Boeotia
Boeotia
Περιφερειακή ενότητα Βοιωτίας | |
---|---|
EEST) | |
Postal codes | 32x xx, 190 12 |
Area codes | 226x0 |
ISO 3166 code | GR-03 |
Car plates | ΒΙ |
Website | www |
Boeotia (.
Boeotia was also a region of ancient Greece, from before the 6th century BC.
Geography
Boeotia lies to the north of the eastern part of the Gulf of Corinth. It also has a short coastline on the Gulf of Euboea. It bordered on Megaris (now West Attica) in the south, Attica in the southeast, Euboea in the northeast, Opuntian Locris (now part of Phthiotis) in the north and Phocis in the west.
The main mountain ranges of Boeotia are Mount Parnassus in the west, Mount Helicon in the southwest, Cithaeron in the south and Parnitha in the east. Its longest river, the Cephissus, flows in the central part, where most of the low-lying areas of Boeotia are found.
Lake Copais was a large lake in the center of Boeotia. It was drained in the 19th century. Lake Yliki is a large lake near Thebes.
Origins
The origin of the name "Boeotians" may lie in the mountain
The earliest inhabitants of Boeotia, associated with the city of
Some toponyms and the common
Although they included great men such as Pindar, Hesiod, Epaminondas, Pelopidas, and Plutarch, the Boeotian people were portrayed as proverbially dull by the Athenians (cf. Boeotian ears incapable of appreciating music or poetry and Hog-Boeotians, Cratinus.310).[8]
Legends and literature
Many ancient Greek legends originated or are set in this region. The older myths took their final form during the
Important legends related to Boeotia include:
- Eros, worshiped by a fertility cult in Thespiae
- The Muses of Mount Helicon
- Ogyges and the Ogygian deluge
- Cadmus, who was said to have founded Thebes and brought the alphabet to Greece
- Dionysus and Semele
- Narcissus
- Heracles, who was born in Thebes
- The Theban Cycle, including the myths of Oedipus and the Sphinx, and the Seven against Thebes
- Antiope and her sons Amphion and Zethus
- Niobe
- Orion, who was born in Boeotia and said to have fathered 50 sons with the daughters of a local river god.
Many of these legends were used in plays by the tragic Greek poets, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides:
- Aeschylus's Seven Against Thebes
- Sophocles's Antigone, known as the Theban plays
- Euripides's Phoenician Women, Suppliants, and Heracles
They were also used in lost plays such as Aeschylus's Niobe and Euripides's Antiope.
Boeotia was also notable for the ancient oracular shrine of Trophonius at
The major poets Hesiod and Pindar were Boeotians. Nonetheless, the French use the term béotien ("Boeotian") to denote Philistinism.
History
Boeotia had significant political importance, owing to its position on the north shore of the Gulf of Corinth, the strategic strength of its frontiers, and the ease of communication within its extensive area. On the other hand, the lack of good harbours hindered its maritime development.
The importance of the legendary
In historical times, the leading city of Boeotia was Thebes, whose central position and military strength made it a suitable capital;[9] other major towns were Orchomenus, Plataea, and Thespiae. It was the constant ambition of the Thebans to absorb the other townships into a single state, just as Athens had annexed the Attic communities. But the outlying cities successfully resisted this policy, and only allowed the formation of a loose federation that, initially, was merely religious.[9]
While the Boeotians, unlike the
Previous to this, its people are chiefly known as the makers of a type of geometric pottery, similar to the
The Works and Days by Hesiod is often used by economists and historians alike to provide invaluable evidence for the Boetian economic system and its developments in the Homeric Age. In the poem Hesiod, who lived in Boeotia, describes the beginnings of a modern economy, with the use of artisans to 'do the technical work in making his plow and wagon' and the beginnings of sea commerce and its increasing importance in the economic life of Greece.[10]
Emigration of the Boeotians
According to myth, the Boeotians (
