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Tegea

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Tegea
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Ancient city, eastern Arcadia, southern Greece. It was under Spartan rule from the mid-6th century BC until Thebes' victory over Sparta in the battle of Leuctra c. 371 BC. Afterward it joined a succession of leagues, and by the early 1st century AD was the only important town in Arcadia. It survived the Goth invasion in 395 – 396 and flourished under Byzantine and Frankish rule. It is the site of the Temple of Athena Alea, built by the city's traditional founder, Aleus, and rebuilt in the 4th century BC by the sculptor Scopas.

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Classical Literature Companion: Tegea
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Tegea, ancient city in the south-east of Arcadia, mentioned in the Iliad; there seems to have been a Mycenaean settlement on the site. In very early times Tegea fought successfully against Sparta; in the first half of the sixth century the Spartans, reputedly trusting an ambiguous oracle from Delphi, advanced into Tegea to seize the land but were defeated, and Spartan prisoners were made to till the land wearing the chains which they had brought with them for use on the Tegeans. In the mid-sixth century, again on advice from Delphi, the Spartans were told to find and bring back to Sparta the bones of the hero Orestes (son of Agamemnon). Having brought the bones from Tegea the Spartans were then victorious over the Tegeans who, after agreeing not to harbour Messenians (see MESSENIA), were taken into alliance with Sparta.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Tegea
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Tegea (tē'jēə), ancient city of Greece, SE Arcadia, in the Peloponnesus. From the middle of the 6th cent. B.C. until the Spartan defeat at the battle of Leuctra (371 B.C.), it was dominated by Sparta. In 362 B.C. Tegea allied with its rival, Mantinea, against Sparta, but later it again opposed Mantinea. At Tegea there are remains of the temple of Athena Alea, which was rebuilt (c.370-355 B.C.). Scopas was the architect and sculptor.

Wikipedia: Tegea
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For another ancient Tegea near Kissamos in the island of Crete, see Tegea, Crete.
Tegea
Τεγέα
Location
Tegea is located in Greece
Tegea
Coordinates 37°27.32′N 22°25.23′E / 37.45533°N 22.4205°E / 37.45533; 22.4205Coordinates: 37°27.32′N 22°25.23′E / 37.45533°N 22.4205°E / 37.45533; 22.4205
Government
Country: Greece
Periphery: Peloponnese
Prefecture: Arcadia
Population statistics (as of 2001[1])
City
 - Population: 4,100
Other
Time zone: EET/EEST (UTC+2/3)
Elevation (center): 650 m (2,133 ft)
Postal: 220 12
Telephone: 2710
Auto: TP

Tegea was a settlement in ancient Greece, and it is also a municipality in modern Arcadia, Greece, with its seat in the village Stadio.

Ancient Tegea was an important religious center of ancient Greece,[2] containing the Temple of Athena Alea. The temenos was founded by Aleus, Pausanias was informed.[3] Votive bronzes at the site from the Geometric and Archaic periods take the forms of horses and deer; there are sealstones and fibulae. In the Archaic period the nine villages that underlie Tegea banded together in a synoecism to form one city.[4] Tegea was listed in Homer's Catalogue of Ships as one of the cities that contributed ships and men for the Achaean assault on Troy.

Tegea struggled against Spartan hegemony in Arcadia and was finally conquered ca 560 BCE. In the fourth century Tegea joined the Arcadian League and struggled to free itself from Sparta. The Temple of Athena Alea burned in 394 BC and was magnificently rebuilt, to designs by Scopas of Paros, with reliefs of the Calydonian boar hunt in the main pediment.[5]The city retained civic life under the Roman Empire; it was sacked in 395 by the Goths. Pausanias visited the city in the second century CE. The "tombs" he saw there were shrines to the chthonic founding daemones: "There are also tombs of Tegeates, the son of Lykaon, and of Maira, the wife of Tegeates. They say Maira was a daughter of Atlas, and Homer makes mention of her in the passage where Odysseus tells to Alkinous his journey to Hades, and of those whose ghosts he beheld there."[6] The site of ancient Tegea is now located within the modern town of Alea, which was referred to as Piali (not to be confused with Palaia Episkopi). Alea is located about 10 kilometers southeast of Tripoli. The municipality of Tegea has its seat at Stadio. The province of Megalopoli is bordered to the west and the province of Kynouria is bordered to the east.

The temple of Athena Alea at Tegea

Contents

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Δείτε τη Διοικητική Διαίρεση" (in Greek). Hellenic Interior Ministry. www.ypes.gr. http://www.ypes.gr/UserFiles/f0ff9297-f516-40ff-a70e-eca84e2ec9b9/D_diairesi.xls. Retrieved 2009-09-09. 
  2. ^ "This sanctuary had been respected from early days by all the Peloponnesians, and afforded peculiar safety to its suppliants" (Pausanias, Description of Greece iii.5.6)
  3. ^ Description of Greece viii.4.8.
  4. ^ Compare the origin of Sparta.
  5. ^ The Calydonian boar and the head of Atalanta have been removed to the National Archaeological Museum of Athens
  6. ^ Pausanias, Guide to Greece 8.48.6

External links

Nearest places

  • Alea
  • Stadio
  • Svoleika

Communities

  • Alea
  • Episkopi
  • Garea
  • Kamari
  • Kerasitsa, where the politician Gregoris Lambrakis was born in 1912
  • Lithovounia
  • Magoula
    • Giokareika (pop: 51)
  • Manthyrea
  • Mavriki
  • Psili Vrysi
    • Bouzaneika (pop: 45)
  • Rizes
  • Stadio
    • Agios Sostis
    • Akra (pop: 42)
  • Tziva
  • Vouno
  • Stringos-Demiri

Historical population

Year Municipal population Change
1981 - -
1991 4,539 -
2001 4,100 -439/9.67%

Persons


North: Korythios and Tripoli
West: Valtesio and Tripoli (NW) Tegea East: North Kynouria
South: Skyritida
v • d • e
Municipalities and communities of the Arcadia Prefecture
Municipalities
Communities

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 
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Anytē
Skopas (art)
Arcadia (region of ancient Greece)

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Classical Literature Companion. The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Copyright © 1993, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Tegea".  Read more