IKARIA
Attica, Greece.
On the N side of
Mt. Pendeli, in a valley between it and the peak Stamatovouni farther N, lies the village of Dionyso, just E of
which are the remains of the public center of the deme
of Ikaria (or Ikarion), the reputed home of both drama
and Thespis (Ath. 2.40 and Suidas, s.v.
Θέσπις), the
identification made certain by the discovery of several
deme decrees.
The excavated area is small, and most of the remains
are tenuous. But one can make out an open area, the
agora, with public buildings—one a pythion—and monuments grouped about. To the S of the agora is a small
theater, its rectangular orchestra limited on one side
by five stone prohedriai and bases for stelai, and on
the other by a terrace. These austere arrangements may
belong to the 4th c. B.C., or possibly earlier because an
inscription of the 5th c. B.C. (
IG 1
2 186-87) attests the
existence at that time in Ikaria of organized festivals.
Further associations with Dionysos can be seen, not only
in the name of the village, but in two archaic marble
sculptures—a mask and a seated figure of the god, both
from the excavated area.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
C. D. Buck, “Discoveries in the Attic
Deme of Ikaria in 1888,”
AJA 4 (1888) 421-26; 5
(1889) 9-33, 154-81, 304-19, 461-77; W. Wrede, “Der
Maskengott,”
AM 43 (1928) 67-70; O.A.W. Dilke, “Details and Chronology of Greek Theatre Caveas,”
BSA
45 (1950) 30-31.
C.W.J. ELIOT