Boeotians were expelled from Thessaly after the Trojan war although there are three traditions which disagree on how expulsion played out.[citation needed] One tradition says that the Boiotoi were expelled by the Thessalians who were led by Thessalus, son of Aiatus, son of Pheidippus, son of another Thessalus. Pheidippus appears in the Catalogue of ships as one of the commanders of the force from Cos and Carpathus. He was thought to have been driven to Epirus after the war and to have settled at Ephyra in the Thesprotid. Hence the Boiotoi were expelled two generations after the Trojan War. Hellanicus is probably the source of this tradition, and the source of Thucydides' "sixtieth year," that is, two generations of thirty years. A second tradition puts the expulsion of the Boiotoi in the reign of Aiatus, one generation after the War. To this should also belong the story in Plutarch, which tells how Opheltas king of the Boiotoi took Chaeronea "by force from the barbarians." Opheltas is the son of Peneleus, one of the leaders of the Boeotian contingent in the Catalogue, and living one generation after the war. It is not until the reign of Damasichthon, son of Opheltas, that control of Thebes was gained by the Boiotoi. Hence in this tradition one generation after the war, the Boiotoi were expelled and western Boeotia was invaded; two generations after the war, Thebes was won. A third tradition combines the other two: the two generations until the expulsion from Thessaly after the War and the two generations until Thebes is gained give the four generations cited by Hieronymus in his tale of the Cadmean return to Thebes after the war.[citation needed]
The entry-point to Boeotia by Boeotians seems to be put in the same general area by all traditions. The second tradition gives
Fifth century BC
During the
In the
Boeotian League
According to the Hellenica Oxyrhynchia, in 395 BC the Boeotian League comprised eleven groups of sovereign cities and associated townships, each of which elected one Boeotarch or minister of war and foreign affairs, contributed sixty delegates to the federal council at Thebes, and supplied a contingent of about 1000 infantry and 100 cavalry to the federal army. A safeguard against undue encroachment on the part of the central government was provided in the councils of the individual cities, to which all important questions of policy had to be submitted for ratification. These local councils, to which the propertied classes alone were eligible, were subdivided into four sections, resembling the prytaneis of the Athenian council, which took it in turns to vote on all new measures.[9][13]
Two Boeotarchs were provided by Thebes, but by 395 BC Thebes was providing four Boeotarchs, including two who had represented places now conquered by Thebes such as Plataea,
The total military force of the Boiotian League (11,000 infantry and 1,100 cavalry) has been used as the basis for a number of calculations of the population of the region in the early fourth century BC.
Fourth century BC
Boeotia took a prominent part in the Corinthian War against Sparta, especially in the battles of Haliartus and Coronea (395–394 BC). This change of policy was mainly due to the popular resentment against foreign interference. Yet disaffection against Thebes was now growing rife, and Sparta fostered this feeling by insisting on the complete independence of all the cities in the Peace of Antaclidas (387 BC). In 374 BC, Pelopidas restored Theban dominance.[9] Boeotian contingents fought in all the campaigns of Epaminondas against the Spartans, most notably at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC, and in the Third Sacred War against Phocis (356–346 BC); while in the dealings with Philip of Macedon the cities merely followed Thebes.
The federal constitution was also brought into accord with the democratic governments now prevalent throughout the land. Sovereign power was vested in the popular assembly, which elected the Boeotarchs (between seven and twelve in number), and sanctioned all laws. After the Battle of Chaeroneia, in which the Boeotian heavy infantry once again distinguished itself, the land never again rose to prosperity.[9]
Hellenistic period
The destruction of Thebes by
Middle Ages and later
Save for a short period of prosperity under the Frankish rulers of Athens (1205–1310), who repaired the underground drainage channels (καταβόθρα katavóthra) of Lake Kopais and fostered agriculture, Boeotia long continued in a state of decay, aggravated by occasional barbarian incursions. The first step toward the country's recovery was not until 1895, when the drainage channels of Kopais were again put into working order.
