Listed 25 sub titles with search on: Monuments reported by ancient authors for wider area of: "NESTANI Village MANTINIA" .
MANTINIA (Ancient city) ARCADIA
By the foot of the mountain is the sanctuary of Horse Poseidon. The modern sanctuary
was built by the Emperor Hadrian, who set overseers over the workmen, so that
nobody might look into the old sanctuary, and none of the ruins be removed. He
ordered them to build around the new temple. Originally, they say, this sanctuary
was built for Poseidon by Agamedes and Trophonius, who worked oak logs and fitted
them together. They set up no barrier at the entrance to prevent men going inside;
but they stretched across it a thread of wool. Perhaps they thought that even
this would strike fear into the religious people of that time, and perhaps there
was also some power in the thread. It is notorious that even Aepytus, the son
of Hippothous, entered the sanctuary neither by jumping over the thread nor by
slipping under it, but by cutting it through. For this sin he was blinded by a
wave that dashed on to his eyes, and forthwith his life left him.
Farther off from Melangeia, about seven stades distant from Mantineia, there is a well called the Well of the Meliasts. Near the well is a hall of Dionysus and a sanctuary of Black Aphrodite. This surname of the goddess is simply due to the fact that men do not, as the beasts do, have sexual intercourse always by day, but in most cases by night.
The articles of the treaty, the oaths, and the alliance shall be inscribed on a stone pillar by the Athenians in the citadel, by the Argives in the market-place, in the temple of Apollo; by the Mantineans in the temple of Zeus, in the market-place.
The Mantineans have other sanctuaries also, one of Zeus Saviour, and one of Zeus Giver of Gifts, in that he gives good things to men.
There is also a sanctuary of the Dioscuri.
There is also a sanctuary of the Dioscuri, and in another place one of Demeter and the Maid. Here they keep a fire, taking anxious care not to let it go out.
They (the Mantineans) also worship Athena Alea, of whom they have a sanctuary and an image.
In addition to the roads mentioned there are two others, leading to Orchomenus. On one is what is called the stadium of Ladas, where Ladas practised his running, and by it a sanctuary of Artemis.
NESTANI (Acropolis) MANTINIA
After the ruins of Nestane is a holy sanctuary of Demeter, and every year the Mantineans hold a festival in her honor.
MANTINIA (Ancient city) ARCADIA
On the left of the highway leading to Tegea there is, beside the walls of Mantineia, a place where horses race, and not far from it is a race-course, where they celebrate the games in honor of Antinous.
In addition to the roads mentioned there are two others, leading to Orchomenus. On one is what is called the stadium of Ladas, where Ladas practised his running,
The Mantineans possess a temple composed of two parts, being divided almost exactly
at the middle by a wall. In one part of the temple is an image of Asclepius, made
by Alcamenes; the other part is a sanctuary of Leto and her children, and their
images were made by Praxiteles two generations after Alcamenes. On the pedestal
of these are figures of Muses together with Marsyas playing the flute. Here there
is a figure of Polybius, the son of Lycortas, carved in relief upon a slab, of
whom I shall make fuller mention later on.
Near the theater I saw a temple of Hera. Praxiteles made the images Hera is sitting, while Athena and Hera's daughter Hebe are standing by her side. Near the altar of Hera is the grave of Arcas.
Behind the theater I found the remains, with an image, of a temple of Aphrodite surnamed Ally. The inscription on the pedestal announced that the image was dedicated by Nicippe, the daughter of Paseas. This sanctuary was made by the Mantineans to remind posterity of their fighting on the side of the Romans at the battle of Actium.
Antinous too was deified by them (the Mantineans); his temple is the newest in
Mantineia. He was a great favorite of the Emperor Hadrian. I never saw him in
the flesh, but I have seen images and pictures of him. He has honors in other
places also, and on the Nile is an Egyptian city named after Antinous. He has
won worship in Mantineia for the following reason. Antinous was by birth from
Bithynium beyond the river Sangarius, and the Bithynians are by descent Arcadians
of Mantineia. For this reason the Emperor established his worship in Mantineia
also; mystic rites are celebrated in his honor each year, and games every four
years. There is a building in the gymnasium of Mantineia containing statues of
Antinous, and remarkable for the stones with which it is adorned, and especially
so for its pictures. Most of them are portraits of Antinous, who is made to look
just like Dionysus.
Not far from the theater are famous tombs, one called Common Hearth, round in shape, where, they told me, lies Antinoe, the daughter of Cepheus.
Near the altar of Hera is the grave of Arcas, the son of Callisto. The bones of Arcas they brought from Maenalus, in obedience to an oracle delivered to them from Delphi. This place, where the grave of Arcas is, they call Altars of the Sun.
In addition to the roads mentioned there are two others, leading to Orchomenus.
On one is what is called the stadium of Ladas, where Ladas practised his running,
and by it a sanctuary of Artemis, and on the right of the road is a high mound
of earth. It is said to be the grave of Penelope, but the account of her in the
poem called Thesprotis is not in agreement with this saying. For in it the poet
says that when Odysseus returned from Troy he had a son Ptoliporthes by Penelope.
But the Mantinean story about Penelope says that Odysseus convicted her of bringing
paramours to his home, and being cast out by him she went away at first to Lacedaemon,
but afterwards she removed from Sparta to Mantineia, where she died.
Tomb near Mantinea.
MERA (Ancient small town) MANTINIA
Thirty stades from Ptolis are the ruins of a village called Maera, with the grave
of Maera, if it be really the case that Maera was buried here and not in Tegean
land. For probably the Tegeans, and not the Mantineans, are right when they say
that Maera, the daughter of Atlas, was buried in their land. Perhaps, however,
the Maera who came to the land of Mantineia was another, a descendant of Maera,
the daughter of Atlas.
MANTINIA (Ancient city) ARCADIA
There is also a copy here (at the gymnasium) of the painting in the Cerameicus which represented the engagement of the Athenians at Mantineia.
The Mantineans affirmed that Poseidon too manifested himself in their defence, and for this reason they erected a trophy as an offering to Poseidon.
Farther off from Melangeia, about seven stades distant from Mantineia, there is a well called the Well of the Meliasts. These Meliasts celebrate the orgies of Dionysus.
Farther off from Melangeia, about seven stades distant from Mantineia, there is a well called the Well of the Meliasts. Near the well is a hall of Dionysus.
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