Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "ANTHIDON Ancient city CHALKIDA".
A Boiotian harbor on the Gulf of Euboia, 13 km W of Chalkis and 2
km N of the village of Loukisia, at the foot of Mt. Messapios.
Included in the catalogue of ships of the Iliad (2.508), it belonged
to the Theban districts until 387 B.C. when it became independent in the Boiotian
Confederacy. Destroyed by Sulla at the same time as Larymna and Halai in 86 B.C.,
it was restored and its harbor rebuilt in the 4th c. A.D.
The site of Anthedon was occupied from Mycenaean times and was still
inhabited in the 6th c. A.D. According to ancient testimony, the city was fortified;
its agora was planted with trees and flanked with a double portico. Inside the
city was a Kabeirian temple and, close by, another dedicated to Demeter and Kore,
while outside the city walls to the SE, was a Temple of Dionysos. The gymnasium
was consecrated to Zeus Karaios and to Anthas, the eponym of the city. Partial
excavations have been conducted.
The rampart, which no doubt is Hellenistic, started from the N mole
then ran along the coast for 225 m going W, circled the city to the W and 5, reached
the coastline NE of the acropolis and followed the slope of the acropolis N down
to the mole E of the port. The city covered an area ca. 550-650 m from N to S
and 600 m from E to W. To the NE the acropolis overlooks the sea and the harbor
from a height of some 20 m. Excavations there have yielded only two small crude
walls and some bronze objects of the 12th-11th c. The port, which doubtless is
very old, was rebuilt under the Late Empire. Its nearly circular basin (130 x
120 m) is protected to the N and E by two moles built of large blocks, and surrounded
to the N, W, and S by quays along a 370 m length. The S quay is porticocd. To
the S of the portico the remains of an Early Christian basilica have been excavated;
it is apsed and paved with polychinome marble. The little temple (ca. 10 x 6 m)
discovered SE of the city in 1889 may be that of Dionysos.
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.
Eth. Anthedonious, Anthedonius. A town of Boeotia, and one of the cities of the League, was situated on the Euripus or the Euboean sea at the foot of Mt. Messapius, and was distant, according to Dicaearchus, 70 stadia from Chalcis and 160 from Thebes. Anthedon is mentioned by Homer (Il. ii. 508) as the furthermost town of Boeotia. The inhabitants derived their origin from the sea-god Glaucus, who is said to have been originally a native of the place. They appear to have been a different race from the other people of Boeotia, and are described by one writer (Lycophr, 754) as Thracians. Dicaearchus informs us that they were chiefly mariners, shipwrights and fishermen, who derived their subsistence from trading in fish, purple, and sponges. He adds that the agora was surrounded with a double stoa, and planted with trees. We learn from Pausanias that there was a sacred grove of the Cabeiri in the middle of the town, surrounding a temple of those deities, and near it a temple of Demeter. Outside the walls was a temple of Dionysus, and a spot called the leap of Glaucus. The wine of Anthedon was celebrated in antiquity. The ruins of the town are situated 1 1/2 mile from Lukisi.
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
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