Archaeological sites
In 1880–86,
Administration
The regional unit Boeotia is subdivided into 6 municipalities. These are (number as in the map in the infobox):[17]
- Aliartos (2)
- Distomo-Arachova-Antikyra (3)
- Livadeia (1)
- Orchomenos (5)
- Tanagra (6)
- Thebes (Thiva, 4)
Prefecture
Boeotia was created as a prefecture in 1836 (Greek: Διοίκησις Βοιωτίας), again in 1899 (Νομός Βοιωτίας) and again in 1943; in all cases it was split from Attica and Boeotia Prefecture. As a part of the 2011 Kallikratis government reform, the regional unit Boeotia was created out of the former prefecture Boeotia. The prefecture had the same territory as the present regional unit. At the same time, the municipalities were reorganised, according to the table below.[17]
New municipality | Old municipalities & communities | Seat |
---|---|---|
Aliartos | Aliartos | Aliartos |
Thespies | ||
Distomo-Arachova-Antikyra | Distomo | Distomo |
Arachova | ||
Antikyra | ||
Livadeia | Livadeia | Livadeia |
Davleia | ||
Koroneia | ||
Kyriaki | ||
Chaironeia
| ||
Orchomenus | Orchomenus | Orchomenus |
Akraifnia | ||
Tanagra | Tanagra | Schimatari |
Dervenochoria | ||
Oinofyta | ||
Schimatari | ||
Thebes (Thiva) | Thebes | Thebes |
Vagia | ||
Thisvi | ||
Plataies |
Provinces
The provinces were:
Economy
Boeotia is the home of the third largest
Transport
- Greek National Road 1/E75, SE, E, NE
- Greek National Road 3, S, E, Cen., W, NW
- Greek National Road 27, W, SW
- Greek National Road 44, E
- Greek National Road 48, W
Natives of Boeotia
- Bakis
- Brachyllas
- Corinna
- Epaminondas
- Gorgidas
- Hesiod
- Luke the Evangelist (traditionally location of his death)
- Pelopidas
- Pindar
- Plutarch
- Scamander of Boeotia
See also
References
- ISBN 9783110111033.
- ^ Pausanias.Description of Greece 7.3.6
- ^ Bibliotheke 2.4.11 records the origin of the Theban tribute as recompense for the mortal wounding of Clymenus, king of the Minyans, with a cast of a stone by a charioteer of Menoeceus in the precinct of Poseidon at Onchestus; the myth is also reported by Diodorus Siculus, 4.10.3.
- ^ Cambitoglou & Descœudres 1990, p. 7 under "Excavations in the Region of Pylos" by George S. Korrés.
- ISBN 0-510-03271-0
- ^ The Parian marble. Entry No 5: "When Amphictyon son of Hellen became king of Thermopylae brought together those living round the temple and named them Amphictyones; Entry No 6: Graeces-Hellenes [1] Archived 23 August 2017 at the Wayback Machine
- ISBN 0-510-03271-0
- ^ The Merriam-Webster New Book of Word Histories, Merriam-Webster, 1 Jan 1991, p.360
- ^ a b c d e f g public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Boeotia". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 114–115. This cites as authorities:
- Thucydides iv. 76-101
- Xenophon, Hellenica, iii.-vii.
- Strabo, pp. 400-412
- Pausanias ix.
- Theopompus (or Cratippus) in the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, vol v. (London, 1908, No. 842, col 12
- W. M. Leake, Travels in Northern Greece, chs. xi.-xix. (London, 1835)
- H. F. Tozer, Geography of Greece (London, 1873), pp. 233-238
- W. Rhys Roberts, The Ancient Boeotians (Cambridge, 1895)
- E. A. Freeman Federal Government (ed. 1893, London), ch. iv. § 2
- B. V. Head, Historia Nomorum, pp. 291 sqq. (Oxford, 1887)
- W. Larfeld, Sylloge Inscriptionum Boeoticarum (Berlin, 1883). (See also Thebes.)
- S2CID 161121733.
- ISBN 0-88864-051-X.
- ^ Fine, John VA (1983). The Ancient Greeks: A Critical History. Harvard University Press. pp. 354–355.
- ^ Thucydides (v. 38), in speaking of the "four councils of the Boeotians," is referring to the plenary bodies in the various states. (Chisholm 1911)
- ^ Nick Sekunda, The Ancient Greeks, p.27
- ^ Bintliff 1985, 141-43.
- ISBN 9780826216670.
- ^ a b "ΦΕΚ A 87/2010, Kallikratis reform law text" (in Greek). Government Gazette.
- ^ "Καλώς ήρθατε στην MISKO". Archived from the original on 5 October 2010. Retrieved 3 October 2010.
Sources
- Cambitoglou, Alexander; Descœudres, Jean-Paul (1990). Eumousia: Ceramic and Iconographic Studies in Honour of Alexander Cambitoglou. Sydney, Australia: Meditarch. ISBN 0-909797-17-X.
- Victor Davis Hanson (1999). The Soul of Battle. New York: Simon & Schuster.
- Larson, Stephanie L. Tales of epic ancestry: Boiotian collective identity in the late archaic and early classical periods (Historia Einzelschriften, 197). Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2007. 238 p.
External links
- "Boeotia digital cultural encyclopedia". Foundation of the Hellenic World. Archived from the original on 29 June 2012. Retrieved 9 July 2012.