Listed 10 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "XYLOKASTRO Small town CORINTHIA" .
XYLOKASTRO (Small town) CORINTHIA
Built in 1260, dominated the area, was destroyed by earthuquake in 1402 and does not exist today
(Following URL information in Greek only)
ARISTONAFTES (Ancient city) XYLOKASTRO
The harbour of Pellene was called Aristonautae (Aristonautai), and
was distant 60 stadia from Pellene, and 120 from Aegeira. It is said to have been
so called from the Argonauts having landed there in the course of their voyage.
(Paus. vii. 26. § 14, ii. 12. § 2.) It was probably on the site of the modern
Kamari. (Leake, Morea, vol. iii. p. 384.) A little to the E., near the coast,
was the fortress Olurus (Olouros), dependent upon Pellene; Leake places it at
Xylo-castro. It would thus have stood at the entrance of the gorge leading from
the maritime plain into the territory of Pellene, and would have been a position
of great importance to the safety of that district. (Xen. Hell. vii. 14. 17, 18;
Plin. iv. 6; Mel. iii. 3; Steph. B. s. v.; Leake, vol. iii. p. 224.) Near Aristonautae
was Gonnusa or Gonoessa, to which Homer gives the epithet of lofty (aipeine).
According to Pausanias its proper name was Donussa (Donoussa), which was changed
by Peisistratus into Gonoessa, when he collected the poems of Homer. Pausanias
says that it was a fortress belonging to the Sicyonians, and lay between Aegeira
and Pellene; but from its position we may infer that it was at one time dependent
upon Pellene. Leake places it at Koryfi, the lofty mountain, at the foot of which
is Kamari, the ancient Aristonautae. (Horn. Il. ii. 573; Paus. vii. 26. § 13;
Leake, vol. iii. p. 385.)
This extract 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
PELLANA (Ancient city) XYLOKASTRO
Dor. Pellana, Pellina. Eth. Pelleneus, Pellenensis, Pellenaeus. (Tzerkovi,
nr. Zugra). A town of Achaia, and the most easterly of the twelve Achaean cities,
whose territory bordered upon that of Sicyon on the E. and upon that of Aegeira
on the W. Pellene was situated 60 stadia from the sea, upon a strongly fortified
hill, the summit of which rose into an inaccessible peak, dividing the city into
two parts. Its name was derived by the inhabitants themselves from the giant Pallas,
and by the Argives from the Argive Pellen, a son of Phorbas. (Herod. i. 145; Pol.
ii. 41; Strab. viii. p. 386; Paus. vii. 26. § § 12 - 14; Apoll. Rhod. i. 176.)
Pellene was a city of great antiquity. It is mentioned in the Homeric catalogue;
and according to a tradition, preserved by Thucydides, the inhabitants of Scione
in the peninsula of Pallene in Macedonia professed to be descended from the Achaean
Pallenians, who were driven on the Macedonian coast, on their return from Troy.
(Horn. Il. ii. 574; Thuc. iv. 120.) At the commencement of the Peloponnesian War,
Pellene was the only one of the Achaean towns which espoused the Spartan cause,
though the other states afterwards followed their example. (Thuc. ii. 9.) In the
time of Alexander the Great, Pellene fell under the dominion of one of its citizens
of the name of Chaeron, a distinguished athlete, who raised himself to the tyranny
by Alexander's assistance. (Paus. vii. 27. § 7.) In the wars which followed the
re-establishment of the Achaean League, Pellene was several times taken and re-taken
by the contending parties. (Pol. ii. 52, iv. 8, 13; Plut. Cleom. 17, Arat. 31,
32.). The buildings of Pellene are described by Pausanias (Vii. 27). Of these,
the most important were a temple of Athena, with a statue of the goddess, said
to have been one of the earlier works of Pheidias; a temple of Dionysus Lampter,
in whose honour a festival, Lampteria, was celebrated; a temple of Apollo Theoxenius,
to whom a festival, Theoxenia, was celebrated; a gymnasium, &c. Sixty stadia from
the city was the Mysaeum (Musaion), a temple of the Mysian Demeter; and near it
a temple of Asclepius, called Cyrus (Kuros): at both of these places there were
copious springs. The ruins of Pellene are situated at Zugra, and are now called
Tzesrkovi. The two temples of Mysaeum and Cyrus are placed by Leake at Trikkala,
SE. of the ancient city. (Leake, Morea, vol. iii. p. 215, Peloponnesiaca, p. 391.)
