Listed 33 sub titles with search on: Monuments reported by ancient authors for destination: "TEGEA Ancient city ARCADIA".
Among the Greek sanctuaries which were really privileged and where the right of asylum was confirmed by law, we must distinguish between those of merely local sanctity and those to which fugitives might have recourse from a distance. To the latter, more famous, class belonged the temple of Athena Alea at Tegea
The ancient sanctuary of Athena Alea was made for the Tegeans by Aleus. The sanctuary was utterly destroyed by a fire which suddenly broke out when Diophantus was archon at Athens, in the second year of the ninety-sixth Olympiad, at which Eupolemus of Elis won the foot-race.
There is at Tegea another sanctuary of Athena, namely of Athena Poliatis (Keeper of the City) into which a priest enters once in each year. This sanctuary they name Eryma (Defence) saying that Cepheus, the son of Aleus, received from Athena a boon, that Tegea should never be captured while time shall endure, adding that the goddess cut off some of the hair of Medusa and gave it to him as a guard to the city.
It was built by an Orchomenian named Chronius.
Not far from it (the temple of Aphrodite Paphian) are two sanctuaries of Dionysus.
Next, turning aside to the left for about a stade, you see a dilapidated sanctuary of Apollo surnamed Pythian which is utterly in ruins.
About seven stades farther on is a sanctuary of Artemis, surnamed Lady of the Lake, with an image of ebony. The fashion of the workmanship is what the Greeks call Aeginetan (Paus. 8,53,11). It was on the road from Tegea to Laconia, at the location Aspela near Piali (Ekd. Athinon, Pausaniou Periegissis, vol. 4, p. 408, note 2).
Some three stades away from the fountain (where Heracles outraged Auge) is a temple of Hermes Aepytus.
The market-place is in shape very like a brick, and in it is a temple of Aphrodite called "in brick", with a stone image. There are two slabs; on one are represented in relief Antiphanes, Crisus, Tyronidas and Pyrrhias, who made laws for the Tegeans, and down to this day receive honors for it from them. On the other slab is represented Iasius, holding a horse, and carrying in his right hand a branch of palm. It is said that Iasius won a horse-race at Olympia, at the time when Heracles the Theban celebrated the Olympian festival.
The Tegeans surname Eileithyia, a temple of whom, with art image, they have in their market-place, Auge on her knees, saying that Aleus handed over his daughter to Nauplius with the order to take and drown her in the sea. As she was being carried along, they say, she fell on her knees and so gave birth to her son, at the place where is the sanctuary of Eileithyia. This story is different from another, that Auge was brought to bed without her father's knowing it, and that Telephus was exposed on Mount Parthenius, the abandoned child being suckled by a deer. This account is equally current among the people of Tegea.
There is also at Tegea a temple of Demeter and the Maid, whom they surname the Fruit-bringers.
There is also at Tegea a temple of Demeter and the Maid, whom they surname the Fruit-bringers, and hard by is one of Aphrodite called Paphian. The latter was built by Laodice, who was descended, as I have already said, from Agapenor, who led the Arcadians to Troy, and it was in Paphos that she dwelt.
Not far from it are two sanctuaries of Dionysus, an altar of the Maid, and a temple of Apollo with a gilded image. The artist was Cheirisophus; he was a Cretan by race, but his date and teacher we do not know. By the Apollo stands Cheirisophus in stone.
The road from Tegea to Argos is very well suited for carriages, in fact a first-rate highway. On the road come first a temple and image of Asclepius.
TheTegeans set up for the goddess a large temple far superior to all other temples in the Peloponnesus on many grounds, especially for its size. Its first row of pillars is Doric, and the next to it Corinthian; also, outside the temple, stand pillars of the Ionic order. Its architect was Scopas the Parian. On the front gable is the hunting of the Calydonian boar. The boar stands right in the center. On one side are Atalanta, Meleager, Theseus, Telamon, Peleus, Polydeuces, Iolaus, the partner in most of the labours of Heracles, and also the sons of Thestius, the brothers of Althaea, Prothous and Cometes. On the other side of the boar is Epochus supporting Ancaeus who is now wounded and has dropped his axe; by his side is Castor, with Amphiaraus, the son of Oicles, next to whom is Hippothous, the son of Cercyon, son of Agamedes, son of Stymphalus. The last figure is Peirithous. On the gable at the back is a representation of Telephus fighting Achilles on the plain of the Caicus.
