Pheneus
Pheneus is mentioned by Homer in the Catalogue of Ships in the Iliad, and was more celebrated in mythical than in historical times. Virgil represents it as the residence of Evander; and its celebrity in mythical times is indicated by its connection with Heracles. Pausanias found the city in a state of complete decay. The acropolis contained a ruined temple of Athena Tritonia, with a brazen statue of Poseidon Hippius. On the descent from the acropolis was the stadium; and on a neighbouring hill, the sepulchre of Iphicles, the brother of Heracles. There was also a temple of Hermes, who was the principal deity of the city.
The lower slope of the mountain, upon which the remains of Pheneus stand, is occupied by a village now called Archaia Feneos. There is, however, some difficulty in the description of Pausanias compared with the existing site. Pausanias says that the acropolis was precipitous on every side, and that only a small part of it was artificially fortified; but the summit of the insulated hill, upon which the remains of Pheneus are found, is too small apparently for the acropolis of such an important city, and moreover it has a regular slope, though a very rugged surface. Hence Leake supposes that the whole of this hill formed the acropolis of Pheneus, and that the lower town was in a part of the subjacent plain; but the entire hill is not of that precipitous kind which the description of Pausanias would lead one to suppose, and it is not impossible that the acropolis may have been on some other height in the neighbourhood, and that the hill on which the ancient remains are found may have been part of the lower city.
There were several roads from Pheneus to the surrounding towns. Of these the northern road to Achaea ran through the Pheneatic plain. Upon this road, at the distance of 15 stadia from the city, was a temple of Apollo Pythius, which was in ruins in the time of Pausanias. A little above the temple the road divided, the one to the left leading across Mount Crathis to Aegeira, and the other to the right running to Pellene: the boundaries of Aegeira and Pheneus were marked by a temple of Artemis Pyronia, and those of Pellene and Pheneus by that which is called Porinas (ὁ καλούμενος Πωρ́ινας), supposed by Leake to be a river, but by Ernst Curtius a rock.
Pausanias describes the two roads which led westward from Pheneus around a mountain – that to the right or northwest leading to Nonacris and the supposed river Styx, and that to the left to Cleitor. Nonacris was in the territory of Pheneus. The road to Cleitor ran at first along the canal of Heracles, and then crossed the mountain, which formed the natural boundary between the Pheneatis and Cleitoria, close to the village of Lycuria. On the other side of the mountain the road passed by the sources of the river Ladon. This mountain, from which the Ladon springs, was called Penteleia (Πεντελεία). The fortress, named Penteleium (Πεντέλειον), which Plutarch says was near Pheneus, must have been situated upon this mountain.
The southern road from Pheneus led to Orchomenus, and was the way by which Pausanias came to the former city. The road passed from the Orchomenian plain to that of Pheneus through a narrow ravine (φάραγξ); in the middle of which was a fountain of water, and at the further extremity the village of Caryae. The mountains on either side were named Oryxis (Ὄρυξις), and Sciathis (Σκίαθις), and at the foot of either was a subterraneous channel, which carried off the water from the plain. The eastern road from Pheneus led to Stymphalus, across Mount Geronteium, which formed the boundary between the territories of the two cities.
To the left of Mt. Geronteium near the road was a mountain called Tricrena (Τρίκρηνα), or the three fountains; and near the latter was another mountain called Sepia (Σηπία), where Aepytus is said to have perished from the bite of a snake.
Its site is located near the modern Archaia Feneos, formerly Kalyvia, in the municipal unit of Feneos.
References
- ^ Homer. Iliad. Vol. 2.605.
- ^ Stephanus of Byzantium. Ethnica. Vol. s.v.
- ^ Pausanias (1918). "14.3". Description of Greece. Vol. 8. Translated by W. H. S. Jones; H. A. Ormerod. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann – via Perseus Digital Library.
- ^ Alciphr. 3.48
- ^ So in Polybius
- ^ Catull. 68.109.
- ^ Pausanias (1918). "14.1". Description of Greece. Vol. 8. Translated by W. H. S. Jones; H. A. Ormerod. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann – via Perseus Digital Library.
- ^ Pliny. Naturalis Historia. Vol. 31.5.30.
- ^ Strabo. Geographica. Vol. viii. p.389. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
- ^ Theophr. Hist. Plant. 3.1; Diodorus Siculus. Bibliotheca historica (Historical Library). Vol. 15.49.
- ^ Virgil. Aeneid. Vol. 8.165.
- ^ Pausanias (1918). "14.4". Description of Greece. Vol. 8. Translated by W. H. S. Jones; H. A. Ormerod. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann – via Perseus Digital Library., et seq.
- ^ Pausanias (1918). "15.5". Description of Greece. Vol. 8. Translated by W. H. S. Jones; H. A. Ormerod. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann – via Perseus Digital Library.-9.
- ^ Pausanias (1918). "17.6". Description of Greece. Vol. 8. Translated by W. H. S. Jones; H. A. Ormerod. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann – via Perseus Digital Library.
- ^ Pausanias (1918). "19.4". Description of Greece. Vol. 8. Translated by W. H. S. Jones; H. A. Ormerod. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann – via Perseus Digital Library., 8.20.1.
- ^ Hesych. and Phot. s.v.
- ^ Plutarch, Arat. 39, Cleom. 17.
- ^ Pausanias (1918). "13.6". Description of Greece. Vol. 8. Translated by W. H. S. Jones; H. A. Ormerod. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann – via Perseus Digital Library., 8.14.1.
- ^ Pausanias (1918). "16.1". Description of Greece. Vol. 8. Translated by W. H. S. Jones; H. A. Ormerod. Cambridge, Massachusetts; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann – via Perseus Digital Library.-2.
- ^ Richard Talbert, ed. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. p. 58, and directory notes accompanying. ISBN 978-0-691-03169-9.
- ^ Lund University. Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Pheneus". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.