Ptoion

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Ptoon / Oros Pelagias
(Πτώο / όρος Πελαγίας)
Mount Ptoon above the Temple of Apollo Ptoios.

Mount Ptoon above the Temple of Apollo Ptoios.

height 781  m
location Boiotia , Greece
Coordinates 38 ° 28 '52 "  N , 23 ° 19' 40"  E Coordinates: 38 ° 28 '52 "  N , 23 ° 19' 40"  E
Ptoion (Greece)
Ptoion
particularities In the ancient place of an oracle of Apollo

Ptoion ( ancient Greek Πτώιον Ptōion , also Πτῷον Ptōon or Πτῶν Ptōn; modern Greek Πτώο Ptoo or Όρος Πελαγίας Oros Pelagias ) is a mountain range in northeast Boeotia . It stretches from Akraiphia on the former Kopaïs Lake in the west to the Gulf of Evia in the east and rises up to 725 meters in its western part (Agia Pelagia) and in its eastern part up to 781 meters (Petalás). The massif is mainly known for the ancient oracle of Apollo there , which was one of the most important oracles in Greece until the Persian Wars. The mountain was designated as a protected area under the number AB2080067.

geography

The Ptoon is located in the regional district Boeotia , north of the lakes Paralimni (Παραλίμνη) and Yliki (Υλίκη). The mountain rises to 781 m above sea level . On its slopes was the ancient city of Akrefnio (Ακραίφνιο Βοιωτίας), near which the settlement of the same name is still located today.

History of the Apollo Oracle

Head of a kouros from the sanctuary of Apollo

Three kilometers northeast of Akraiphia was an oracle site of Apollon Ptoios . Originally it was an oracle of Ptoios , a local hero , son of Athamas and Themisto , but who was ousted by Apollo. The name of the hero, at the same time the name of the mountain at whose foot the oracle was located, became the epiclesis of Apollo and the hero received a new, smaller sanctuary about 1 km west of the original place on the Kastraki (worship from the 7th to 4th centuries BC can be proven).

The remains of a Neolithic- Helladic settlement and a Mycenaean castle that were abandoned in archaic times were found on Mount Ptoios . The area was ruled by Thebes until the end of the classical period , which is evidenced by the remains of Theban fortifications on various peaks of the Ptoion Mountains. The sanctuary was then initially under the control of the Boeotian League , later that of Akraiphia.

Since 227 BC In the vicinity of the oracle, based on the decision of the Delphic Amphictyony , musical competitions ( agone ) in honor of Apollo took place every five years , the Ptoia . After a period of complete decline, the games were renewed in the early imperial era as Ptoia kai Kaisareia ( Πτώια καὶ Καισάρεια ) and held until the beginning of the 3rd century.

In Byzantine times, the sanctuary was built over by the Christian monastery of Agia Pelagia , which, however, was moved to the summit of Mount Ptoios during the Turkish rule .

Oracle site and process of the oracle

Kouros ( Thebes , Archaeological Museum )

The oracle is also mentioned by Herodotus , who describes the visit of a certain Mys from Europos, who was sent by the Persian general Mardonios to obtain prophecies from as many oracles as possible:

But the following story by the Thebans sounds particularly strange to me: This Mys from Europos is said to have come to all oracle sites including the sanctuary of Apollon Ptoos, which is called Ptoon and belongs to the Thebans. It is located above Kopais Lake at the foot of a mountain near the town of Akraiphia. When this Mys entered the holy district, accompanied by three men who were attached to him by the congregation, who were supposed to record the verse of the gods, the god's high priest immediately announced the saying in a foreign language. The Thebans present were amazed at hearing a foreign language and did not know what to make of it. Mys took the tablets they had brought from their hands and wrote the priest's saying on them. He explained that the priest gave the oracle in Cari language. After writing it, he moved on to Thessaly.

This occurrence also appears in Pausanias . At that time, in the 2nd century, the “unmistakable” oracle apparently no longer existed.

The sanctuary of Apollo was on three terraces, at the top was a late 4th century BC. Doric peripteros built on the foundations of an archaic temple with an area of ​​12 × 25 meters with 8 × 13 columns. The actual oracle site was located in an expanded spring grotto to the east. The supraregional importance of the oracle is evident from the large number of consecration gifts. Most of the kouroi and tripods from Ptoion are now in the Archaeological Museum of Thebes and the National Museum of Athens .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Pausanias : Description of Greece , 9.23.6 ( English , German in the Google book search)
  2. ↑ Inscriptiones Graecae (IG) VII 4135 ; See also Schachter Vol. 3, pp. 70ff, Vol. 4, pp. 20f
  3. ↑ Herodotus Histories 8.135
  4. ↑ Βικιθήκη, Παυσανίας Ελλάδος περιήγηση / Βοιωτικά ἐντεῦθεν ἐς Ἀκραίφνιόν ἐστιν ὁδὸς τὰ πλεάω .πεδτὰ πλείω .πεεδς εἶναι δὲ ἐξ ἀρχῆς τε μοῖραν τῆς Θηβαί̈δος τὴν πόλιν φασὶ καὶ ὕστερον διαπεσόντας Θηβαίων ἐς αὐτὴν ἄνδρας εὕρισκον , ἡνίκα Ἀλέξανδρος ἐποίει τὰς Θήβας ἀναστάτους: ὑπὸ δὲ ἀσθενείας καὶ γήρως οὐδὲ ἐς τὴν Ἀττικὴν ἀποσωθῆναι δυνηθέντες ἐνταῦθα ᾤκησαν . κεῖται μὲν τὸ πόλισμα ἐν ὄρει τῷ Πτώῳ, θέας δὲ ἄξια ἐνταῦθα Διονύσου ναός ἐστι καὶ ἄγαλμα. [6] προελθόντι δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς πόλεως ἐν δεξιᾷ πέντε που καὶ δέκα σταδίους τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνός ἐστι τοῦ Πρντώτώνου τοῦ ότώτώτνεοε τοῦ Πτώτν