from the city by carrying a ram round the walls; to commemorate this Calamis made an image of Hermes carrying a ram upon his shoulders. Whichever of the youths is judged to be the most handsome goes round the walls at the feast of Hermes, carrying a lamb on his shoulders.
There are sanctuaries of Hermes Ram-bearer and of Hermes called Champion. Hermes Champion is said, on the occasion when an Eretrian fleet put into Tanagra from Euboea, to have led out the youths to the battle; he himself, armed with a scraper like a youth, was chiefly responsible for the rout of the Euboeans. In the sanctuary of the Champion is kept all that is left of the wild strawberry-tree under which they believe that Hermes was nourished.
TEFMISSOS (Ancient city) THIVES
In Teumessus there is also a sanctuary of Telchinian Athena, which contains no image. As to her surname, we may hazard the conjecture that a division of the Telchinians who once dwelt in Cyprus came to Boeotia and established a sanctuary of Telchinian Athena.
THESPIES (Ancient city) VIOTIA
The priestess there is a virgin, who acts as such until she dies. Heracles, they say, had intercourse with the fifty daughters of Thestius, except one, in a single night. She was the only one who refused to have connection with him. Heracles,thinking that he had been insulted, condemned her to remain a virgin all her life, serving him as his priest. But I cannot think it credible that Heracles would rise to such a pitch of wrath against a daughter of a friend. Moreover, while he was still among men, punishing them for insolence, and especially such as were impious towards the gods, he would not himself have set up a temple and appointed a priestess to himself, just as though he were a god.
The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites
THISVI (Ancient city) VIOTIA
Here there is a sanctuary of Heracles with a standing image of stone, and they hold a festival called the Heracleia.
THIVES (Ancient city) VIOTIA
The carvings on the gables are by Praxiteles, and include most of what are called the twelve labours. The slaughter of the Stymphalian birds and the cleansing of the land of Elis by Heracles are omitted; in their place is represented the wrestling with Antaeus.
After the sanctuary of Ammon at Thebes comes what is called the bird-observatory of Teiresias, and near it is a sanctuary of Fortune, who carries the child Wealth.
The sanctuary of Demeter Lawgiver is said to have been at one time the house of Cadmus and his descendants. The image of Demeter is visible down to the chest. Here have been dedicated bronze shields, said to be those of Lacedaemonian officers who fell at Leuctra.
Near the Proetidian gate is built a theater, and quite close to the theater is a temple of Dionysus surnamed Deliverer. For when some Theban prisoners in the hands of Thracians had reached Haliartia on their march, they were delivered by the god, who gave up the sleeping Thracians to be put to death. One of the two images here the Thebans say is Semele. Once in each year, they say, they open the sanctuary on stated days.
(Eucleia = Fair Fame). They say that within the sanctuary were buried Androcleia and Aleis, daughters of Antipoenus.
TIFA (Ancient city) VIOTIA
(Paus. 9,32,4).
THIVES (Ancient city) VIOTIA
Adjoining the sanctuary of Heracles are a gymnasium and a race-course, both being named after the god.
CHERONIA (Ancient city) VIOTIA
There is beyond the city a crag called Petrachus. Here they hold that Cronus was deceived, and received from Rhea a stone instead of Zeus, and there is a small image of Zeus on the summit of the mountain
KORSIES (Ancient city) THISVI
(Paus. 9,24,5).
KREFSIS (Ancient city) THISVI
Creusis, the harbor of Thespiae, has nothing to show publicly, but at the home of a private person I found an image of Dionysus made of gypsum and adorned with painting (Paus. 9,2,1).
LEVADIA (Ancient city) VIOTIA
Yetius (= Rain-god).
The image they say was made by Daedalus.
In a second temple are images of Cronus, Hera and Zeus (Paus. 9,39,4).
ORCHOMENOS (Archaeological site) VIOTIA
About Actaeon the Orchomenians had the following story. A ghost, they say, carrying a rock1 was ravaging the land. When they inquired at Delphi, the god bade them discover the remains of Actaeon and bury them in the earth. He also bade them make a bronze likeness of the ghost and fasten it to a rock with iron. I have myself seen this image thus fastened. They also sacrifice every year to Actaeon as to a hero
Dionysos at Orchomenos, later RE-dedicated on Mt. Helikon by Sulla.
