Plataea participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships (Il. 2.504).
Daughter of Asopus.
Cithaeron, (Kithairon). A king of Plataea in Boeotia, remarkable for his wisdom. By his advice, Zeus pretended to be contracting a second marriage when Here had quarrelled with and left him. The scheme succeeded, and the goddess became reconciled to her spouse. This monarch is said to have given name to the wellknown mountain-range in Boeotia.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Cithaeron (Kithairon), a mythical king in Boeotia, from whom mount Cithaeron was believed to have derived its name. Once when Hera was angry with Zeus, Cithaeron advised the latter to take into his chariot a wooden statue and dress it up so as to make it resemble Plataea, the daughter of Asopus. Zeus followed his counsel, and as he was riding along with his pretended bride, Hera, overcome by her jealousy, ran up to him, tore the covering from the suspected bride, and on discovering that it was a statue, became reconciled to Zeus. (Paus. ix. 1.2, 3.1)
King of Plataea, buries Laius.
Daughter of the Asopus.
On the road from Megara there is a spring on the right, and a little farther on a rock. It is called the bed of Actaeon, for it is said that he slept thereon when weary with hunting, and that into this spring he looked while Artemis was bathing in it. Stesichorus of Himera says that the goddess cast a deer-skin round Actaeon to make sure that his hounds would kill him, so as to prevent his taking Semele to wife.
Hera, they say, was for some reason or other angry with Zeus, and had retreated to Euboea. Zeus, failing to make her change her mind, visited Cithaeron, at that time despot in Plataea, who surpassed all men for his cleverness. So he ordered Zeus to make an image of wood, and to carry it, wrapped up, in a bullock wagon, and to say that he was celebrating his marriage with Plataea, the daughter of Asopus. ] So Zeus followed the advice of Cithaeron. Hera heard the news at once, and at once appeared on the scene. But when she came near the wagon and tore away the dress from the image, she was pleased at the deceit, on finding it a wooden image and not a bride, and was reconciled to Zeus. To commemorate this reconciliation they celebrate a festival called Daedala, because the men of old time gave the name of daedala to wooden images. (Paus. 9,3,1-3).
The Plataeans were originally, in my opinion, sprung from the soil
City of Boeotia, its boundaries, its history, Damasistratus, king of, captured by Lacedaemonians and Peloponnesians under Archidamus, captured by Thebans, burnt by the Persians, passim in connection with military operations there, battle of Plataea, list of Greeks who fought at battle of Plataea, trophies of battle of Plataea dedicated at Olympia and Delphi, Plataeans fight at Marathon and are buried at Marathon, names of Plataeans on tombstone at Athens, Plataeans exiled, but afterwards restored by Philip, dedicate statue of ox at Delphi.
For in the war between the Peloponnesians and Athens, the Lacedaemonians reduced Plataea by siege, but it was restored during the peace made by the Spartan Antalcidas between the Persians and the Greeks, and the Plataeans returned from Athens.
The second capture of Plataea occurred two years before the battle of Leuctra,2 when Asteius was Archon at Athens. The Thebans destroyed all the city except the sanctuaries, but the method of its capture saved the lives of all the Plataeans alike, and on their expulsion they were again received by the Athenians. When Philip after his victory at Chaeroneia introduced a garrison into Thebes, one of the means he employed to bring the Thebans low was to restore the Plataeans to their homes.
The Plataeans participated in the naval battle.
On the N.E. coast of Attica, the Cretan bull at, the Heraclids retire to, Herakles first worshipped as god at, the bull of, kills Androgeus, son of Minos, the bull of, Theseus sent against, Pisistratus' landing there after exile, Persian landing under Datis, preliminaries to the battle, and the battle itself, number of Athenians at battle of, Athenians who fell at Marathon buried on the field, people of M. worship the dead warriors, Athenians bury Medes at, Athenians proudest of victory at, picture of battle of, offerings from spoils taken at.
. . . three thousand men of Megara, and next to these six hundred Plataeans. At the end, and first in the line, were the Athenians who held the left wing.
The Athenians furnished a hundred and twenty-seven ships; the Plataeans manned these ships with the Athenians, not that they had any knowledge of seamanship, but because of mere valor and zeal
The Persians, under the leadership of Mardonius, were defeated by the Greeks.
