Psophis ( Ancient Greek : Ψωφίς , Eth. Ψωφίδιος ) was an ancient Greek city in the northwest end of Arcadia , bounded on the north by Arcadia, and on the west by Elis . It was located near the modern village Psofida , part of the municipality Kalavryta .
19-496: Psophis was said to have been originally called Erymanthus, and its territory to have been ravaged by the Erymanthian Boar . It afterwards received the name of Phegia or Phegeia ( Φηγία or Φήγεια ), apparently from the oaks ( Gr. phegoi , φηγοί ) which at least up until the 19th century could still be found upon the site of the town. The ancients, as usual, derived the name from an eponymous founder, Phegeus . The city
38-557: A well-placed citadel. The town itself also is provided with walls, remarkable for their size and construction. About 300 feet below the junction of the two rivers the united stream is joined by a third, smaller river, called the Lopesi , or Skupi , which rises on the frontiers of Cleitor near Seirae. From these three rivers the place is now called Tripotama . The banks of the Erymanthus are precipitous, but not very high; and between them and
57-414: Is a source of water in the bank. He conjectured that they may be the remains of the temple of Erymanthus. Psophis was about two miles in circumference. The town walls followed the crest of the ridge to the north, and the bank above the two rivers on the opposite side; and at least up through the 19th century they were traceable nearly throughout the entire circuit of the place. On the north-eastern side of
76-518: Is situated in the central parts of the Peloponnese , in the western corner of Arcadia, and adjoining the Achaeans dwelling furthest towards the west. Philip marched thither in three days from Caphyae , and camped upon the hills opposite the city. When [he] observed the strength of the place, he was at a loss. On the western side of the town there is a rapid torrent, impassable during the greater part of
95-497: The Erymanthian boar ( Greek : ὁ Ἐρυμάνθιος κάπρος; Latin : aper Erymanthius ) was a mythical creature that took the form of a "shaggy and wild" "tameless" "boar" "of vast weight" "and foaming jaws". It was a Tegeaean , Maenalusian or Erymanthian boar that lived in the "glens of Lampeia " beside the "vast marsh of Erymanthus". It would sally from the "thick-wooded", "cypress-bearing" "heights of Erymanthus" to "harry
114-778: The Mistress of the Animals , for in classical times it remained the haunt of Artemis ( Homer , Odyssey , VI.105). A boar was a dangerous animal: "When the goddess turned a wrathful countenance upon a country, as in the story of Meleager , she would send a raging boar, which laid waste the farmers' fields." Chronological listing of classical literature sources for the Erymanthian boar: Greek Mountain Flora Stadia (length) The stadion (plural stadia , Ancient Greek : στάδιον ; latinized as stadium ), also anglicized as stade ,
133-465: The Opici , profess that the boar's tusks which are preserved in the sanctuary of Apollo at Cumae are the tusks of the Erymanthian boar, but the assertion is without a shred of probability." In the primitive highlands of Arcadia , where old practices lingered, the Erymanthian boar was a giant fear-inspiring creature of the wilds that lived on Mount Erymanthos , a mountain that was apparently once sacred to
152-606: The Psophidians took part in the second expedition against Thebes , and refused to join the other Greeks in the Trojan War . Psophis is rarely mentioned in history. In 219 BC, it was in the possession of the Eleians , and was taken by Philip V of Macedon , who was then in alliance with the Achaeans . In narrating this event, Polybius gives a detailed description of the town: Psophis ...
171-452: The dust", and returning with the boar on "his left shoulder", "staining his back with blood from the stricken wound", he cast it down in the "entrance to the assembly of the Mycenaeans", thus completing his fourth labour. "When the king [Eurystheus] saw him carrying the boar on his shoulders, he was terrified and hid himself in a bronze vessel." "The inhabitants of Cumae , in the land of
190-465: The groves of Arcady " and "abuse the land of Psophis ". The fourth labour of Heracles was to bring the Erymanthian boar alive to Eurystheus in Mycenae . To capture the boar, Heracles first "chased the boar with shouts" and thereby routed it from a "certain thicket" and then "drove the exhausted animal into deep snow." He then "trapped it", bound it in chains, and lifted it, still "breathing from
209-524: The left bank of the Ladon River , near which was the grove Aphrodisium, after which came a column with an ancient inscription upon it, marking the boundaries of Psophis and Thelpusa. Aglaus , a peasant found in mythology, was from Psophis. [REDACTED] Media related to Psophis at Wikimedia Commons 37°52′18″N 21°53′34″E / 37.8717°N 21.8929°E / 37.8717; 21.8929 Erymanthian Boar In Greek mythology ,
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#1732854614508228-413: The length of the stadion was made by Lev Vasilevich Firsov, who compared 81 distances given by Eratosthenes and Strabo with the straight-line distances measured by modern methods, and averaged the results. He obtained a result of about 157.7 metres (172.5 yd). Various equivalent lengths have been proposed, and some have been named. Among them are: Which measure of the stadion is used can affect
247-560: The narrow space between the river and the walls. While the Macedonians were attempting to scale the walls in three separate parties, the Eleians made a sally from the gate in the upper part of the town. Euripidas and the garrison then retreated into the Citadel of Zakynthos , and shortly afterwards surrendered to Philip. In the 2nd century, Pausanias saw at Psophis a ruined temple of Aphrodite Erycina , heroa of Echephron and Promachus ,
266-431: The steep summit of the hill upon which the town stood there is a small space of level or gently-rising ground. The summit is a sharp ridge, sending forth two roots, one of which descends nearly to the angle of junction of the two streams, the other almost to the bank of the Erymanthus at the eastern extremity of the city. Philip , in his attack on Psophis, crossed the bridge over the Erymanthus, and then drew up his men in
285-462: The tomb of Alcmaeon , and near the Erymanthus a temple sacred to that stream. In the early 19th century, William Martin Leake also noticed a part of a theatre unmentioned by Pausanias, on the side of a hill. Nine hundred feet upstream from the junction of the two rivers, and near the walls on the bank of the Erymanthus, Leake also found some remains of a public building, 96 feet in length, below which there
304-598: The town, which is the only part not protected by the two rivers or by the precipices at the back of the hill, there was a double enclosure surrounding the citadel, although this has since entirely disappeared. At a distance of 30 stadia (roughly 3.4 miles) from Psophis was the Seirai ( Σείραι ), which Pausanias describes as the boundary of the Psophians and the Clitorians . On the road from Psophis to Thelpusa lay Tropaea, upon
323-462: The winter, and which ... makes the city exceedingly strong and inaccessible. On the eastern side flows the Erymanthus , a large and impetuous river. As the western torrent joins the Erymanthus on the southern side of the city, its three sides are surrounded by rivers, and rendered secure. On the remaining side towards the north, a strong hill hangs over, surrounded by a wall, and serving the purpose of
342-521: Was an ancient Greek unit of length , consisting of 600 Ancient Greek feet ( podes ). Its exact length is unknown today; historians estimate it at between 150 m and 210 m. According to Herodotus , one stadium was equal to 600 Greek feet ( podes ). However, the length of the foot varied in different parts of the Greek world, and the length of the stadion has been the subject of argument and hypothesis for hundreds of years. An empirical determination of
361-474: Was said to have been renamed "Psophis" by Echephron and Promachus , two sons of Heracles , who are said to have come from Sicily , and who named the town after their mother, Psophis . The city, while still called "Phegia", was celebrated as the residence of Alcmaeon , who fled here from Argos after murdering his mother . Here Alcmaeon married Arsinoe or Alphesiboea in some versions), daughter of Phegeus. In consequence of their connection with Alcmaeon,
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