Tegea was a settlement in ancient Greece, and it is also a former municipality in
ArcadiaArcadia is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Peloponnese. It is situated in the central and eastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. It takes its name from the mythological character Arcas. In Greek mythology, it was the home of the god Pan...
, Peloponnese,
GreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality
TripoliTripoli is a city of about 25,000 inhabitants in the central part of the Peloponnese, in Greece. It is the capital of the prefecture of Arcadia and the centre of the municipality of Tripolis, pop...
, of which it is a municipal unit. Its seat was the village Stadio.
History
Ancient Tegea was an important religious center of ancient Greece, containing the Temple of
Athena AleaAlea was an epithet of the Greek goddess Athena, prominent in Arcadian mythology, under which she was worshiped at Alea, Mantineia and Tegea...
. The
temenos was founded by
AleusAleus was in Greek mythology a son of Apheidas, and grandson of Arcas. He was king of Tegea in Arcadia, and married to Neaera or Cleobule, and is said to have founded the town of Alea and the first temple of Athena Alea at Tegea. He had a son, Lycurgus, and two daughters, Auge and Alcidice. He...
,
PausaniasPausanias was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical...
was informed. 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
synoecismSynoecism or synecism , also spelled synoikism , was originally the amalgamation of villages in Ancient Hellas into poleis, or city-states. Etymologically the word means "dwelling together in the same house ." Subsequently any act of civic union between polities of any size was described by the...
to form one city. Tegea was listed in
HomerIn the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
's
Catalogue of ShipsThe Catalogue of Ships is a passage in Book 2 of Homer's Iliad , which lists the contingents of the Achaean army that sailed to Troy...
as one of the cities that contributed ships and men for the Achaean assault on Troy.
Tegea struggled against
Spartan hegemonyThe city-state of Sparta was the greatest military land power of classical Greek antiquity. During the classical period, Sparta owned, dominated or influenced the entire Peloponnese. Additionally, the defeat of the Athenians and the Delian League in the Peloponnesian War in 431-404 BCE resulted in...
in
ArcadiaArcadia is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Peloponnese. It is situated in the central and eastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. It takes its name from the mythological character Arcas. In Greek mythology, it was the home of the god Pan...
and was finally conquered ca 560 BCE. In the 4th century Tegea joined the
Arcadian LeagueThe Arcadian League was a federal league of city-states in ancient Greece. It combined the various cities of Arcadia, in the Peloponnese, into a single state. The league was founded in 370 BC, taking advantage of the decreased power of Sparta, which had previously dominated and controlled Arcadia...
and struggled to free itself from
SpartaSparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...
. The
Temple of Athena AleaAlea was an epithet of the Greek goddess Athena, prominent in Arcadian mythology, under which she was worshiped at Alea, Mantineia and Tegea...
burned in
394 BCYear 394 BC was a year of the pre-Julian Roman calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Tribunate of Camillus, Poplicola, Medullinus, Albinus, Mamercinus and Scipio...
and was magnificently rebuilt, to designs by
ScopasScopas or Skopas was an Ancient Greek sculptor and architect, born on the island of Paros. Scopas worked with Praxiteles, and he sculpted parts of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, especially the reliefs. He led the building of the new temple of Athena Alea at Tegea...
of Paros, with reliefs of the
Calydonian boarThe Calydonian Boar is one of the monsters of Greek mythology that had to be overcome by heroes of the Olympian age. Sent by Artemis to ravage the region of Calydon in Aetolia because its king failed to honor her in his rites to the gods, it was killed in the Calydonian Hunt, in which many male...
hunt in the main pediment. The city retained civic life under the
Roman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
; it was sacked in 395 by the
GothsThe Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
.
PausaniasPausanias was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical...
visited the city in the 2nd century CE. The "tombs" he saw there were shrines to the
chthonicChthonic designates, or pertains to, deities or spirits of the underworld, especially in relation to Greek religion. The Greek word khthon is one of several for "earth"; it typically refers to the interior of the soil, rather than the living surface of the land or the land as territory...
founding
daemones: "There are also tombs of
TegeatesIn Greek mythology, Tegeates was a son of Lycaon, and the reputed founder and eponym of Tegea in Arcadia.Tegeates was married to Maera, daughter of Atlas, by whom he had five sons: Archedius, Gortys, Cydon, Leimon and Scephrus; Tegeates' and Maera's tombs were shown at Tegea...
, the son of Lykaon, and of
MairaThe Maira is an Italian river, a right tributary of the Po River, which runs through the province of Cuneo in eastern Piedmont. Its source is in the Cottian Alps near the Col de Mary on the French border...
, the wife of Tegeates. They say Maira was a daughter of
AtlasIn Greek mythology, Atlas was the primordial Titan who supported the heavens. Although associated with various places, he became commonly identified with the Atlas Mountains in north-west Africa...