That of Athens comprised the Chians, Lesbians, Plateans, the Messenians in Naupactus, most of the Acarnanians, the Corcyraeans, Zacynthians, and some tributary cities in the following countries, viz., Caria upon the sea with her Dorian neighbors, Ionia, the Hellespont, the Thracian towns, the islands lying between Peloponnese and Crete towards the east, and all the Cyclades except Melos and Thera.
This Boiotian city is situated near the boundary of Attica, between
the last slopes of Mt. Kithairon and the Asopos (Ptol. Geog. 3.15.20; Plin. HN
4.2.6). It was also mentioned by Homer (Il. 2.504).
In 519 B.C. the city obtained the protection of Athens against Thebes,
which was trying to annex it. It remained allied with Athens in the battles of
Marathon, Artemision, and Salamis, and was sacked by the Persians in 479. For
its strenuous resistance to the Persians and for its fidelity to Athens, Plataiai
was honored with a gift of 80 talents for the Temple of Athena Areia. Phidias
executed the cult statue and Polygnotos painted the walls of the pronaos for the
temple. In 431 the Thebans again tried to take over the city. In 429 it was besieged
by Archidamos, but its meager forces finally succeeded in forcing the blockade
and reached refuge in Athens. In 427 it was occupied and rased to the ground although
the temple of Hera was saved and a shelter for visitors was built near it. The
Plataians returned to their city only to have it sacked by the Thebans; they retook
it with the aid of Sparta, but were attacked again in 372 and the Thebans destroyed
the city a second time. From this period until 338 the citizens of Plataiai enjoyed
the hospitality of the Athenians. Philip led them home after Chaironeia, and the
city was rebuilt under Alexander. During the Roman occupation Plataiai was not
molested, in fact Justinian restored its walls. From the end of the 6th c. on
Plataiai was a flourishing cult center of Hera (Paus. 9.3.8), of Demeter (Paus.
9.4.3), of Athena (Paus. 10.4.1), of Zeus Eleutherios (Paus. 9.3.5.7), of Artemis
(Paus. 1.15.4), and of other minor cults as attested by inscriptions and coins.
Few vestiges of the city before 338 are preserved although near the
internal NE corner of the Hellenistic walls there are a few remains of prehistoric
walls, and excavation has brought to light fragments of prehistoric pottery and
Mycenaean vases. The walls are rather complex. The enclosure built after 338 resembles
a bulky polygon with the higher part to the S, where the extremity is defended
by a tower. Behind this spur is a second curtain wall with numerous square towers.
Circular towers protect the NW and NE corners; and two other extensions of the
wall, NW-S and W-E, cross the site of the city. The maximum axes of the circuit
are 1500 by 750 m. The 5th c. walls are rather rude work with a tendency toward
polygonal technique; the 385 B.C. walls is isodomic work with a squared face;
the 338 B.C. walls, restored under Philip, is isodomic trapezoidal work with a
rounded face; later repairs and partial rebuilding under Alexander (?) are in
isodomic technique with a squared and partly chiseled face.
The temple of Hera (49.9 x 16.7 m), was identified in 1891 on a terrace
inside the city wall. To the N of the temple was found the Katagogion, a large
hostel with a square plan and rooms on two stories, erected by the Thebans after
the destruction of the city in 427 B.C. on a site that was later occupied by the
Roman agora (Thuc. Hist. 2.69). Outside the walls to the W and NE are the necropoleis.
Not even the site of the temple of Athena Areia has been identified.
N. Bonacasa, 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.
(Plataia), more commonly Plataeae (Plataiai). An ancient city of Boeotia, on the northern slope of Mount Cithaeron, not far from the sources of the Asopus, and on the frontiers of Attica. It was said to have derived its name from Plataea, a daughter of Asopus. At an early period the Plataeans deserted the Boeotian Confederacy and placed themselves under the protection of Athens; and when the Persians invaded Attica, B.C. 490, they sent 1000 men to the assistance of the Athenians, and fought on their side at the battle of Marathon. Ten years afterward (480) their city was destroyed by the Persian army under Xerxes at the instigation of the Thebans; and the place was still in ruins in the following year (479), when the memorable battle was fought in their territory in which Mardonius was defeated, and the independence of Greece secured. In consequence of this victory, the territory of Plataea was declared inviolable. It now enjoyed a prosperity of fifty years; but in the third year of the Peloponnesian War (429) the Thebans persuaded the Spartans to attack the town, and after a siege of two years at length succeeded in obtaining possession of the place (427). Plataea was now razed to the ground, but was again rebuilt after the peace of Antalcidas (387). It was destroyed the third time by its inveterate enemies the Thebans in 374. It was once more restored under the Macedonian supremacy, and continued in existence till a very late period.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Plataeae (Plataia, Plataiai, Eth. Plataieus, Plataeensis). An ancient
city of Boeotia, was situated upon the frontiers of Attica at the foot of Mt.
