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PLEVRON (Ancient city) ETOLOAKARNANIA
(Pleuron: Eth. Pleuronios, also Pleuroneus, Pleuronius). the name
of two cities in Aetolia, the territory of which was called Pleuronia. ( Strab.
x. p. 465; Auson. Epitaph. 10.)
1. Old Pleuron ( he palaia Pleuron, Strab. x. p. 451), was situated in
the plain between the Achelous and the Evenus, W. of Calydon, at the foot of Mount
Curium, from which the Curetes are said to have derived their name. Pleuron and
Calydon were the two chief towns of Aetolia in the heroic age, and are said by
Strabo (x. p. 450) to have been the ancient ornament (proschema) of Greece. Pleuron
was originally a town of the Curetes, and its inhabitants were engaged in frequent
wars with the Aetolians of the neighbouring town of Calydon. The Curetes, whose
attack upon Calydon is mentioned in an episode of the Iliad (ix. 529), appear
to have been the inhabitants of Pleuron. At the time of the Trojan War, however,
Pleuron was an Aetolian city, and its inhabitants sailed against Troy under the
command of the Aetolian chief Thoas, the son (not the grandson) of Oeneus. (Hom.
Il. ii. 639, comp. xiii. 217, xiv. 116.) Ephorus related that the Curetes were
expelled from Pleuronia, which was formerly called Curetis, by Aeolians (ap. Strab.
x. p. 465); and this tradition may also be traced in the statement of Thucydides
(iii. 102) that the district, called Calydon and Pleuronia in the time of the
Peloponnesian War, formerly bore the name of Aeolis. Since Pleuron appears as
an Aetolian city in the later period of the heroic age, it is represented in some
traditions as such from the beginning. Hence it is said to have derived its name
from Pleuron, a son of Aetolus ; and at the very time that some legends represent
it as the capital of the Curetes, and engaged in war with Oeneus, king of Calydon,
others suppose it to have been governed by the Aetolian Thestius, the brother
of Oeneus. Thestius was also represented as a descendant of Pleuron; and hence
Pleuron had an heroum or a chapel at Sparta, as being the ancestor of Leda, the
daughter of Thestius. But there are all kinds of variations in these. traditions.
Thus we find in Sophocles Oeneus, and not Thestius, represented as king of Pleuron.
(Apollod. i. 7. § 7; Paus. iii. 14. § 8; Soph. Trach. 7.) One of the tragedies
of Phrynichus, the subject of which appears to have been the death of Meleager,
the son of Oeneus, was entitled Pleuroniai, or the Pleuronian Women; and hence
it is not improbable that Phrynichus, as well as Sophocles, represented Oeneus
as king of Pleuron. (Paus. x. 31. § 4.) Pleuron is rarely mentioned in the historical
period. It was abandoned by its inhabitants, says Strabo, in consequence of the
ravages of Demetrius, the Aetolian, a surname probably given to Demetrius II.,
king of Macedonia (who reigned B.C. 239 - 229), to distinguish him from Demetrius
Poliorcetes. (Strab. x. p. 451.) The inhabitants now built the town of
2. New Pleuron (he neotera Pleuron which was situated at the foot of Mt.
Aracynthus. Shortly before the destruction of Corinth (B.C. 146), we find Pleuron,
which was then a member of the Achaean League, petitioning the Romans to be dissevered
from it. (Paus. vii. 11. § 3.) Leake supposes, on satisfactory grounds, the site
of New Pleuron to be represented by the ruins called to Kastron tes Kurias Eirenes,
or the Castle of Lady Irene about one hour's ride from Mesolonghi. These ruins
occupy the broad summit of one of the steep and rugged heights of Mt. Zyqos (the
ancient Aracynthus), which bound the plain of Mesolonghi to the north. Leake says
that the walls were about a mile in circumference, but Mure and Dodwell describe
the circuit as nearly two miles. The most remarkable remains within the ruined
walls are a theatre about 100 feet in diameter, and above it a cistern, 100 feet
long, 70 broad, and 14 deep, excavated on three sides in the rock, and on the
fourth constructed of masonry. In the acropolis Leake discovered some remains
of Doric shafts of white marble, which he conjectures to have belonged to the
temple of Athena, of which Dicaearchus speaks (1. 55) ; but the temple mentioned
by Dicaearchus must have been at Old Pleuron, since Dicaearchus was a contemporary
of Aristotle and Theophrastus, and could not have been alive at the time of the
foundation of New Pleuron. Dodwell, who visited the ruins of this city, erroneously
maintains that they are those of Oeniadae, which were, however, situated among
the marshes on the other side of the Achelous. Leake places Old Pleuron further
south, at a site called Ghyfto-kastro, on the edge of the plain of Mesolonghi,
where there are a few Hellenic remains.