, and Homer makes mention of her in the passage where
OdysseusOdysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....
tells to Alkinous his journey to
HadesHades , Hadēs, originally , Haidēs or , Aidēs , meaning "the unseen") was the ancient Greek god of the underworld. The genitive , Haidou, was an elision to denote locality: "[the house/dominion] of Hades". Eventually, the nominative came to designate the abode of the dead.In Greek mythology, Hades...
, and of those whose ghosts he beheld there."
In the
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, the town was known as
Nikli (Νίκλι) and the seat of a barony of the
Principality of AchaeaThe Principality of Achaea or of the Morea was one of the three vassal states of the Latin Empire which replaced the Byzantine Empire after the capture of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade. It became a vassal of the Kingdom of Thessalonica, along with the Duchy of Athens, until Thessalonica...
.
The site of ancient Tegea is now located within the modern town of
AleaAlea is a village and a former community in Argolis, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Argos-Mykines, of which it is a municipal unit. Its 2001 population was 146 for the village and 793 for the community...
, which was referred to as Piali (not to be confused with Palaia Episkopi). Alea is located about 10 kilometers southeast of
TripoliTripoli is a city of about 25,000 inhabitants in the central part of the Peloponnese, in Greece. It is the capital of the prefecture of Arcadia and the centre of the municipality of Tripolis, pop...
. 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.
Subdivisions
The municipal unit Tegea is subdivided into the following communities (constituent villages in brackets):
- Alea
- Episkopi
- Garea
- Kamari
- Kandalos
- Kerasitsa, where the politician Gregoris Lambrakis
Grigoris Lambrakis was a Greek politician, physician, track and field athlete, and member of the faculty of the School of Medicine at the University of Athens.-Early life:...
was born in 1912
- Lithovounia
- Magoula (Magoula, Giokareika)
- Manthyrea
- Mavriki
- Psili Vrysi (Psili Vrysi, Bouzaneika)
- Rizes
Rizes is the easternmost and most populous village in the municipal unit of Tegea in Arcadia, Greece. Its primary economic activity is agriculture. Rizes' crops include cherries, potatoes, and grape cultivation and wine production. The village lies at the roots of the mountain named Saint Elias...
- Stadio (Stadio, Agios Sostis, Akra)
- Tzivas
- Vouno
- Strigkos (Strigkos, Demiri
Demiri is a mountainous settlement in the municipal unit of Tegea, Arcadia, Greece. It is part of the community of Strigkos. As of 2001, it has a population of 99 and sits at 640 m above sea level.-Location:...
)
Historical population
| Year | Population |
| 1991 |
4,539 |
| 2001 |
3,858 |
Persons
- Anyte of Tegea
Anyte of Tegea was an Arcadian poet, admired by her contemporaries and later generations for her charming epigrams and epitaphs...
- Cepheus
In Greek mythology, Cepheus was the son of Aleus and Neaera or Cleobule, and brother of Amphidamas, Lycurgus of Arcadia, Auge and Alcidice. He and his brother Amphidamas are counted among the Argonauts....
, mythical king and an ArgonautThe Argonauts ) were a band of heroes in Greek mythology who, in the years before the Trojan War, accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece. Their name comes from their ship, the Argo, which was named after its builder, Argus. "Argonauts", therefore, literally means...
- Gregoris Lambrakis
Grigoris Lambrakis was a Greek politician, physician, track and field athlete, and member of the faculty of the School of Medicine at the University of Athens.-Early life:...
- Echemus
In Greek mythology, Echemus was the king of Arcadia. He succeeded Lycurgus, and married Timandra, daughter of Leda and Tyndareus of Sparta.Timandra bore him a son, Laodocus, before deserting Echemus for Phyleus, the king of Dulichium....
- Telephus
A Greek mythological figure, Telephus or Telephos Telephus was one of the Heraclidae, the sons of Heracles, who were venerated as founders of cities...
External links
| North: Korythio Korythio is a former municipality in Arcadia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Tripoli, of which it is a municipal unit. Population 2,613 . The seat of the municipality was in Steno. Other villages in the municipal unit are Elaiochori and...
and TripoliTripoli is a city of about 25,000 inhabitants in the central part of the Peloponnese, in Greece. It is the capital of the prefecture of Arcadia and the centre of the municipality of Tripolis, pop...
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West: Valtetsi Valtetsi is a village and a former municipality in Arcadia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Tripoli, of which it is a municipal unit. Population 1,842 . The seat of the municipality was in Asea. The municipality was recreated in the...
and Tripoli (NW) |
Tegea |
East: North Kynouria North Kynouria or Vóreia Kynouría is a municipality in Arcadia, Greece. It is located in the eastern part of the peripheral unit, between the northwestern shores of the Argolic Gulf and northern Laconia. Its land area is 576.981 km². Its population is 12,825 . The seat of the municipality is in...
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| South: Skyritida Skyritida is a former municipality in Arcadia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Tripoli, of which it is a municipal unit. It has a population of 2,248, as recorded in 2001...
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