Cithaeron, and between that mountain and the river Asopus, which divided its territory
from that of Thebes. (Strab. ix. p. 411.) The two cities were about 6 1/2 miles
apart by the road, but the direct distance was little more than 5 geographical
miles. According to the Thebans Plataea was founded by them (Thuc. iii. 61); but
Pausanias represents the Plataeans as indigenous, and according to their own account
they derived their name from Plataea, a daughter of Asopus. (Paus. ix. 1. § 1.)
Plataea is mentioned in Homer among the other Boeotian cities. (Il. ii. 504.)
In B.C. 519 Plataea, unwilling to submit to the supremacy of Thebes, and unable
to resist her powerful neighbour with her own unaided resources, formed a close
alliance with Athens, to which she continued faithful during the whole of her
subsequent history. (Herod. vi. 108; Thuc. iii. 68.) She sent 1000 men to the
assistance of Athens at Marathon, and shared in the glories of that victory. (Herod,
l. c.) The Plataeans also fought at Artemisium, but were not present at Salamis,
as they had to leave the fleet in order to remove their families and property
from the city, in consequence of the approach of the Persian army. (Herod. viii.
44.) Upon the arrival of the Persians shortly afterwards their city was burnt
to the ground. (Herod. viii. 50.) In the following year (B.C. 479) their territory
was the scene of the memorable battle, which delivered Greece from the Persian
invaders. The history of this battle illustrates so completely the topography
of the Plataean territory, that it is necessary to give an account of the different
positions taken by the contending forces (See accompanying Map). Mardonius proceeded
from Attica into Boeotia across Mount Parnes by the pass of Deceleia, and took
up a position on the bank of the Asopus, where he caused a fortified camp to be
constructed of 10 stadia square. The situation was well selected, since he had
the friendly city of Thebes in his rear, and was thus in no danger of falling
short of provisions. (Herod. ix. 15.) The Grecian army crossed over from Attica
by Mt. Cithaeron; but as Pausanias did not choose to expose his troops to the
attacks of the Persian cavalry on the plain, he stationed them on the slopes of
the mountain, near Erythrae, where the ground was rugged and uneven. This position
did not, however, altogether preserve them; but, in an attack made by the Persian
cavalry, a body of 300 Athenians repulsed them, and killed their leader Masistius.
This success encouraged Pausanias to descend into the territory of Plataea, more
especially as it was better supplied with water than his present position. Marching
from Erythrae in a westerly position along the roots of Mt. Cithaeron, and passing
by Hysiae, he drew up his army along the right bank of the Asopus, partly upon
hills of no great height and partly upon a lofty plain, the right wing being near
the fountain Gargaphia, and the left near the chapel of the Plataean hero Androcrates.
(Herod. ix. 25 - 30.) Mardonius drew up his army opposite to them on the other
side of the Asopus. The two armies remained in this position for some days, neither
party being willing to begin the attack. The Persians assailed the Greeks at a
distance with their missiles, and prevented them altogether from watering at the
Asopus. Meantime the Persian cavalry intercepted the convoys of provisions proceeding
to the Grecian camp, and on one occasion drove away the Lacedaemonians, who occupied
the right wing from the fountain Gargaphia, and succeeded in choking it up. This
fountain had been of late the only watering-place of the Greeks; and as their
ground was now untenable, Pausanias resolved to retreat in the night to a place
called the Island (nesos), about 10 stadia in the rear of their present position,
and halfway between the latter and the town of Plataea. The spot selected, improperly
called an island, was, in fact, a level meadow, comprised between two branches
of the river Oeroe, which, rising from distinct sources in Mt. Cithaeron, and
running for some space nearly parallel with one another, at length unite and flow
in a westerly direction into the gulf of Corinth. (Herod. ix. 51.) The nature
of the ground would thus afford to the Greeks abundance of water, and protection
from the enemy's cavalry. The retreat, however, though for so short a distance,
was effected in disorder and confusion. The Greek centre, chiefly composed of
Megarians and Corinthians, probably fearing that the island would not afford them
sufficient protection against the enemy's cavalry, did not halt till they reached
the temple of Hera, which was in front of the town of Plataea. The Lacedaemonians
on the right wing were delayed till the day began to dawn, by the obstinacy of
Amompharetus, and then began to march across the hills which separated them from
the island. The Athenians on the left wing began their march at the same time,
and got round the hills to the plain on the other side on their way to the island.
