Cladeos

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Cladeos
Kladeos at Ancient Olympia (Archea Olympia)

Kladeos at Ancient Olympia (Archea Olympia)

Data
location Archea Olymbia Municipality , Elis , Western Greece
River system Alfios
Drain over Alfios  → Ionian Sea
source at Lalas
37 ° 42 ′ 15 ″  N , 21 ° 42 ′ 34 ″  E
muzzle at Olympia in the Alfios coordinates: 37 ° 38 ′ 5 ″  N , 21 ° 37 ′ 39 ″  E 37 ° 38 ′ 5 ″  N , 21 ° 37 ′ 39 ″  E

Small towns Archea Olymbia

The Kladeos ( Greek Κλάδεος , Latin. Cladeus) is a river that flows into the Alpheios at Olympia . Today it almost dried up, especially in summer. In ancient times, however, it carried a lot of water, especially in the winter months. Both the Kladeos and Alpheios caused annual floods, with the Kladeos flowing closer to the sanctuary of Olympia being the greater danger. The Kladeos was diverted to protect the sanctuary and competition sites in Olympia from being flooded. During the area excavations from 1986 onwards, the shifting of the river bed could be proven, as well as the construction of a bank wall that was supposed to keep the Kladeos in its new bed. However, it was repeatedly breached or flowed around by the river, so that in the Middle Ages and until the German excavations began in 1875 , the sanctuary was buried under an alluvial layer up to 4 m high.

Pausanias reports that the Eleier worshiped the river god Kladeos the most, next to Alpheios. The god is therefore represented in the east pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. At the foot of Kronos Hill, northeast of the Temple of Hera , near the ancient bank of the Kladeos, there is a small altar, which is associated with the river god and could have been built as an atonement for the interference in the natural course of the river.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pausanias 5:10 , 7.
  2. ↑ Baldwin Lorentz : Kladeos . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 2.1, Leipzig 1894, column 1210 ( digitized version ).