TEGYRA
(Pyrgos) Boiotia, Greece.
A rock
situated N of Lake Copais and the Melas river, 5 km
NE of Orchomenos and W of Topolia. Ranging in height
from 250 to 150 m, it is easily recognized by the mediaeval tower rising in the middle of it (whence the popular name).
Pelopidas fought the Spartans here in 375 B.C. Two miraculous springs gushed forth by the Temple of Apollo,
no trace of which remains. It was the seat of an Oracle
of Apollo Tegyraios up to the Median wars (Plut.
Ages.
286;
De def. or. 412 B).
It is unlikely that this small rocky island can be identified with Delos, as has been claimed. Nearby is the Church of Haghios Nikolaos sta Kambia (11th c.).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
J. G. Frazer,
Paus. Des. Gr. (1898) V
110-111
M (in ed. of N. Papachatzis: [1969] V 18
M &
224 n. 1); E.J.A. Kennys in
Annals Arch. and Anthrop.
22 (1935) 189-206 & 201-2
M; P. Guillon,
Trépieds du
Ptoion (2d ed. 1943) 196, n. 2; A. Philippson,
GL (1951)
I.2 487; R. Hope Simpson,
A Gazetteer and Atlas of
Mycenaean Sites (1965) 115-16, no. 400; W. K. Pritchett,
Studies in Ancient Greek Topography, pt. II (1969) 90,
92 fig. 10.
Y. BÉQUIGNON