After marching 10 stadia, Pausanias halted on the bank of the Moloeis, at a place
called Agriopius, where stood a temple of the Eleusinian Demeter. Here he was
joined by Amompharetus, and here he had to sustain the attack of the Persians,
who had rushed across the Asopus and up the hill after the retreating foe. As
soon as Pausanias was overtaken by the Persians, he sent to the Athenians to entreat
them to hasten to his aid; but the coming up of the Boeotians prevented them from
doing so. Accordingly the Lacedaemonians and Tegeatans had to encounter the Persians
alone without any assistance from the other Greeks, and to them alone belongs
the glory of the victory. The Persians were defeated with great slaughter, nor
did they stop in their flight till they had again crossed the Asopus and reached
their fortified camp. The Thebans also were repulsed by the Athenians, but they
retreated in good order to Thebes, being covered by their cavalry from the pursuit
of the Athenians. The Greek centre, which was nearly 10 stadia distant, had no
share in the battle; but hearing that the Lacedaemonians were gaining the victory,
they hastened to the scene of action, and, coining up in confusion, as many as
600 were cut to pieces by the Theban force. Meantime the Lacedaemonians pursued
the Persians to the fortified camp, which, however, they were unable to take until
the Athenians, more skilled in that species of warfare, came to their assistance.
The barricades were then carried, and a dreadful carnage ensued. With the exception
of 40,000 who retreated with Artabazus, only 3000 of the original 300,000 are
said to have escaped. (Herod. ix. 50 - 70.)
As this signal victory had been gained on the soil of Plataea, its
citizens received especial honour and rewards from the confederate Greeks. Not
only was the large sum of 80 talents granted to them, which they employed in erecting
a temple to Athena, but they were charged with the duty of rendering every year
religious honours to the tombs of the warriors who had fallen in the battle, and
of celebrating every five years the festival of the Eleutheria in commemoration
of the deliverance of the Greeks from the Persian yoke. The festival was sacred
to Zeus Eleutherius, to whom a temple was now erected at Plataea. In return for
these services Pausanias and the other Greeks swore to guarantee the independence
and inviolability of the city and its territory (Thuc. ii. 71; Plut. Arist. c.
19 - 21; Strab. ix. p. 412; Paus. ix. 2. § 4.)
Plataea was of course now rebuilt, and its in.. habitants continued
unmolested till the commencement of the Peloponnesian War. In the spring of B.C.
431, before any actual declaration of war, a party of 300 Thebans attempted to
surprise Plataea. They were admitted within the walls in the night time by an
oligarchical party of the citizens; but the Plataeans soon recovered from their
surprise, and put to death 180 of the assailants. (Thuc. ii. 1, seq.) In the third
year of the war (B.C. 429) the Peloponnesian army under the command of Archidamus
laid siege to Plataea. This siege is one of the most memorable in the annals of
Grecian warfare, and has been narrated at great length by Thucydides. The Plataeans
had previously deposited at Athens their old men, women, and children; and the
garrison of the city consisted of only 400 citizens and 80 Athenians, together
with 110 women to manage their household affairs. Yet this small force set at
defiance the whole army of the Peloponnesians, who, after many fruitless attempts
to take the city by assault, converted the siege into a blockade, and raised a
circumvallation round the city, consisting of two parallel walls, 16 feet asunder,
with a ditch on either side. In the second year of the blockade 212 of the besieged
during a tempestuous winter's night succeeded in scaling the walls of circumvallation
and reaching Athens in safety. In the course of the ensuing summer (B.C. 427)
the remainder of the garrison were obliged, through failure of provisions, to
surrender to the Peloponnesians. They were all put to death; and all the private
buildings rased to the ground by the Thebans, who with the materials erected a
sort of vast barrack round the temple of Hera, both for the accommodation of visitors,
and to serve as an abode for those to whom they let out the land. A new temple,
of 100 feet in length (neos hekatompedos), was also built by the Thebans in honour
of Hera. (Thuc. ii. 71, seq., iii. 20, seq., 52, seq., 68.)
