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Greek city of Elateia in Phokis
for the
Phokian League
Bronze 17mm (3.60 grams) Struck circa 200-100 B.C.
Reference: HGC 4, 1143; Sear 2366; B.M.C.8,p.23,105-106
ΕΛ, Filleted bull head facing.
ΦΩΚΕΩΝ, Laureate head of Apollo right.
The second town of Phokis in importance after Delphi. Elateia was located on an
important pass from Boeotia through Mount Oita. It served as the capital of the
Phokian League since around the time of the fourth century B.C. This city
boasted a wonderful market-place (agora) and the temples to Athena Krania and
Aclepius. During the Persian invasion of Greece, this city was plundered and
destroyed by Great King, Xerxes I. After which it passed into Macedonian
domination, however having revolted under king Kassander of Macedon. It was a
member of several leagues or confederations, intertwined with the politics of
the ancient times. By 27 B.C. this city became a part of the new Roman province
of Achaea.
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In
Greek
and
Roman mythology
,
Apollo, is one of the most
important and diverse of the
Olympian deities
. The ideal of the
kouros
(a beardless youth), Apollo has been
variously recognized as a god of light and the sun; truth and prophecy;
archery
; medicine and healing; music, poetry,
and the arts; and more. Apollo is the son of
Zeus and Leto
, and has a
twin
sister, the chaste huntress
Artemis
. Apollo is known in Greek-influenced
Etruscan mythology
as Apulu. Apollo was
worshiped in both
ancient Greek
and
Roman religion
, as well as in the modern
Greco
–Roman
Neopaganism
.
As the patron of Delphi
(Pythian Apollo), Apollo was an
oracular
god — the prophetic deity of the
Delphic Oracle
. Medicine and healing were
associated with Apollo, whether through the god himself or mediated through his
son Asclepius
, yet Apollo was also seen as a god
who could bring ill-health and deadly
plague
as well as one who had the ability to
cure. Amongst the god’s custodial charges, Apollo became associated with
dominion over
colonists
, and as the patron defender of herds
and flocks. As the leader of the
Muses (Apollon Musagetes) and director of their choir, Apollo
functioned as the patron god of music and
poetry
.
Hermes
created the
lyre for him, and the instrument became a common
attribute
of Apollo. Hymns sung to Apollo were
called paeans
.
In Hellenistic times, especially during the third century BCE, as Apollo
Helios he became identified among Greeks with
Helios
,
god of the sun
, and his sister Artemis
similarly equated with
Selene
,
goddess of the moon
. In Latin texts, on the
other hand, Joseph Fontenrose declared himself unable to find any conflation of
Apollo with
Sol
among the
Augustan poets
of the first century, not even
in the conjurations of
Aeneas
and
Latinus
in
Aeneid
XII (161–215). Apollo and Helios/Sol
remained separate beings in literary and mythological texts until the third
century CE.
Phocis
is one of the
regional units of Greece
. It is part of the
administrative region of
Central Greece
. It stretches from the western
mountainsides of
Parnassus
on the east to the mountain range of
Vardousia
on the west, upon the
Gulf of Corinth
. It is named after the
ancient region of Phocis
, but the modern
regional unit also includes parts of ancient
Locris
and
Doris
.
Elateia was an
ancient Greek
city of
Phocis
, and the most important place in that
region after Delphi
. It is also a modern-day town that is a
former
municipality
in the southeastern part of
Phthiotis
. Since the 2011 local government
reform, it is a municipal unit of the municipality
Amfikleia-Elateia
. Its population is 5,636
inhabitants (2001 census) and its land area is 154.361 km². The municipal seat
was the town of Eláteia (pop. 3,585); other towns are
Zeli
(910), Panagítsa (219), Lefkochóri (208),
Sfáka (167), and Katályma (26).
History
Ancient Elateia was situated about the middle of the great fertile basin that
extends nearly 20 miles, from the narrows of the
Cephissus River
below
Amphicleia
, to the entrance into
Boeotia
. Hence it was admirably placed for
commanding the passes into Southern
Greece
from
Mount Oeta
, and became a post of great military
importance.
Pausanias
describes it as situated over against
Amphicleia, at the distance of 180
stadia
from the latter town, on a gently rising
slope in the plain of the Cephissus. Elateia is not mentioned by
Homer
. Its inhabitants claimed they were
Arcadians
, deriving their name from
Elatus
, the son of Arcas. It was burnt, along
with the other Phocian towns, by the
Persian
army of
Xerxes
in 480 BC. When
Philip II of Macedon
entered Phocis in 339 BC,
with the professed object of conducting war against
Amphissa
, he seized Elateia and began to
restore its fortifications. The alarm this caused at
Athens
shows that they regarded Phocis as a key
of Southern Greece. The subsequent history of Elateia is given in some detail by
Pausanias. It successfully resisted
Cassander
in 301 BC, but it was taken by the
king of
Macedon
Philip V
, the son of
Demetrius II Aetolicus
. It remained faithful to
Philip V when the
Romans
invaded Greece, and was taken by assault
by the Romans in 198 BC. At a later time, the Romans declared the town free,
because the inhabitants had repulsed an 86 BC attack by
Taxiles
, the general of
Mithridates VI
.
Among noteworthy sites in Elateia, Pausanias mentions the
agora
, a temple of
Asclepius
that contained a beardless statue of
the god, a
theater
, and an ancient brazen statue of
Athena
. He also mentions a temple of Athena
Cranaea, situated 20 stadia from Elateia: the road to it was a very gentle
ascent, but the temple stood upon a steep hill of small size.
The ancient city has been repeatedly sacked and destroyed in its history, and
also subject to several earthquakes. For these reasons the one modern excavation
of the classical site has not been much successful; the one exception was the
Temple of Athena
Cranaia, 3 km from the town. What has
been attested is continuous occupation of the valley, that goes back to as far
as 6000 BC.
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