PANOPEFS (Ancient city) CHERONIA
At Panopeus there is by the roadside a small building of unburnt brick, in which is an image of Pentelic marble, said by some to be Asclepius, by others Prometheus. The latter produce evidence of their contention. At the ravine there lie two stones, each of which is big enough to fill a cart. They have the color of clay, not earthy clay, but such as would be found in a ravine or sandy torrent, and they smell very like the skin of a man. They say that these are remains of the clay out of which the whole race of mankind was fashioned by Prometheus.
THESPIES (Ancient city) VIOTIA
Lysippus made a bronze Love for the Thespians, and previously Praxiteles one of Pentelic marble. The first to remove the image of Love, it is said, was Gaius the Roman Emperor; Claudius, they say, sent it back to Thespiae, but Nero carried it away a second time.At Rome the image perished by fire. Of the pair who sinned against the god, Gaius was killed by a private soldier, just as he was giving the password; he had made the soldier very angry by always giving the same password with a covert sneer. The other, Nero, in addition to his violence to his mother, committed accursed and hateful crimes against his wedded wives. The modern Love at Thespiae was made by the Athenian Menodorus, who copied the work of Praxiteles.
Statue made by Praxiteles himself.
Statue made by Praxiteles himself.
In Thespiae there is a bronze image of Zeus Saviour. They say about it that when a dragon once was devastating their city, the god commanded that every year one of their youths, upon whom the lot fell, should be offered to the monster.
THIVES (Ancient city) VIOTIA
At the entrance of the sanctuary of Apollo Ismenian, is a stone figure of Athena Pronaia (=of the fore-temple), made by Skopas.
At the entrance of the sanctuary of Apollo Ismenian, is a stone figure of Hermes Pronaos (=of the fore-temple), made by Pheidias.
The image is made of cedar-wood by Canachus.
The image in the sanctuary of Heracles, of white marble, is called Champion, and the Thebans Xenocritus and Eubius were the artists. But the ancient wooden image is thought by the Thebans to be by Daedalus. It was dedicated by Daedalus himself, as a thank-offering for a benefit. For when he was fleeing from Crete in small vessels which he had made for himself and his son Icarus, he devised for the ships sails, an invention as yet unknown to the men of those times, so as to take advantage of a favorable wind and outsail the oared fleet of Minos. Daedalus himself was saved, but the ship of Icarus is said to have overturned, as he was a clumsy helmsman. The drowned man was carried ashore by the current to the island, then without a name, that lies off Samos. Heracles came across the body and recognized it, giving it burial where even to-day a small mound still stands to Icarus on a promontory jutting out into the Aegean. After this Icarus are named both the island and the sea around it.
Thrasybulus, son of Lycus, and the Athenians who with him put down the tyranny of the Thirty, set out from Thebes when they returned to Athens, and therefore they dedicated in the sanctuary of Heracles colossal figures of Athena and Heracles, carved by Alcamenes in relief out of Pentelic marble.
Near is an image of Dionysus; Onasimedes made it of solid bronze.
On the statue of Epaminondas is an inscription in elegiac verse relating among other things that he founded Messene, and that through him the Greeks won freedom.
The image, a work of Calamis, was dedicated by Pindar, who also sent to the Ammonians of Libya a hymn to Ammon. This hymn I found still carved on a triangular slab by the side of the altar dedicated to Ammon by Ptolemy the son of Lagus.
According to the Thebans, the hands and face of the image were made by Xenophon the Athenian, the rest of it by Callistonicus, a native. It was a clever idea of these artists to place (Plouto) Wealth in the arms of (Tyche) Fortune, and so to suggest that she is his mother or nurse.