The surviving Plataeans were kindly received by the Athenians. They
would appear even before this time to have enjoyed the right of citizenship at
Athens (Athenaion xummachoi kai politai, Thuc. iii. 63). The exact nature of this
citizenship is uncertain ; but that it was not the full citizenship, possessed
by Athenian citizens, appears from a line of Aristophanes, who speaks of certain
slaves, who had been engaged in sea-fights, being made Plataeans (kai Plataias
euthus einai kanai doulon despotas, Ran. 706; comp. Schol. ad Aristoph. Ran. 33;
Bockh, Public Econ. of Athens, p. 262, 2nd ed.). Diodorus, in relating their return
to Athens at a subsequent time, says (xv. 46) that they received the isopoliteia;
but that some of them at any rate enjoyed nearly the full privileges of Athenian
citizens appears from the decree of the people quoted by Demosthenes (c. Neaer.
p. 1380).
In B.C. 420 the Athenians gave the Plataeans the town of Scione as
a residence. (Thuc. v. 32 ; Isocr. Paneg. § 109; Diodor. xii. 76.) At the close
of the Peloponnesian War, they were compelled to evacuate Scione (Plut. Lysand.
14), and again found a hospitable welcome at Athens. Here they were living at
the time of the peace of Antalcidas (B.C. 387), which guaranteed the autonomy
of the Grecian cities; and the Lacedaemonians, who were now anxious to humble
the power of Thebes, took advantage of it to restore the Plataeans to their native
city. (Paus. ix. 1. § 4; Isocrat. Plataic. § 13, seq.) But the Plataeans did not
long retain possession of their city, for in B.C. 372 it was surprised by the
Thebans and again destroyed. The Plataeans were compelled once more to seek refuge
at Athens. (Paus. ix. 1. § § 5 - 8; Diodor. xv. 46.) The wrongs done to the Plataeans
by Thebes are set forth in a speech of Isocrates, entitled Plataicus, which was
perhaps actually delivered at this time by a Plataean speaker before the public
assembly at Athens. (Grote's Greece, vol. x. p. 220.) After the battle of Chaeroneia
(B.C. 338) the Plataeans were once more restored to their city by Philip. (Paus.
ix. 1. § 8, iv. 27. § 11.) It was shortly after this time that Plataea was visited
by Dicaearchus, who calls the Plataeans Athenaioi Boiotoi, and remarks that they
have nothing to say for themselves, except that they are colonists of the Athenians,
and that the battle between the Greeks and the Persians took place near their
town. (Descript. Graec. p. 14, Hudson.)
After its restoration by Philip, the city continued to be inhabited
till the latest times. It was visited by Pausanias, who mentions three temples,
one of Hera, another of Athena Areia, and a third of Demeter Eleusinia. Pausanias
speaks of only one temple of Hera, which he describes as situated within the city,
and worthy of admiration on account of its magnitude and of the offerings with
which it was adorned (ix. 2. § 7). This was apparently the temple built by the
Thebans after the destruction of Plataea. (Thuc. iii. 68.) It is probable that
the old temple of Hera mentioned by Herodotus, and which he describes as outside
the city (ix. 52), was no longer repaired after the erection of the new one, and
had disappeared before the visit of Pausanias. The temple of Athena Areia was
built according to Pausanias (ix. 4. § 1) out of a share of the spoils of Marathon,
but according to Plutarch (Arist. 20) with the 80 talents out of the spoils of
Plataea, as mentioned above. The temple was adorned with pictures by Polygnotus
and Onatas, and with a statue of the goddess by Pheidias. Of the temple of Demeter
Eleusinia we have no details, but it was probably erected in consequence of the
battle having been fought near a temple of Demeter Eleusinia at Argiopius. (Herod.
ix. 57.) The temple of Zeus Eleutherius (Strab. ix. p. 412) seems to have been
reduced in the time of Pausanias to an altar and a statue. It was situated outside
the city. (Paus. ix. 2. § § 5 - 7.)
Plataea is mentioned in the sixth century by Hierocles (p. 645, Wesseling)
among the cities of Boeotia; and its walls were restored by Justinian. (Procop.
de Aedif. iv. 2.)
The ruins of Plataea are situated near the small village of Kokela.
The circuit of the walls may still be traced in great part. They are about two
miles and a half in circumference; but this was the size of the city restored
by Philip, for not only is the earlier city, before its destruction by the Thebans,
described by Thucydides (ii. 77) as small, but we find at the southern extremity
of the existing remains more ancient masonry than in any other part of the ruins.