Between Aegium and Pellene, there was a village also called Pellene,
celebrated for the manufacture of a particular kind of cloaks, which were given
as prizes in the agonistic contests in the city. (Strab. viii. p. 386; Pind. Ol.
ix. 146, with Schol.; Aristoph. Av. 1421, with Schol.; Hesych. and Phot. s. v.
Pellenikai chlainai.) K. O. Muller (Dor. vol. ii. p. 430), however, questions
this second Pellene: he supposes that Strabo is describing Pellene as both citadel
and village, and he corrects the text, keitai de metaxu Aigiou kai Kullenes, instead
of Pellenes; but the context renders this conjecture improbable.
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
The most easterly of the twelve cities of Achaia, near the frontiers of Sicyonia, and situated on a hill sixty stadia from the city. The inhabitants of the peninsula of Pallene, in Macedonia, professed to be descended from the Pellenaeans in Achaia, who were shipwrecked on the Macedonian coast on their return from Troy.
PELLANA (Ancient city) XYLOKASTRO
Total results on 19/4/2001: 108 for Pellene, 1 for Pallenians, 7 for Pellenian, 10 for Pellenians.
A city on the W side of the Sys, near the modern village of Zougra, commanding the road from the coast of the Corinthian Gulf at Xylokastro S to Trikkala. Homeric Pellene, whose site is not known, was destroyed by Sikyon; the Classical city dates from the 6th c. and was refortified in Late Roman times. Pausanias mentions a gold-and-ivory statue by Pheidias in the Temple of Athena, as well as Sanctuaries of Eileithyia, Poseidon, Artemis, Dionysos, and Apollo Theoxenios (god of strangers). Games called the Theoxenia were limited to native competitors; the famous Pellene cloaks were at one time given as prizes. Scattered remains of buildings and walls mark the site, which is divided by a barren ridge, the main part of the city being on the W side, the smaller on the E. There has been some controversy over the location of Aristonautai, the port of Pellene: it was probably at Xylokastro at the mouth of the river. The ruins at Kamari, some 6 km to the W at the mouth of the next river, are perhaps to be identified with 4th c. Oluros, described by Pliny as the fortress of the people of Pellene, but apparently no longer of any significance in the time of Pausanias. The Sanctuary (Mysaion) and Sanatorium (Kyros) of Asklepios near Trikkala also belonged to Pellene.
M. H. Mc Allister, 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.
PITSA (Village) XYLOKASTRO
A modern village S of ancient Aigira on the N side of Mt. Chelydorea
(Paus. 7.17.5) near the summit of which a rich votive deposit in a deep cave (Cave
of Saphtoulis) has been excavated. Extending to a depth of over 20 m and divided
into several chambers, the cave was a cult center for the worship of chthonic
deities, especially the nymphs and possibly Demeter, from ca. 700 B.C. into the
Roman Imperial period.
The finds, which remain largely unpublished, are in the nearby museum
of Sikyon and in the National Museum of Athens. They include numerous terracotta
figurines, votive pottery (mainly Corinthian), bronze mirrors and jewelry, Corinthian
and Sikyonian coins, wooden statuettes, bone dice, etc. The cave is famous, however,
for its beautifully painted and well-preserved wooden plaques. Represented on
one plaque in free-style, polychrome technique of ca. 550 B.C. is a sacrificial
procession with dipinto name-labels and the incomplete signature of a Corinthian
painter in the epichoric Corinthian alphabet. Dipinti on this and on another plaque
also show that these objects were dedicated to the nymphs. The four plaques from
the cave are dated ca. 550-500 B.C. and supply almost unique evidence for nonceramic
Corinthian painting of this period.
R. Stroud, 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.
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