ALIPHEIRA
Arkadia, Greece.
The city farthest
W in the district of Kynouraioi at the border between
Arkadia and Triphylia, lying on a hill (683 m) about
two hours NW of Andritsaina, near the village of Rongkozio. It was named for Aliphon or Alipheiron, one of
the sons of Lykaon, the son of Pelasgos, the mythical
king of Arkadia. The first evidence of it relates to the
worship of Athena in the middle of the 6th c. Later, in
the 4th and 3d c., the city appears to have been joined
to the Arkadian League with the other Arkadian cities,
and was brought into the Megalopolitan Synoecism under
whose jurisdiction it remained until 244 B.C. when Lydiadas ceded it to the Eleians. After that the city began
to decline from the height of prosperity it had reached
ca. the beginning of the 3d c. B.C. Alipheira briefly resisted the advance of Philip V (219 B.C.). After the
Macedonian king had conquered it he installed a garrison: an inscription referring to it has been found. During the 2d c. it was one of the cities of the Achaian
League, but it continued to dwindle, and by Pausanias
time had become “a city of no size.” Remains of the
Christian period show the area was inhabited even later.
Excavations in 1932-35 uncovered the whole acropolis. The impressive fortification wall, well constructed of
polygonal or rectangular blocks with towers at intervals,
surrounds the steep slope of the hillside except for a
part of the precipitous region which remained unwalled.
Besides the circuit wall, the highest point of the hill
(“the heights”) is also fortified by a wall in the shape
of an irregular quadrangle. One tower is on the S side,
where the entrance is; others on the W face provide
greater strength and fortify the terrace where the Precinct of Athena is located. Here, on a lower level, a
terrace wall which is terminated by towers supports the
platform where the temple was built. The temple, which
is preserved to the stylobate, probably replaced an earlier one. It was Doric, peripteral (6 x 15 columns),
without pronaos or opisthodomos (dimensions at the
euthynteria are 10.65 x 29.60 m). It has the characteristics of an Arkadian temple, such as N-S orientation,
similar plan and height of columns, and similar tiles.
Its date—ca. the end of the 6th to the beginning of the
5th c—is indicated by its definitely archaic features.
Among these are the single step krepidoma with the
second step serving as the stylobate, the columns with
16 flutes and with drums of irregular heights, the annulets below the neck, the elliptical guttai on the mutules
of the geison, the alternating wide and narrow mutules
(0.432, 0.335 m), the difference in intercolumniation
between the long and short sides, the existence of angle
contraction in the temple, the number of the columns,
and the gorgon antefixes on the lowest cover tiles. The
shape of the capitals and the triglyphs are especially
indicative of a date of ca. 500-490 B.C.
Along the front of the temple were uncovered rectangular and triagonal bases belonging to dedicatory statues
as well as a long altar and the end of a large inscribed
statue base, apparently belonging to a colossal bronze
statue of Athena, the work of the Theban sculptor
Hypatodoros.
According to Pausanias, the Sanctuary of Asklepios
was located on the low area to the W of the acropolis.
The temple, which is a simple rectangular structure (5.75
x 9.30 m) with a pronaos in antis, has preserved on the
axis of the sanctuary the cubical base of an akrelephantine statue. Directly in front of the base. two lion-footed
slabs were used to support an offering table. The altar
of the temple was rectangular (2.18 x 5.36 m), parallel
to the front of the temple and to the E of it. The orthostates on the euthynteria are preserved, as are one of the
supporting blocks on each end, which bear a painted
rosette on one side and take the shape of a pediment.
The altar is dated to the end of the 4th c. B.C., while
the Temple of Asklepios dates ca. 300 B.C. A rectangular building to the SE of the altar with a peristyle of
unfluted columns was perhaps the healing area of the
Asklepieion. The trapezoidal peribolos of the sanctuary
was used in places as a part of the fortification wall of
Alipheira.
Remains of the city have been noted inside the fortification wall at a place forming the “suburb outside the
heights,” although it has been suggested that this was
a fortified strip extending to the SE of the acropolis.
Building foundations have also been found on the NE
side of the hill, where were the lower city and the
Fountain of Tritonis (Nerositsa). Finally, the necropolis extends around the E and W skirts of the hill. Among
the funerary monuments one is outstanding for its size
and interest. This is a heroon with a chamber dug in
the earth and rock of the hillside, intended for Sentheas
(or Santheas) according to the inscription on its front.
Four other heroa were found, all of them, like the first,
from the Hellenistic period. Tomb 5 differs from the
rest in architectural form.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. K. Orlandos,
Ἡ ἁρκαδικὴ Αλίφειρα, Πελοπννησιακαὶ ἀρχαιολογικαὶ ἔρευναι, Βιβλιοθήκη τῆς ἐν Αθήναις Ἀρχαιολογικῆς Ἑταιρείας, 58 (1967-68).
M. GAVRILI
