AIGION
(mediaeval Vostitsa) Achaia, Greece.
Lies some 45 km E of Patras and 96.5 km NE of
Corinth. Inhabited from very earliest antiquity, it was
formed of the synoecism of seven or eight earlier cities
(Strab 8.3.2), and was, according to Homer (
Il. 2.574),
a part of the domain of Agamemnon in heroic times.
During the Classical period it was reckoned one of the
twelve cities of Achaia (
Hdt. 1.145), and, at least after
the destruction of Helike (
Strab. 8.7.2) in 373, it became the meeting place of the Achaian League, a position it held at least until the time of Pausanias (
7.24.4). Its importance declined after the Augustan period when
Patrai became the chief city of the area.
The modern city is built over the ancient and has
largely obliterated any traces of ancient remains. Pausanias (
7.22.5-24.4) mentions a number of sanctuaries,
of which no traces remain in situ. It is possible that
some architectural members of some of these buildings
have been found built into a later building of Roman
times located near the old reservoir and N along Solomos St. The Classical cemetery was located NW of the
reservoir, while the Mycenaean necropolis with a number of chamber tombs lies N of the gymnasium in the
embankment of the main highway. Finds, mainly pottery and minor objects from Mycenaean and Hellenistic
tombs and buildings, have, since 1954, been housed in
a local apotheke and in the Patras Museum.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
C. Yalouris,
Praktika (1954) 287-90;
A. Stauropoulos,
Historia tis poleos Aigiou (1954); P.
Åström, “Mycenaean Pottery from the Region of Aigion
with a List of Prehistoric Sites in Achaea,”
Op. Ath. 5
(1964) 89-110;
Deltion 26 (1971) 175-85; Photios
Petsas,
AAA 5 (1972) 496-502; A. J. Pappadopoulos,
The Archaeology of the Mycenaean Achaea, forthcoming.
W. F. WYATT, JR.
