Orneai

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Orneai ( ancient Greek Ὀρνέαι ) was an ancient city ​​in the Argolis in Greece . According to mythology, the city was named after Orneus , the son of Erechtheus . In the city there was a sanctuary of Artemis , a temple of all gods and a temple of Priapus . From here the Priapus cult reached Priapus .

Lore

Orneai was first mentioned among the cities led by Agamemnon in the ship catalog of the Iliad . The Ionian natives were Kynourians and, after being conquered by Argos , became Doric Periocs . Around 470 BC The city was destroyed together with Tiryns , Hysiai , Mycenae and Midea and the inhabitants were transferred to Argos in order to increase the population and make it more defensible. In the summer of 418 BC Orneai fought in the First Battle of Mantineia on the side of Athens , Argos and Cleonai against Sparta . The battle was lost and 700 fighters from Argos, Kleonai and Orneai fell.

416 BC BC Sparta ravaged the Argolic land and conquered Orneai. The place was fortified, exiles from Argos were settled and an army of occupation was left behind. The following winter, 30 or 40 Athenian ships with 600 hoplites on board landed and marched together with Argos against the city. According to Diodorus , the city was taken by storm, destroyed, and the prisoners were partly executed and partly driven away. Thucydides, however, reports that the inhabitants fled from the armed forces and the city was destroyed by the attackers. 352/1 v. BC Orneai was attacked and conquered again by Sparta as an ally of Megalopolis .

location

In the Iliad the place between Corinth and Kleonai and Araithyrea and Sikyon is mentioned. Pausanias mentions that it bordered Sikyon and Phleius , was on the northern road from Argos to Mantineia called Klimax , and was 60 stadia (about 12 km) from Lyrkia . From Lyrkia it was another 60 stages to Argos. According to Strabo , Orneai was on the river of the same name near Corinth above the Sicyon plain.

Since the location information seems to contradict each other, there has been controversy about the location of Orneai for a long time. So one looked for it at Kato Belesi, Gymno or in the Phleiasischen level. Today we are sure that it was on the hill Paliokastraki about 1 km northeast of Kato Belesi. However, since Paliokastraki was previously thought to be ancient Lyrkia, Kato Belesi was renamed Lyrkia in the 20th century. On the Paliokastraki there are fortification walls and other structural remains from classical times .

Recent finds near the Corinthian Dorati between Corinth and Sicyon led to the assumption that there were two places with the name Orneai: an Argolic and a Corinthian. This would also explain the contradicting location information.

literature

  • Richard A. Tomlinson: Argos and the Argolid: From the End of the Bronze Age to the Roman Occupation , 2013, ISBN 978-1138019898
  • Klaus Tausend: Traffic routes of the Argolis: Reconstruction and historical significance , 2006, ISBN 978-3515089432

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pausanias : Travels in Greece , 2, 25, 6
  2. ↑ Strabo : Geographica , 8, 6, 17 (p. 382)
  3. ↑ Strabo: Geographica , 13, 1, 12 (p. 587)
  4. ↑ Homer : Iliad , 2, 571
  5. ↑ Herodotus : Historien , 8, 73
  6. ^ Pausanias: Travels in Greece , 8, 27, 1
  7. ↑ Thucydides : History of the Peloponnesian War , 5, 67-74
  8. ↑ Diodor: Historische Bibliothek , 12, 81, 4-5
  9. ↑ Thucydides: History of the Peloponnesian War , 6, 7
  10. ^ Diodor: Historical Library , 16, 39
  11. ↑ Homer: Iliad , 2, 571
  12. ^ Pausanias: Travels in Greece , 2, 25, 6
  13. ^ Pausanias : Travels in Greece , 2, 25, 5
  14. ↑ Strabo: Geographica , 13, 1, 12 (p. 587)
  15. ↑ Strabo: Geographica , 8, 6, 17 (p. 382)
  16. ↑ Jeannette Marchand: A new bronze age site in the Corinthia in Hesperia , 71, 2002, pp. 119–148 ( online )

Coordinates: 37 ° 42 ′ 50.3 "  N , 22 ° 33 ′ 26.3"  E