Aulis participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships (Il. 2.496). At the port of Aulis, which the poet calls "rocky", the ships of the Achaeans were gathered for the expedition against Troy. There, the soothsayer Calchas offered hecatombs on the sacred altars around the spring with the plane-tree (Il. 2.303-332).
Situated on the Boiotian shore of the Euripos, between the bay of
Mikro Vathy to the N and the bay and village of Vathy to the S. According to legend
it was here that the Greek fleet gathered before setting sail for Troy and awaited
the favorable winds that Againeinnon obtained by sacrificing his daughter Iphigenia
to Arteinis (Eur., Iphigeneia at Aulis). Remains of a Mycenaean settlement have
been located on the rocky Yeladhovouni promontory separating the two bays. Never
a city, Aulis was part of the Theban districts up to 387 B.C., then of the territory
of Tanagra. Agelisaus, king of Sparta, the new Agamemnon, sacrificed here before
setting off for Asia in 397 B.C. Aulis depended for its livelihood on the sanctuary,
its potters' workshops, and fishing.
The Sanctuary of Artemis Aulideia was excavated from 1955 to 1961
by I. Threpsiadis. Open to the SE, the temple is built on the oblong archaic plan
(31 x 9.70 m). In front of the two columns in antis of the 5th c. temple a prostoon
of four Doric columns was added in the Hellenistic period. Inside the sekos were
two rows of four columns; in the rear a double door, whose marble threshold has
been preserved, led to the adyton; two statues of Arteinis and Apollo flanked
the doorway, and in front of the N statue was a round altar for libations, with
a drain. A large base found in the sekos may have been used to support the 1000-year-old
plane tree mentioned by Pausanias (9.19.7). Inside the adyton, which measured
3.70 x 7.55 m, was the offering table, part of which has been recovered, along
with a triangular tripod base and two round altars. Underneath the pronaos were
found the remains of a circular building assumed to date from the 8th c. B.C.
In Roman times all the columns were replaced; later the prostoon was incorporated
into some small therinae covering part of the sekos.
In front of the temple a square fountain was excavated which measured
1.8 m square inside; six steps led down inside it. Close by are the remains of
an altar. SW of the temple were found two or three potters' establishments, with
a store of clay and a kiln. A large hostelry for pilgrims was immediately to the
S.
P. Roesch, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
A harbour in Boeotia on the Euripus, where the Greek forces assembled before sailing for Troy.
City of Boeotia
along the shore facing Euboea.
Aulis is the location where the Greek fleet gathered under the leadership
of Agamemnon to undertake the expedition against Troy,
and where Agamemnon had to sacrifice his own daughter Iphigenia to the goddess
Artemis to put an end to the lack of wind that was holding the fleet there.
Bernard Suzanne (page last updated 1998), ed.
This text is cited July 2003 from the Plato and his dialogues URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
Eth. Aulideus fem. Aulidis. A town of Boeotia, situated on the Euripus,
and celebrated as the place at which the Grecian fleet assembled, when they were
about to sail against Troy. Strabo says that the harbour of Aulis could only hold
fifty ships, and that therefore the Grecian fleet must have assembled in the large
port in the neighbourhood, called Bathus limen. (Strab. ix. p. 403.) Livy states
(xlv. 27) that Aulis was distant three miles from Chalcis. Aulis appears to have
stood upon a rocky height, since it is called by Homer (Il. ii. 303) Aulis petreessa,
and by Strabo petrodes chorion. These statements agree with the position assigned
to Aulis by modern travellers. About three miles south of Chaletis on the Boeotian
coast are two bays separated from each other by a rocky peninsula; the northern
is small and winding, the southern spreads out at the end of a channel into a
large circular basin. The latter harbour, as well as a village situated a mile
to the southward of it, is called Vathy, a name evidently derived from Bathus
limen. (Leake.) We may therefore conclude that Aulis was situated on the rocky
peninsula between these two bays.
