ORCHOMENOS
Boiotia, Greece.
One of the
oldest and richest cities of heroic Greece, situated close
by the village of Skripou (now Orchomenos) 13 km NE
of Levadhia, at the E end of Mt. Akontion, which
plunges like a javelin (whence its name) into the former
Lake Kopais.
Inhabited from Neolithic times, the site became one
of the most influential Mycenaean cities. It was the capital of the Minyans, a half-legendary people from the
Thessalian seaboard, and its authority spread over the
whole of the Kopaic basin and possibly as far as Thebes.
The legends that sprang up about it (the buildings of
Agamedes and Trophonios), its great engineering achievements (the first draining of the Kopais, erection of fortresses such as Gla), and its original pottery (the gray or yellow Minyan ware) all are proof that a brilliant civilization flourished there from the 15th to the 12th c. B.C.
Its place was gradually won over by Thebes and it joined
the Boiotian League in the 7th c. Allied with Sparta
against Thebes at Koroneia (395) and Haliartos (394),
it was destroyed by the Thebans in 364 B.C. Restored
by the Phokaians in 353, again destroyed by Thebes in
349 Orchomenos was rebuilt by Philip II and Alexander and became one of the leading cities of the Boiotian
League from 338 onward. Sulla fought Archelaos and
Mithridates' army there in 86 B.C. Under the Empire the
city rapidly fell into a decline.
The finds are divided between the Museum of Chaironeia and those of Thebes and Athens.
Throughout the centuries the different cities sprang
up at the E foot of Mt. Akontion and on its E and NE
slopes. On the E foothills of the hill Schliemann discovered the “Treasury of Minyas,” a Mycenaean cupola
tomb with a dromos. In the arched tholos is the gateway
to the funerary chamber. In the middle of the tholos are
the remains of a great funerary monument of the Macedonian period. The Mycenaean city extended from the
plain to the lowest terrace. A little to the N on remains
of a pre-Mycenaean or Mycenaean building (about 1700-1450) are the foundations of a temple of the Geometric
period. At the foot of the E slope of the acropolis, to the
NE of the Treasure of Minyas, the theater of Orchomenos, probably built at the end of the 4th c. B.C., has been recently excavated. Twelve rows of seats are preserved; proedria seats have nice relief decoration. A
number of bases of statues and of votive tripods have
been discovered.
Four hundred m to the W on a second, higher terrace,
a Temple of Asklepios was built in the Hellenistic period. A peripteral Doric structure (11.50 x 22 m, with
six columns in front and 11 on each side), it is surrounded by remains of Classical buildings. On the terraces farther W, stretching to the top of the hill, was the Hellenistic city built by Philip II and Alexander.
At the top, 230 m above the plain, is the acropolis; not
much more than a large square tower, it was built after
335 B.C. In front of it is a large cistern.
The ramparts match the growth of the city. The oldest
wall (7th c.), which is built around the bottom terrace,
is in a poor state of preservation; in some places its
masonry is polygonal, in others large blocks are arranged
in irregular courses. Starting from the terrace of the
Asklepieion, two ramparts, one to the N and the other
to the S, climb up the steep slope, moving gradually
closer together until they meet at the great tower on the
top of the hill, which they fortify. About 2 m thick on
an average, these walls have an outer facing in polygonal
masonry dating from the 4th c. B.C. There are three
gates, to the N and S and near the summit. Three transverse walls link the two outer ramparts: the first runs along the edge of the Asklepieion terrace to the E; the second, which has a square tower in the middle, overlooks
this terrace to the W, while the third marked the upper
city limit and the beginning of the hilltop fortress with
its citadel. The third wall is on a level with the N and
S gates.
At the N foot of the rocky spur below the Asklepieion
and the Chapel of Hagioi Anargyroi, is the chief spring
of the Melas river. This is the Akidalia or spring of the
Charites, who were especially venerated at Orchomenos
(the Charitesia festivals and contests). The Sanctuary
and Temple of the Charites probably stood where the
Convent of the Dormition (Kimisis tis Theotokou) is
today; its church, built in 874 A.D., is on the site of the
temple. Around the church are many inscriptions discovered at Orchomenos; the other inscribed stones have been removed to the Chaironeia and Thebes Museums.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
J. G. Frazer,
Paus. Des. Gr. (1898)
V 180-94; G. de Ridder in
BCH 19 (1895) 137ff; H.
Bulle & E. Kunze,
Orchomenos I-III
Abh. Bayrischen
Akademie 24 (1909); Neue Folge 5 (1931); 8 (1934);
P. Roesch,
Thespies et la Con fédération béotienne (1965); E. Kirsten & W. Kraiker,
Griechenlandkunde5
(1967) 211-15; N. Papahadjis,
Pausaniou Hellados
Periegesis V (1969) 203
MPI; R. Hope Simpson & J. F.
Lazenby,
The Catalogue of the Ships in Homer's Iliad
(1970) 38-39; Th. Spyropoulos,
AAA 6 (1973) 392-95
I;
P. Amandry & Th. Spyropoulos,
BCH 98 (1974) 171-246
I.
P. ROESCH