The Amphiareion of Oropos ( Greek : Άμφιάρειο Ωρωπού ), situated in the hills 6 km southeast of the fortified port of Oropos , was a sanctuary dedicated in the late 5th century BCE to the hero Amphiaraos , where pilgrims went to seek oracular responses and healing. It became particularly successful during the 4th century BCE, to judge from the intensive building at the site. The hero Amphiaraos was a descendant of the seer Melampos and initially refused to participate in the attack on Thebes (detailed in the Seven Against Thebes of Aeschylus ) because he could foresee that it would be a disaster. In some versions of the myth, the earth opens and swallows the chariot of Amphiaraos, transforming him into a chthonic hero. Today the site is found east of the modern town Markopoulo Oropou in the Oropos municipality of Attica , Greece .
23-463: The sanctuary is located 37.2 km NNE of Athens at a sacred spring; it contained a temple of Amphiaraos (with an acrolithic cult statue ), as well as a theater, stoa , and associated structures. The temenos extended for some 240 metres northeast from the Temple of Amphiaraos (hence Amphiareion ) along a streambed. The cult, which was both public and private, dates to the 5th century BCE. There
46-465: A hippodrome are unknown. The early 4th-century BCE temple of Amphiaraos was of an unusual Doric hexastyle in antis plan: i.e. it had six columns across the front façade between small projecting walls. The antae were capped with half columns, giving the appearance of an octastyle façade. It measures 14 by 28 m (46 by 92 ft) Behind the columns was a pronaos , leading into a cella with two rows of five unfluted internal columns. Alongside
69-479: A chorus". Usually the first choral song of the drama, the parodos typically follows the play's prologue . It is an important part as it defined the chorus, provide information about the plot, and assist or fight the protagonist. In Greek comedy, the parodos is considered the climactic moment. The parodos is highly commemorated in Athenian artifacts that show choral performance. This theatre -related article
92-413: A flight of steps leads down to a narrow service area that allows access to the lower wall of the reservoir, where a small bronze outflow valve is inserted into a hemispherical depression just above the bottom of the tank on the northwest side. The water in the reservoir flowed out slowly through the narrow opening in the valve (c. 00.0026 m in diameter), and as the water level fell, the calibrated markings on
115-404: A ram and spread out its skin under themselves, lie down waiting for the revelation of a dream. Description of Greece 1.34.5 An inscription from the site, however, states that each man may sacrifice what he wants. Some variation in practice during the nine centuries of cult activity at the sanctuary may be expected. The baths of the site were famous in antiquity. The locations of a stadion and
138-425: A scale above the tank (no longer preserved) indicated the passing of the hours. In order to compensate for the decreasing rate of flow caused by the lessening of the water pressure as the tank emptied, the walls of the reservoir slope inward slightly toward the bottom, so that the speed with which the water level changed remained more or less stable even as the flow slowed. A very similar klepsydra , perhaps designed by
161-441: Is a side-entrance to the stage, or the first song that is sung by the chorus at the beginning of a Greek tragedy . The parodos is a large passageway affording access either to the stage (for actors) or to the orchestra (for the chorus ) of the ancient Greek theater. The parodoi can be distinguished from the entrances to the stage from the skene , or stage building, as the two parodoi are long ramps located on either side of
184-462: Is well preserved and thus important for the study of theater design. The theater would have held approximately three hundred spectators. Dating to the mid-4th century BCE, the stoa measured 11 by 110 m with 39 exterior Doric columns and 17 internal Ionic columns. There were stone benches set into the back walls of the structure, perhaps where the suppliants of the god slept and awaited their dreams. The sexes may have been segregated as may have been
207-549: The 2nd century CE, the Greek periegetic writer Pausanias stated: I think that Amphiaraos most of all dedicated himself to interpreting dreams: it is clear that, when he was considered a god, he set up an oracle of dreams. And the first thing is to purify oneself, when someone comes to consult Amphiaraos , and the purification ritual is to sacrifice to the god, and people sacrifice to him and to all those whose names are on (the altar), and - when these things are finished – they sacrifice
230-525: The Amphiareion, in addition to the presumed annual festival, Greater Amphiareia were celebrated in an agonistic festival of athletic games, every fifth year. Two reliefs of the late 5th-early 4th century BCE seem to provide the earliest attestations of the festival games; there is an inscribed catalogue of victors at the Greater Amphiareia that dates before 338 BCE. Amphiaraos was also worshipped at
253-415: The altar was dedicated to five groups: Wrapping around the altar on the west side is a stepped structure that may have served as an early theatral area before the construction of the theater. Immediately to the east is the sacred spring, where Pausanias says worshipers threw coins when they were healed of a disease. Immediately northeast of the spring is the structure traditionally called the men's bath. To
