Temple of Demeter Amphictyonis

Last updated

The Temple of Demeter Amphictyonis was an extra-urban sanctuary in ancient Anthele in Thermopylae, dedicated to Demeter. It was an important Panhellenic shrine of Demeter and one of her main cult centers in Greece. It was also known as a center of the Amphictyonic League.

Contents

The sanctuary is mentioned by Herodotus in the 5th century BC:

Between the river [Phoinix, a tributary of the Asopos River] and Thermopylai there is a village named Anthele, past which the Asopos flows out into the sea, and there is a wide space around it in which stand a temple of Demeter Amphiktyonis, seats for the Amphiktyones, and a temple of Amphiktyon himself. [1]

Excavations has dated the structures to the 5th-century BC. The archeological remains include a trapezoidal peribolos , identified as a large stoa and stadium, which measures north side 66.30m, south side 65.30m, east side 6.20m, west side 7.65m. The Sanctuary of Demeter Amphyctionis was known in antiquity as the place where the Pylaian or Delphic Amphictyonic council met each autumn.

Demeter Amphictyonis is depicted on a coin minted by Philip II of Macedon, who took over control of the Amphictyonic League in 339 BC. The coin from 335 BC portrayed the profile of Demeter wearing a veil and a wreath of grain on the obverse, and seated Apollo on the reverse, inscribed not by the Delphian name but with 'AMΦΙΚΤΥΩΝΩΝ' ("Of the Amphictyons").

The sanctuary still existed in the age of Strabo, who described it:

There is also a large harbor here [at Thermopylai], and a temple of Demeter, in which at the time of every Pylaian assembly the Amphiktyons performed sacrificial rites. [2] [...] The first cities which came together [to form the Amphictyonic League to care for the shared shrines of Ancient Greece] are said to have been twelve, and each sent a Pylagoras, the assembly convening twice a year, in spring and in late autumn; but later still more cities were added. They called the assembly Pylaia, both that of spring and that of late autumn, since they convened at Pylai, which is also called Thermopylai; and the Pylagorai sacrificed to Demeter. [3]

If still in use by the 4th century AD, the temple would have been closed during the persecution of pagans under the Christian Emperors, when edicts where issued prohibiting all non-Christian worship. Excavations has been made of the archeological remains.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Selinunte</span> Ancient human settlement

Selinunte was a rich and extensive ancient Greek city of Magna Graecia on the south-western coast of Sicily in Italy. It was situated between the valleys of the Cottone and Modione rivers. It now lies in the comune of Castelvetrano, between the frazioni of Triscina di Selinunte in the west and Marinella di Selinunte in the east.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sozopol</span> Resort in Burgas, Bulgaria

Sozopol is an ancient seaside town located 35 km south of Burgas on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. Today it is one of the major seaside resorts in the country, known for the Apollonia art and film festival that is named after one of the town's ancient names.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dodona</span> Hellenic oracle

Dodona in Epirus in northwestern Greece was the oldest Hellenic oracle, possibly dating to the 2nd millennium BCE according to Herodotus. The earliest accounts in Homer describe Dodona as an oracle of Zeus. Situated in a remote region away from the main Greek poleis, it was considered second only to the Oracle of Delphi in prestige.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elefsina</span> Municipality in Greece

Elefsina or Eleusis is a suburban city and municipality in Athens metropolitan area. It belongs to West Attica regional unit of Greece. It is located in the Thriasio Plain, at the northernmost end of the Saronic Gulf. North of Elefsina are Mandra and Magoula, while Aspropyrgos is to the northeast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chalcedon</span> Town in Bithynia

Chalcedon was an ancient maritime town of Bithynia, in Asia Minor. It was located almost directly opposite Byzantium, south of Scutari and it is now a district of the city of Istanbul named Kadıköy. The name Chalcedon is a variant of Calchedon, found on all the coins of the town as well as in manuscripts of Herodotus's Histories, Xenophon's Hellenica, Arrian's Anabasis, and other works. Except for the Maiden's Tower, almost no above-ground vestiges of the ancient city survive in Kadıköy today; artifacts uncovered at Altıyol and other excavation sites are on display at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum.