Three wooden images of Aphrodite, so very ancient that they are actually said to be votive offerings of Harmonia, and the story is that they were made out of the wooden figure-heads on the ships of Cadmus. They call the first Heavenly, the second Common, and the third Rejecter. Harmoina gave to Aphrodite the surname of Heavenly to signify a love pure and free from bodily lust; that of Common, to denote sexual intercourse; the third, that of Rejecter, that mankind might reject unlawful passion and sinful acts.
The image was made by Scopas.
Before the temple of Artemis of Fair Fame is a lion made of stone, said to have been dedicated by Heracles after he had conquered in the battle the Orchomenians and their king, Erginus son of Clymenus.
On the right of the temple of Apollo Ismenian are statues of women made of stone, said to be portraits of Henioche and Pyrrha, daughters of Creon.
Here are portraits of women in relief, but the figures are by this time rather indistinct. The Thebans call them Pharmacides (=Witches), adding that they were sent by Hera to hinder the birth-pangs of Alcmena. So these kept Alcmena from bringing forth her child. But Historis, the daughter of Teiresias, thought of a trick to deceive the Witches, and she uttered a loud cry of joy in their hearing, that Alcmena had been delivered. So the story goes that the Witches were deceived and went away, and Alcmena brought forth her child.
AKREFNION (Ancient city) THIVES
The town lies on Mount Ptous, and there are here a temple and image of Dionysus that are worth seeing.
DELION (Ancient city) VIOTIA
Those days men laid the greatest stress on piety to the gods. Datis the Persian showed his piety when having found an image of Apollo in a Phoenician ship he restored it to the Tanagraeans at Delium.
LEVADIA (Ancient city) VIOTIA
If you go up to the oracle, and thence onwards up the mountain, you come to what is called the Maid's Hunting and a temple of King Zeus (Paus. 9,39,4).
On the bank of the river there is a temple of Hercyna, in which is a maiden holding a goose in her arms (Paus. 9,39,3).
The most famous things in the grove are a temple and image of Trophonius (Paus. 9,39,4).
ORCHOMENOS (Archaeological site) VIOTIA
Seven stades from Orchomenus is a temple of Heracles with a small image.
PLATEES (Ancient city) VIOTIA
There is at Plataea a temple of Hera, worth seeing for its size and for the beauty of its images. On entering you see Rhea carrying to Cronus the stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, as though it were the babe to which she had given birth. The Hera they call Full-grown; it is an upright image of huge size. Both figures are of Pentelic marble, and the artist was Praxiteles.
Here too is another image of Hera; it is seated, and was made by Callimachus. The goddess they call the Bride.
POTNIES (Ancient city) THIVA
Here there is also a temple of Dionysus Goat-shooter. For once, when they were sacrificing to the god, they grew so violent with wine that they actually killed the priest of Dionysus. Immediately after the murder they were visited by a pestilence, and the Delphic oracle said that to cure it they must sacrifice a boy in the bloom of youth. A few years afterwards, so they say, the god substituted a goat as a victim in place of their boy.
SKOLOS (Ancient city) VIOTIA
The temple of Demeter and the Maid among the ruins is not finished, and only half-finished are the images of the goddesses
TANAGRA (Ancient city) VIOTIA
In the temple of Dionysus the image too is worth seeing, being of Parian marble and a work of Calamis. But a greater marvel still is the Triton
Beside the sanctuary of Dionysus at Tanagra are three temples, one of Themis, another of Aphrodite, and the third of Apollo; with Apollo are joined Artemis and Leto
Beside the sanctuary of Dionysus at Tanagra are three temples, one of Themis, another of Aphrodite, and the third of Apollo; with Apollo are joined Artemis and Leto.
Beside the sanctuary of Dionysus at Tanagra are three temples, one of Themis, another of Aphrodite, and the third of Apollo; with Apollo are joined Artemis and Leto.
THIVES (Ancient city) VIOTIA
Not far away is a temple of Ammon; the image, a work of Calamis, was dedicated by Pindar, who also sent to the Ammonians of Libya a hymn to Ammon.
YITTOS (Ancient city) ORCHOMENOS
In Hyettus is a temple of Heracles, from whom the sick may get cures. There is an image not carefully carved, but of unwrought stone after the ancient fashion.
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