Aulis was in the territory of Tanagra. It is called a kome by Strabo.
In the time of Pausanias it had only a few inhabitants, who were potters. Its
temple of Artemis, which Agamemnon is said to have founded, was still standing
when Pausanias visited the place. (Dicaearch. 88; Paus. ix. 19. § 6, seq.; Plin.
iv. 7. s. 12)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited May 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Then one comes to a large harbor, which is called Bathys Limen; then to Aulis, a rocky place and a village of the Tanagraeans. Its harbor is large enough for only fifty boats; and therefore it is reasonable to suppose that the naval station of the Greeks was in the large harbor.
Plane-tree at Aulis mentioned by Homer in the Iliad.(Paus. 9.19.7).
If ever you turn your misguided heart to trading and wish to escape from debt and joyless hunger, I will show you the measures of the loud roaring sea, though I have no skill in sea faring nor in ships;for never yet have I sailed by ship over the wide sea, but only to Euboea from Aulis where the Achaeans once stayed through much storm when they had gathered a great host from divine Hellas for Troy, the land of fair women.
When the ambassadors arrived there, Pelopidas enjoyed a great advantage with the Persian. For he was able to say that his people were the only ones among the Greeks who had fought on the side of the King at Plataea, that they had never afterwards undertaken a campaign against the King, and that the Lacedaemonians had made war upon them for precisely the reason that they had declined to go with Agesilaus against him and had refused to permit Agesilaus to sacrifice to Artemis at Aulis, the very spot where Agamemnon, at the time when he was sailing forth to Asia, had sacrificed before he captured Troy.
When Agesilaus offered to undertake the campaign, the Lacedaemonians gave him everything he asked for and provisions for six months. And when he marched forth from the country after offering all the sacrifices which were required, including that at the frontier, he dispatched messengers to the various cities and announced how many men were to be sent from each city, and where they were to report; while as for himself, he desired to go and offer sacrifice at Aulis, the place where Agamemnon had sacrificed before he sailed to Troy. When he had reached Aulis, however, the Boeotarchs, on learning that he was sacrificing, sent horsemen and bade him discontinue his sacrificing, and they threw from the altar the victims which they found already offered. Then Agesilaus, calling the gods to witness, and full of anger, embarked upon his trireme and sailed away. And when he arrived at Gerastus and had collected there as large a part of his army as he could, he directed his course to Ephesus.
Aulis, a daughter of Ogygus and Thebe, from whom the Boeotian town of Aulis was believed to have derived its name. (Paus. ix. 19.5.) Other traditions called her a daughter of Euonymus, the son of Cephissus. (Steph. Byz. s. v. Aulis.) She was one of the goddesses who watched over oaths under the name of praxidikai.
In Aulis, compels strangers to dig his vines, killed by Herakles.
(not Xenodice), daughter of Syleus, killed by Herakles.
Editor's Information:
The plot of "Iphigenia at Aulis", the tragedy written by Euripides, of which the e-text(s) is (are) found in Greece (ancient country) under the category Ancient Greek Writings, is taking place in Aulis.
Here there is a temple of Artemis with two images of white marble; one carries torches, and the other is like to one shooting an arrow. The story is that when, in obedience to the soothsaying of Calchas, the Greeks were about to sacrifice Iphigeneia on the altar, the goddess substituted a deer to be the victim instead of her. They preserve in the temple what still survives of the plane-tree mentioned by Homer in the Iliad.3 The story is that the Greeks were kept at Aulis by contrary winds, and when suddenly a favouring breeze sprang up, each sacrificed to Artemis the victim he had to hand, female and male alike. From that time the rule has held good at Aulis that oil victims are permissible.
On Euboea the causeway was built at Chalcis, and in Boeotia in the neighbourhood of Aulis, since at that place the channel was narrowest.
Perseus Project, Illustration of Temple of Artemis
Found at Aulis, Temple of Artemis, Thebes Archaeological Museum
Collection : Thebes Archaeological Museum
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!
