Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1178

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

1154 THEBAE BOEOTIAE. was the lower city (^ Karu iroAis), siiid to have heeii added by Auiphion aud Zethus. (I'aus. ix. 5. §§ 2, 6.) The Cadmeia is again divided by a shglit depression near the fountain of Dirce and the Cre- iiaean gate into two hills, of which the larger ar.d the higiier one to the south was the acropolis ])roper, aud was called the Cadmeia kut' i^oxV, while the northern hill formed the agora of the acropolis (ttjs aKpowdKiws ayupd, Paus. ix. 12. § 3). The eastern half of the city was also divided between the Strophia and the Isnienus into two parts, of which the southern consisted of the hill Ismenius, and the nortliern of several minor eminences, known under the general name of Ampheion. {'Afi(pi7ov, Arrian, A nab. i. 8.) Aeschylus describes the tomb of Amphion as standing near the northern gate. (Boppaiais TtvAais rvfiiov ko.t avrhv Aioyevovs 'Ajxcpiovos, Sept. c. Theh. 528.) Hence Thebes con- sisted of four parts, two belonging to the acropolis, and two to the lower city, the former being the acropolis proper and the agora of the acropolis, and the latter being the hill Ismenius and the Ampheion. Pausanias, leaving Potniae, entered Thebes on the south by the gate Electrae, before which he noticed the Polyandrium, or tomb of the Thebans who fell fighting against Alexander. (Paus. ix. 8. §§ 3, 4, 7, ix. 10. § 1.) The explanation of Forchhauaner that Alexander laid siege to the city on the south, and that he did not return from the gate Electrae to the Proetides, as Leake supposes, seems the most probable. Accordingly the double lines of circum- vallation, which the Thebans erected against the Macedonian gan'ison in the Cadmeia, nmst have been to the south of the city around the chief gates of the Cadmeia. (6ee Arrian, i. 7, 8.) Upon enter- ing the city through the gate Electrae, Pausanias notices the hill Isinenius sacred to Apollo, named fi-oni the river Ismenus flowing by it (ix. 10. § 2). Upon the hill was a temple of Apollo, containing several monuments enumerated by Pausanias. This temple is likewise mentioned by Pindar and Hero- dotus, both of whom speak of the tripods situated in its treasury. (' ^. Pyth. xi. 7, seq. ; Herod, v. 59.) Above the Ismenium, Pausanias noticed the fountain of the Ismenus, sacred to Ares, and guarded by a dragon, the name of which fountain was Blelia, as we have already seen (ix. 10. § 5). Next Pausanias, beginning again from the gate Electrae, turns to the left aud enters the Cadmeia (ix. 11. § 1, seq.). He does not mention the acro- polis by name, but it is evident from the list of the monuments which he gives that he was in the Cad- meia. He enumerates the house of Amphitryon, containing the bedchamber of Alcmena, said to have been the work of Trophonius and Agamedes ; a mo- nument of the children of Hercules by Megara ; the stone called Sophronister ; the temple of Hercules ('HpaKAeioc, Arrian, ^«a6. i. 8); and, near it, a gynmasium and stadium, both bearing the name of this God; and above the Sophronister an altar of Apollo Spodius. Pausanias next came to the depression between the acropolis and the agora of the Cadmeia. where he )ioticed an altar and statue of Athena, bearing the Phoenician surname of Unga ("0770), or Onca {"OyKix) according to other authorities, and said to have been dedicated by Cadnms (ix. 12. § 2). We know from Aeschylus that there was originally a temple of Athena Onca in this locality, which stood outside the city near one of the gates, whence the goddess was called ayx^T^ToMs. Some derived the THEBAE BOEOTIAE. name from a village named Onca or Oncae. (Aesch, Sept. c. Theb. 163, 487, 501, with Schol. ; Sehol. in Euripid. Phoen. 1069 ; Steph. B. s. v. 'OyKoiai; Hesych. s. v. "OyKas ; Schol. ad Piiid. 01. ii. 39, 48 ; Tzetzes, ad Lycophron. 1225 ; Phavorimis, s. v. "Oyicai.) Sophocles also speaks of two temples ot Athena at Thebes (Trpbs IlaAAaSos SiTrAois vao7s, Oed. Tyr. 20), in one of which, according to the Scholiast, she was surnamed Oncaea, and in the other Ismenia. In the valley between the two hilis, there are still the remains of an aqueduct, partly under and partly above ground, to which Dicaearchus refers ((^eperai 5e Koi airh t^s KaS/xeiax vhuip arpavks 810 (TwKrivciiv aySfievov, I. c.) In the agora of the Cadmeia the house of Cadmus is said to have stood; and in this place were shown ruins of the bedchamber of Harmonia and Semele ; statues of Dionysus, of Pronomus, the celebrated musician, and of Epaminondas; a temple of Amnion; the place where Teiresias observed the flight of birds; a temple of Fortune; three wooden statues of Aphrodite, with the surnames of Urania, Pande- mus, and Apostrophia; and a temple of Demeter Thesmophorus. (Paus. ix. 12. §§ 3 — 5, ix. 16. §§ 1-5.) Crossing the torrent Strophia, Pausanias saw near the gate Proetides the theatre with the temple of Dionysus (ix. 16. § 6). In this part of the city, to which Forchhammer gives the name of Ampheion, the following monuments are mentioned by Pausa- nias (ix. 16. § 7, ix. 17. §§ 1 — 4): ruins of the house of Lycus and a monument of Semele ; monu- ments of the children of Amphion ; a temple of Ar- temis Eucleia, and, near it, statues of Apollo Boe- dromius and of Hermes Agoraeus; the funeral pile (jirupd) of the children of Amphion, distant half a stadium from their tombs ; two statues of Athena Zosteria; and the monument of Zethus and Amphion, being a mound of earth. As the lower city was de- serted in the time of Pausanias, he does not mention the agora; but there is no doubt that it contained one, if not more, since Sophocles speaks of several agorae (Oed. Tyr. 20). Outside the gate Proetides, on the road to Chal- cis, Pausanias names the monuments of Melanippus, .■ Tydeus, and the sons of Oedipus, and 15 stadia beyond the latter the monument of Teiresias. Pausa- nias also mentions a tomb of Hector and oneof Aspho- . dicus, at the fountain Oedipodeia, which is perhaps the modern fountain of St. Theodore. On the same road was the village Teumessus. (Paus. ix. 18, ix. 19. § 1.) After describing the road to Chalcis, Pausanias returns to the gate Proetides, outside which, towards the N., was the gymnasium of lolaus, a stadium, the heroum of lolaus, and, beyond the stadium, the hippodrome, containing the monument of Pindar (ix. 23. §§ 1, 2). Pausanias then comes to the road leading from the Ogygian or Northern gate, to Acraephnium, after following which he re- turns to the city, and enumerates the objects outside the gate Neitae. Here, between the gate and the river Dirce, were the tomb of Menoeceus, the son of Creon, and a monument marking the spot where the two sons of Oedipus slew each other. The whole of this locality was called the Syrma (2i'pM") of Anti- gone, because, being unable to carry the dead body of her brother Polynices, she dragged it to the fune- nal pile of Eteocles. On the opposite side of the Dirce were the ruins of the house of Pindar, and a temple of Dindymene (ix. 25. §§ 1 — 3). Pau.sauias then appears to have returned to the gate Neitae and