In Archaic Greece, an amphictyony, or Amphictyonic League, was an ancient religious association of tribes formed before the rise of the Greek polis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Velia</span> Classical city ruins in Italy

Velia was the Roman name of an ancient city on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is located near the modern village of Novi Velia near Ascea in the Province of Salerno, Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Panionium</span>

The Panionium was an Ionian sanctuary dedicated to Poseidon Helikonios and the meeting place of the Ionian League. It was on the peninsula of Mt. Mycale, about 100 kilometres (62 mi) south of Smyrna—now İzmir, in Turkey. Herodotus describes it as follows:

The Panionion is a sacred ground in Mykale, facing north; it was set apart for Poseidon of Helicon by the joint will of the Ionians. Mykale is a western promontory of the mainland opposite Samos; the Ionians used to assemble there from their cities and keep the festival to which they gave the name of Panionia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ionian League</span> Ancient Greek political confederation of city-states in western Asia Minor

The Ionian League, also called the Panionic League, was a confederation formed at the end of the Meliac War in the mid-7th century BC comprising twelve Ionian Greek city-states. The earliest union of city-states in the area was the Ionian League.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naxos (Sicily)</span> Ancient Greek city state in Sicily

Naxos or Naxus was an ancient Greek city of Magna Graecia, presently situated in modern Giardini Naxos near Taormina on the east coast of Sicily.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaunos</span> Ancient Carian-Greek city

Kaunos was a city of ancient Caria and in Anatolia, a few kilometres west of the modern town of Dalyan, Muğla Province, Turkey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aigai (Aeolis)</span> Archaeological site in Turkey

Aigai, also Aigaiai, was an ancient Greek, later Roman, city and bishopric in Aeolis. Aegae is mentioned by both Herodotus and Strabo as being a member of the Aeolian dodecapolis. It was also an important sanctuary of Apollo. Aigai had its brightest period under the Attalid dynasty, which ruled from nearby Pergamon in the 3rd and 2nd century BC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kalaureia</span> Island in Greece

Kalaureia or Calauria or Kalavria is an island close to the coast of Troezen in the Peloponnesus of mainland Greece, part of the modern island-pair Poros.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyme (Aeolis)</span> Ancient Greek city

Cyme or Cumae was an Aeolian city in Aeolis close to the kingdom of Lydia. It was called Phriconian, perhaps from the mountain Phricion in Aeolis, near which the Aeolians had been settled before their migration to Asia.

Krimisa, Crimisa or Crimissa was an ancient town, probably originating in the 7th century BC, situated in modern Calabria in the region of Punta Alice. It was inhabited by an indigenous people assimilated by the Greeks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Archaeological Park of Dion</span> Archaeological site in Greece

The Archaeological Park of Dion is the most important archaeological site at Mount Olympus in Greece, located in Dion. In the area comprised by the Archaeological Park of Dion, sanctuaries were found from the Hellenistic and Roman periods. The park displays the importance of ancient Dion in the history of Pieria.

Anthela or Anthele was a town and polis (city-state) of Malis in Ancient Thessaly. Herodotus places the town between the small river Phoenix and Thermopylae which was a celebrated pass between Thessaly and Phocis. He also mentions that the Thessalian Asopus river passed through its surroundings and that there was a sanctuary of Demeter, a place where the Amphictyonic League celebrated its meetings and a temple of Amphictyon. According to legend, the league was founded, in part, to protect the temple of Demeter at Anthela. Anthela is in the immediate vicinity of the pass of Thermopylae, celebrated for the temples of Amphictyon and of the Amphictyonic Demeter, containing seats for the members of the Amphicytonic council, who held here their autumnal meetings. At Anthela, Mount Oeta recedes a little from the sea, leaving a plain a little more than half a mile in breadth, but again contracts near Alpeni, the first town of the Locrians, where the space is again only sufficient for a single carriage. Modern scholars identify its location with the modern village of Anthili in the municipality of Lamia.

The Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore on Acrocorinth was a temple in Ancient Corinth, dedicated to the goddesses Demeter and Kore (Persephone).

The Temple of Artemis Amarynthia was a sanctuary in Amarynthos in Euboea, dedicated to the goddess Artemis. It was a significant shrine of Artemis and arguably the foremost center of her cult in Northern Greece.

Hermione or Hermium or Hermion was a town at the southern extremity of Argolis, in the wider use of this term, but an independent city during the Classical period of Greek history, and possessing a territory named Hermionis (Ἑρμιονίς). The sea between the southern coast of Argolis and the island of Hydra was called after it the Hermionitic Gulf, which was regarded as distinct from the Argolic and Saronic Gulfs. The ruins of the ancient town lie about the modern village of Ermioni.

References

  1. Herodotus, Histories 7. 200 (trans. Godley)
  2. Strabo, Geography 9. 4. 17 (trans. Jones)
  3. Strabo, Geography 9. 3. 7

Sources