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#1732848442966276-512: The best known example being the Athene Areia ("Warlike Athena") of the Plataeans . It was common practice in antiquity to drape statues with clothing. "If such statues were draped, only the visible areas of the body, the head, feet and hands needed to be rendered in an attractive material, namely stone. If the statue was not dressed, the wooden part of the body was gilded." "This type of statue
299-422: The case for the bath to the northeast of the stoa, which is traditionally called the women's bath. On the southeast side of the streambed opposite the sacred spring are the remains of an unusually well-preserved klepsydra , or water clock , dating to the 4th century B.C. The structure consists of a square central reservoir nearly 2 m. in height, coated on the inside with a thin layer of waterproof cement. Outside,
322-483: The northeast of the temple was a line of dedications of statuary, of which the bases ( illustration, right ) have largely survived; the avenue stretched for around 70 m (230 ft) along the road into the sanctuary. Among the more notable dedications, all of the Roman era: There are also the remains of a small temple at the southwest extremity of this area. The theatre is dated to the 2nd century BCE by inscriptions and
345-514: The same man, was constructed on the south side of the agora in Athens at about the same date. *Not included the most parts of Athens urban area Acrolith An acrolith is a composite sculpture made of stone together with other materials such as wood or inferior stone such as limestone , as in the case of a figure whose clothed parts are made of wood, while the exposed flesh parts such as head, hands, and feet are made of marble. The wood
368-423: The seating area was likely composed of wooden seats on stone supports. Five marble prohedria (seat of honor at the front of the seating area) were discovered placed around the orchestra, which had a radius of 12.4 m. Two parodoi (side entryways) led off from the orchestra between the seating area of the cavea and the stage building. The Doric order proscaenium of the stage structure (c. 12 m wide)
391-452: The second pair of columns back from the pronaos there was a base for the acrolithic cult statue of Amphiaraos of which one arm remains in situ . In the rear wall of the cella, there was a threshold, perhaps a later addition. On axis with the center line of the temple, and about 10.5 m (34 ft) northeast, are the remains of the altar divided into sections with inscriptions to a number of gods and heroes. Pausanias (1.34.3) says that
414-451: The site is about 154 m in elevation, with a gentle slope to the northeast, as it fills the northwest bank of a small ravine between two hills. The sanctuary was located near the border of Attica and Boiotia, the respective spheres of control of Athens and Thebes; control over the site passed back and forth between the rival cities until Alexander the Great destroyed Thebes in 335 BCE. In
437-504: The site of Rhamnous about 17.5 km southeast, as well as at Athens, Argos, Sparta, and other sites. The cult at the Amphiareion came to an end with the outlawing of non-Christian worship in the Theodosian decrees at the end of the 4th century CE. In 414 BCE, Aristophanes produced a comedy, Amphiaraos , of which fragments survive as quotations. At the Temple of Amphiaraos ,
460-431: The stage, between the skene and the theatron , or audience seating area. The term eisodos ('way in') is also used. Scholars note that eisodos was an older term for the passageway while parodos was widely used by writers from Aristotle onwards. Parodos also refers to the ode sung by the chorus as it enters and occupies its place in the orchestra. Aristotle defined it as "the first whole utterance of
483-564: Was an upswing in the sanctuary's reputation as a healing site during the plague that hit Athens in the late 5th BCE. Herodotus relates that the oracular response of this shrine was one of only two correct answers to the test put to them all by the Lydian king Croesus . There were many dedications from Greeks, notable Romans, and others, many with inscriptions. On the southeast side of the streambed there are extensive remains of domestic structures as well as an unusually well-preserved clepsydra . At
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#1732848442966506-455: Was covered either by drapery or by gilding. This type of statuary was common and widespread in Classical antiquity . Greek etymology : acros and lithos , English translation : "extremity" and "stone". Similarly, chryselephantine sculpture used ivory instead of marble, and often gold on parts of the body and ornaments. Acroliths are frequently mentioned by Pausanias (2nd century AD),
529-417: Was produced where cost and availability of materials were factors. In areas where there were no native sources, marble was costly since it had to be imported and was therefore reserved for the principal or visible parts of a figure that represented flesh." Parodos A parodos (also parode and parodus ; Ancient Greek : πάροδος , 'entrance', plural parodoi ), in the theater of ancient Greece ,
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