SKOTOUSSA
Thessaly, Greece.
A city in the
mountains of Pelasgiotis W of Volo. It was already important in the 5th c. as the seat of the tree oracle of Zeus
Phegonaios; the sanctuary was considered by the Thessalians to be the Homeric Dodona, forerunner of the
oracle in Epeiros. The wealth of the town in the Classical period was based on grain. A number of battles were
fought at Skotoussa and at Kynoskephali, which lay in
its territory to the N. A second period of importance
followed on the fortification of the site by Philip V of
Macedon, but it was deserted when Pausanias saw it.
Within the city territory, Plutarch records a polyandrion
built by Philip V, a tumulus over the mass grave of the
Macedonians raised by Antiochos in 191 B.C., and a
solitary hill known traditionally as the grave of the
Amazons. Traces of walls remain around the acropolis,
1 km W of Soupli, and at intervals around a much larger
outer circuit. The rubble-filled walls of local stone are
strengthened by numerous towers and had gates on the
E and W. Leake saw some stretches of good ashlar masonry. A theater lay in a natural hollow just inside the
wall on the SW. The site of the oracle, not at the city
itself has not been identified.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Plut.
Flam. 7; Steph. Byz.; Strab. 7, fr.
1
a; 9.5.20; W. M. Leake,
Nor. Gr. (1835) IV 454; C.
Bursian,
Geographie von Griechenland (1872) I 70f; J.
Kromayer,
Antike Schlachtfelder in Griechenland (1907)
II 68, 72, n. 2; F. Stählin,
Das hellenische Thessalien
(1924) 109f
MP; E. Oberhummer in
RE 3A
1 (1927) 615.
M. H. MC ALLISTER