Hence Leake supposes that the ancient city was confined to this part. He observes
that the masonry in general, both of the Acropolis and of the town, has the appearance
of not being so old as the time of the battle. The greater part is of the fourth
order, but mixed with portions of a less regular kind, and with some pieces of
polygonal masonry. The Acropolis, if an interior inclosure can be so called, which
is not on the highest part of the site, is constructed in part of stones which
have evidently been taken from earlier buildings. The towers of this citadel are
so formed as to present flanks to the inner as well as to the outer face of the
intermediate walls, whereas the town walls have towers, like those of the Turks,
open to the interior. Above the southern wall of the city are foundations of a
third inclosure; which is evidently more ancient than the rest, and is probably
the only part as old as the Persian War, when it may have been the Acropolis of
the Plataea of that age. It surrounds a rocky height, and terminates to the S.
in an acute angle, which is only separated by a level of a few yards from the
foot of the great rocky slope of Cithaeron. This inclosure is in a situation higher
than any other part of the ancient site, and higher than the village of Kokela,
from which it is 500 yards distant to the E. Its walls are traceable on the eastern
side along a torrent, a branch of the Oeroe, nearly as far as the south-eastern
angle of the main inclosure of the city. In a church within this upper inclosure
are some fragments of an inscribed marble. (Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 325.)
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Collection : Thebes Archaeological Museum
There is at Plataea a temple of Hera, worth seeing for its size and for the beauty of its images. On entering you see Rhea carrying to Cronus the stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, as though it were the babe to which she had given birth. The Hera they call Full-grown; it is an upright image of huge size. Both figures are of Pentelic marble, and the artist was Praxiteles.
Here too is another image of Hera; it is seated, and was made by Callimachus. The goddess they call the Bride.
The Plataeans have also a sanctuary of Athena surnamed Warlike; it was built from the spoils given them by the Athenians as their share from the battle of Marathon. It is a wooden image gilded, but the face, hands and feet are of Pentelic marble. In size it is but little smaller than the bronze Athena on the Acropolis, the one which the Athenians also erected as first-fruits of the battle at Marathon; the Plataeans too had Pheidias for the maker of their image of Athena. In the temple are paintings: one of them, by Polygnotus, represents Odysseus after he has killed the wooers; the other, painted by Onasias, is the former expedition of the Argives, under Adrastus, against Thebes. These paintings are on the walls of the fore-temple, while at the feet of the image is a portrait of Arimnestus, who commanded the Plataeans at the battle against Mardonius, and yet before that at Marathon.
There is also at Plataea a sanctuary of Demeter, surnamed Eleusinian.
Not far from the common tomb of the Greeks is an altar of Zeus, God of Freedom.
Roughly at the entrance into Plataea are the graves of those who fought against the Persians. Of the Greeks generally there is a common tomb, but the Lacedaemonians and Athenians who fell have separate graves, on which are written elegiac verses by Simonides.
Son of Alector, in the Argo, suitor of Helen, leads Boeotians to Troy, brings back bones of Arcesilaus to Lebadea, his tomb.
Advancing in the city itself from the altar and the image which have been made to Zeus of Freedom, you come to a hero-shrine of Plataea.
The trophy which the Greeks set up for the battle at Plataea stands about fifteen stades from the city.
Festival held by Plataeans, Great D., festival held by Boeotians.
Festival of Liberty with games, held every four years at Plataea, in memory of the battle.
The feast of liberty; a festival which the Greeks, after the battle of Plataea (B.C. 479), instituted in honour of Zeus Eleutherius (the deliverer). It was intended not merely to be a token of their gratitude to the god, but also as a bond of union among themselves; for, in an assembly of all the Greeks, Aristides carried a decree that delegates from all the Greek States should assemble every year at Plataea for the celebration of the Eleutheria. The town itself was at the same time declared sacred and inviolable, as long as its citizens offered the annual sacrifices which were then instituted on behalf of Greece. Every fifth year these solemnities were celebrated with contests (agon ton Eleutherion) in which the victors were rewarded with chaplets. The annual solemnity at Plataea, which continued to be observed down to the time of Plutarch ( Arist.19 and 21), was as follows: On the sixteenth of the month of Maemacterion, a procession, led by a trumpeter, who blew the signal for battle, marched at daybreak through the middle of the town. It was followed by wagons loaded with myrtle-boughs and chaplets, by a black bull, and by free youths who carried the vessels containing the libations for the dead. No slave was permitted to minister on this occasion. At the end of this procession followed the archon of Plataea, who was not allowed at any other time during his office to touch a weapon or to wear any other but white garments, now wearing a purple tunic and with a sword in his hand, and also bearing an urn, kept for this solemnity in the public archives (grammatophulakion). When the procession came to the place where the Greeks who had fallen at Plataea were buried, the archon first washed and anointed the tombstones, and then led the bull to a pyre and sacrificed it, praying to Zeus and Hermes Chthonius, and inviting the brave men who had fallen in the defence of their country to take part in the banquet prepared for them.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Jan 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
All Greeks had left it to the Plateans’ care that they do every year the funeral rituals, at the altar of Zeus Eleutherius. Platea had been declared sacred after the battle with Athens’ suggestion.
