Listed 36 sub titles with search on: Monuments reported by ancient authors for destination: "THIVES Ancient city VIOTIA".
Not far from the Electrian gate is a common tomb, where lie all those who met their death when fighting against Alexander and the Macedonians.
By the sacred fountain of Ares is the grave of Caanthus.
They show also the tomb of the children of Heracles by Megara. Their account of the death of these is in no way different from that in the poems of Panyassis and of Stesichorus of Himera. But the Thebans add that Heracles in his madness was about to kill Amphitryon as well, but before he could do so he was rendered unconscious by the blow of the stone. Athena, they say, threw at him this stone, which they name Chastiser.
There are also ruins of the house of Lycus, and the tomb of Semele, but Alcmena has no tomb. It is said that on her death she was turned from human form to a stone, but the Theban account does not agree with the Megarian. The Greek legends generally have for the most part different versions. Here too at Thebes are the tombs of the children of Amphion. The boys lie apart; the girls are buried by themselves.
They say that within the sanctuary (of Artemis Eucleia) were buried Androcleia and Aleis, daughters of Antipoenus. For when Heracles and the Thebans were about to engage in battle with the Orchomenians, an oracle was delivered to them that success in the war would be theirs if their citizen of the most noble descent would consent to die by his own hand. Now Antipoenus, who had the most famous ancestors, was loath to die for the people, but his daughters were quite ready to do so. So they took their own lives and are honored therefor.
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.
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.
On the left of the gate named Electran are the ruins of a house where they say Amphitryon came to live when exiled from Tiryns because of the death of Electryon; and the chamber of Alcmena is still plainly to be seen among the ruins. They say that it was built for Amphitryon by Trophonius and Agamedes.
A tripod dedicated to the temple of Apollo Ismenian by Amphitryon for Heracles after he had worn the laurel.
Adjoining the sanctuary of Heracles are a gymnasium and a race-course, both being named after the god.
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.
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.
Near the Proetidian gate is built a theater, and quite close to the theater is a temple of Dionysus surnamed Deliverer.
Higher up than the Apollo Ismenian sanctuary you may see the fountain which they say is sacred to Ares, and they add that a dragon was posted by Ares as a sentry over the spring.
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.
Site: Delphi
Type: Treasury
Summary: Temple-like building; in the southwestern corner of the
Sanctuary of Apollo.
Date: ca. 371 B.C. - 300 B.C.
Period: Late Clas./Hell.
Plan:
Small Doric building with cella and Pronaos opening east.
History:
Probably built after the battle of Leuktra in 371 B.C.
This text is cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains 4 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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