CHALANDRI
(Phlya) Attica, Greece.
Once
a village, now part of the almost unbroken urban development from Athens to Kephissia (and beyond), Chalandri lies slightly N of the N limits of both Hymettos
and Tourkovouni, midway between them, and 4 km S
of Marousi, the ancient deme of Athmonon. Thus it once
occupied an important position in the Athenian plain
alongside roads leading N to Pendeli and E to the
Mesogaia. Many antiquities have been found in this
area, for example, graves from Late Classical and Hellenistic times, an archaistic relief of Dionysos, and a
Roman tomb of the 2d c. A.D., besides inscriptions and
reused architectural blocks. The tomb has its vaulting
intact, and, with the addition of an apse, now serves
as the Church of the Panagia Marmariotissa.
Despite the lack of more specific evidence, it seems
obvious that Chalandri has inherited the location of an
ancient village. Because it is known that the demes of
Athmonon and Phlya were in part contiguous (
IG II
2
2727.48-49), and because all the demes around Marousi
have been identified except to the S, scholars agree that
Chalandri must therefore be the site of Phlya. As such,
it possessed a telesterion restored by Themistokles (Plut.
Them. 1.3), had a tradition of mystic rites older than
those at Eleusis (Hippol.
Haer. 5.20), and was visited by
Pausanias (
1.34.1), who recorded several other cults.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. Meyer, “Phlya,”
RE Suppl. X (1965)
535-38.
C.W.J. ELIOT