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
An ancient city in Aetolia, situated at a little distance from the coast. It was abandoned by its inhabitants when Demetrius II., king of Macedonia, laid waste the surrounding country, and a new city was built under the same name near the ancient one. The two cities are distinguished by geographers under the names of Old Pleuron and New Pleuron respectively.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
City of Aetolia
on the northern coast of the gulf of Patrae.
In mythology, Pleuron was founded by a king by that name, one of the
sons of Aetolus, the eponym of the Aetolians, himself a son of Endymion, king
of Elis, and of Pronoe, the
daughter of Phorbas and sister of Augeas, another king of Elis.
Pleuron was the brother of Calydon, who founded the nearby city by that name.
He married Xanthippe, the daughter of Dorus (the eponym of the Dorians). They
had several sons, starting with Agenor, who married Epicaste, the daughter of
Calydon, to become king of Pleuron and Calydon
(Calydon had no sons).
Agenor was the father of Porthaon, who succeded him, and of Demonice,
who was loved by Ares and became the mother of Thestius. Thestius became king
of Pleuron while Oeneus, the son of Porthaon, became king of Calydon.
Thestius was the father of, among others, Althaea and Leda. Althaea became the
wife of her uncle Oeneus and the mother of Meleagrus and Deiareina (one of Heracles'
wives), while Leda became the wife of Tyndareus, the king of Sparta,
while he was in exile at the court of her father after having been unseated by
his half-brother Hippocoon. Leda was loved by Zeus under the appearance of a swan
and was the mother of Castor and Pollux, Helen and Clytaemnestra.
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.
Total results on 24/4/2001: 75 for Pleuron.
There are remains of the ancient city of Pleuron, which was destroyed by Demetrius in 234 B.C.
There are remains of the posterior city of Pleuron. The castle was named after Irini, wife of the Emperor of Byzantium Andronikos.
The city is in Aitolia-Akarnania. The name refers to two settlements,
the older of which was at the foot of Mt. Kurios (Strab. 10.451) between the river
Acheloos and the river Euenos, and was mentioned by Homer (Il. 2.638).
Pleuron, according to Strabo, was founded by the Kouretes; or Thoas,
son of Aeneas, guided the Aitolians there (10.461). When Demetrios II of Macedonia
destroyed Pleuron the inhabitants founded a new city on the uplands of Arakinthos,
which had the protection of Rome before the taking of Corinth. During the Imperial
age the uprisings in Aitolia continued. The ruins of the more ancient city are
N of the newer one and cosist of a few remnants of Cyclopean walls. Nea Pleuron
has been identified on the Arakinthos (Zygos) in the locality of the castle of
Kurias Eirenes.
The city wall is a large rectangule with seven gates and 31 towers
served by stairways. The masonry is partly trapezoidal and partly peudo-isodomic
with squared faces, well preserved almost everywhere, and datable to ca. 230 B.C.
The acropolis occupies the upper part of the site, but little of it remains. A
Byzantine chapel was built on the remains of the Temple of Athena. The actual
city occupies a vast terrace 243 m above sea level, with which it is linked N-S
by a defense wall that also encircles the port. The civil buildings are to the
S. The theater is in the SW part of the city with the proscenium leaning against
the inside surface of the city wall. The central part of the building housing
the skene is a tower. The proscenium had six columns, and the parascenia must
have been elevated above it and must have leaned against the wall. The circle
of the orchestra is tangent to the skene building. The cavea, well preserved at
the N, had five sections and six staircases. The construction of the theater is
contemporary with that of the walls.
Several other areas are recognizable within the city walls, including
the site of the agora, with a stoa oriented N-S and ca. 62 m long, and the plan
of the gymnasium. To the SE was a large communal cistern (30 x 20 m) with five
rectangular basins. There are also remains of unidentifiable public buildings
and rather extensive remnants of houses and cisterns. The necropoleis extend to
the S of the terrace occupied by the city.
N. Bonacasa, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Oct 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains 2 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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