On one side of the image of Athena stands Asclepius, on the other Health, works of Scopas of Paros in Pentelic marble.
On one side of the image of Athena stands Asclepius, on the other Health, works of Scopas of Paros in Pentelic marble.
The Tegeans also have what they call a Common Hearth of the Arcadians. Here there is an image of Heracles, and on his thigh is represented a wound received in the first fight with the sons of Hippocoon.
The ancient image of Athena Alea, and with it the tusks of the Calydonian boar, were carried away by the Roman emperor Augustus after his defeat of Antonius and his allies, among whom were all the Arcadians except the Mantineans. The image of Athena Alea at Rome is as you enter the Forum made by Augustus. Here then it has been set up, made throughout of ivory, the work of Endoeus. Those in charge of the curiosities say that one of the boar's tusks has broken off; the remaining one is kept in the gardens of the emperor, in a sanctuary of Dionysus, and is about half a fathom long.
The present image at Tegea was brought from the parish of Manthurenses, and among them it had the surname of Hippia (Horse Goddess). According to their account, when the battle of the gods and giants took place the goddess drove the chariot and horses against Enceladus. Yet this goddess too has come to receive the name of Alea among the Greeks generally and the Peloponnesians themselves.
At Tegea the images of the Lord of Streets are four in number, one set up by each of the tribes. The images of Apollo, Lord of Streets, the Tegeans say they set up for the following reason. Apollo and Artemis, they say, throughout every land visited with punishment all the men of that time who, when Leto was with child and in the course of her wanderings, took no heed of her when she came to their land.
Close to the sanctuary of Eileithyia is an altar of Earth.
Not far from it are two sanctuaries of Dionysus, an altar of the Maid, and a temple of Apollo with a gilded image.
The altar for the goddess was made, they say, by Melampus, the son of Amythaon. Represented on the altar are Rhea and the nymph Oenoe holding the baby Zeus. On either side are four figures: on one, Glauce, Neda, Theisoa and Anthracia; on the other Ide, Hagno, Alcinoe and Phrixa. There are also images of the Muses and of Memory.
There is also an altar of Zeus Teleius (Full-grown), with a square image, a shape of which the Arcadians seem to me to be exceedingly fond.
I also saw in Tegea: the house of Aleus, the tomb of Echemus, and the fight between Echemus and Hyllus carved in relief upon a slab.
Of the votive offerings in the temple these are the most notable. There is the hide of the Calydonian boar, rotted by age and by now altogether without bristles. Hanging up are the fetters, except such as have been destroyed by rust, worn by the Lacedaemonian prisoners when they dug the plain of Tegea. There have been dedicated a sacred couch of Athena, a portrait painting of Auge, and the shield of Marpessa, surnamed Choera, a woman of Tegea.
Andrew Stewart, One Hundred Greek Sculptors
There is also an image of Ares in the marketplace of Tegea. Carved in relief on a slab it is called Gynaecothoenas (He who entertains women). At the time of the Laconian war, when Charillus king of Lacedaemon made the first invasion, the women armed themselves and lay in ambush under the hill they call today Phylactris (Sentry Hill). When the armies met and the men on either side were performing many remarkable exploits, the women, they say, came on the scene and put the Lacedaemonians to flight. Then they offered to Ares a sacrifice of victory on their own account without the men, and gave to the men no share in the meat of the victim. For this reason Ares got his surname.
Close to the sanctuary of Eileithyia is an altar of Earth, next to which is a slab of white marble. On this is carved Polybius, the son of Lycortas, while on another slab is Elatus, one of the sons of Arcas.
Not far from the market-place is a theater, and near it are pedestals of bronze statues, but the statues themselves no longer exist.
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