Ptoion
This article contains close paraphrasing of a non-free copyrighted source, Martin Fell, "Ptoion", in Der Neue Pauly (English version "Ptoum", in Brill's New Pauly), published online by Brill in 2006; also published in print format. (December 2022) |
Ptoion (
History of the Oracle of Apollo
The oracle of Apollo Ptoios was located three kilometres northeast of Akraiphia. Pausanias reports that it was originally an oracle of Ptoios, a local hero who was son of Athamas and Themisto, but that he was displaced by Apollo.[1] The name Ptoios was also that of the mountain which loomed over the oracle and was borne by Apollo as a local epithet. The hero had his own small sanctuary on the Kastraki, about a kilometre west of the original location which shows archaeological signs of activity from the seventh century BC until the 4th.
On Mount Ptoios itself there are remains of a neolithic-
- But miracle reported by the Thebans is the greatest in my opinion. They say that, when Mys of Europos was going around all the oracles, he went to the sanctuary of Ptoios Apollo. This temple is called the Ptoion; it belongs to the Thebans and lies above Lake Copais by the mountain closest to the city of Akraiphia. When this man called Mys came to this temple, three townsmen chosen by the community came along to record what was foretold and at once the seer spoke in a Barbarian language. The Thebans were amazed at hearing a Barbarian language rather than Greek but did not know what this meant for the matter at hand. Mys of Europa, however, took the tablet they were carrying from them and wrote down the words of the prophet, declaring that he was speaking in Carian. He took what he had written with him and went away to Thessaly, where Mardonius was able to read it.[2]
This incident is also recorded by Pausanias.
According to a decree of the Delphic
In
Site of the Oracle
The sanctuary of Apollo lay on three terraces, supporting a Doric
Bibliography
- Siegfried Lauffer, "Ptoion", in Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft XXIII,2, cols. 1506–1578
- Albert Schachter, The Cults of Boiotia. Vol. 1, London 1981, pp. 52–73; Vol. 3, London 1994, pp. 11–21
References
External links
- Ptoion Sanctuary - Article by Barbara Paulmichl onAncient Boeotia hosted by Munich University.