Arimnestus (Arimnestos), the commander of the Plataeans at the battles of Marathon and Plataea. (Paus. ix. 4.1; Herod. ix. 72; Plut. Arist. c. 11). The Spartan who killed Mardonius is called by Plutarch Arimnestus, but by Herodotus Aeimestus.
Daemachus or Deimachus (Daimachos or Deimachos), of Plataeae, a Greek historian, whose age is determined by the fact, that he was sent as ambassador to Allitrochades, the son of Androcottus or Sandrocottus, king of India (Strab. ii.), and Androcottus reigned at the time when Seleucus was laying the foundation of the subsequent greatness of his empire, about B. C. 312. (Justin. xv. 4.) This fact at once shews the impossibility of what Casaubon (ad Diog. Laert. i. 1) endeavoured to prove, that the historian Ephorus had stolen whole passages from Daimachus's work, since Ephorus lived and wrote before Daimachus. The latter wrote a work on India, which consisted of at least two books. He had probably acquired or at least increased his knowledge of those eastern countries during his embassy; but Strabo nevertheless places him at the head of those who had circulated false and fabulous accounts about India. (Comp. Athen. ix.; Harpocrat. s. v. engutheke; Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. i. 558.) We have also mention of a very extensive work on sieges (poliorketika hupomnemata) by one Daimachus, who is probably the same as the author of the Indica. If the reading in Stephanus of Byzantium (s. v. Lakedaimon) is correct, the work on sieges consisted of at least 35 (le) books. (Comp. Eustath. ad Hom. Il. ii. 581.) The work on India is lost, but the one on sieges may possibly be still concealed somewhere, for Magius (in Gruter's Fax Artium) states, that he saw a MS. of it. It may be that our Daimachus is the same as the one quoted by Plutarch (Comparat. Solon. cum Publ. 4) as an authority on the military exploits of Solon. In another passage of Plutarch (Lysand. 12) one Laimachus (according to the common reading) is mentioned as the author of a work peri eusebeias, and modern critics have changed the name Laimachus into Daimachus, and consider him to be the same as the historian. In like manner it has been proposed in Diogenes Laertius (i. 30) to read Daimachos ho Plataieus instead of Daidachos ho Platonikos, but these are only conjectural emendations.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Aeimnestus (Aeimnestos), a Spartan, who killed Mardonius in the battle of Plataea, B. C. 479, and afterwards fell himself in the Messenian war. (Herod. ix. 64.) The Spartan who killed Mardonius, Plutarch (Arist. 19) calls Arimnestus (Arimnestos).
Eupompidas, son of Daimachus, one of the commanders in Plataea during its siege by the Lacedaemonians, B. C. 429-8. He with Theaenetus, a prophet, in the winter following this second year, devised the celebrated plan for passing the lines of circumvallation, which, originally intended for the whole number of the besieged, was in the end successfully executed by 212 of them, under the guidance of the same two leaders. (Thuc. iii. 20-23.)
This road leads to Plataea from Eleutherae. On the road from Megara there is a spring on the right, and a little farther on a rock. It is the Vergutiani spring of today.
On the road from Megara there is a spring on the right, and a little farther on a rock. It is called the bed of Actaeon, for it is said that he slept thereon when weary with hunting, and that into this spring he looked while Artemis was bathing in it. Stesichorus of Himera says that the goddess cast a deer-skin round Actaeon to make sure that his hounds would kill him, so as to prevent his taking Semele to wife.
River of Boeotia.
On the battlefield of Plataea.
A place near Plataea.
near the battlefield of Plataea
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