ASKRA
Boiotia, Greece.
N of Mt. Helikon
and 7 km NW of Thespiai, the site is on the N bank of
the Permessos, the stream that runs through the Valley
of the Muses. Legend has it that Askra was founded
by Oikles and the sons of Poseidon, Otos and Ephialtes;
it is the birthplace of the poet Hesiod. At some unknown
date the Thespians were said to have destroyed the city,
which thereafter became merely a kome of Thespiai, uninhabited in Plutarch's time. Pausanias saw there nothing but the tower that still stands on top of the rocky peak called Pyrgaki (cf. Keressos).
Some travelers have placed Askra near the village
of Neochori, 4 km W of Thespiai, on the slopes of Mt.
Marandali (Pouqueville, Dodwell), others at Xironomi,
a village 10 km SW of Thespiai (Kirsten). The limestone
peak of Pyrgaki (633 m) dominates the Sanctuary of
the Muses to the S from a height of 250 m; to the E
the Haghios Christos valley separates it from the chain
of hills running to Thespiai and Thebes; to the N it
descends abruptly to the Kopaic basin, and to the W a
narrow pass links it to Mt. Koursara (900 m). Exposed
to the N wind and barred from the sea breezes by Mt.
Helikon, Askra was, in Hesiod's words, “a wretched
village, bad in winter, disagreeable in summer, good at
no time” (
Works and Days, 639-40). Where was the
village? The slopes of this mountain are steep on all
sides, its summit narrow and windswept and completely
taken up by a small fort. Perhaps we should look for
it toward the base of the slope, near cultivable land, on
the S or SE flank. At the spot known as Episkopi, near
the confluence of the Permessos and the Haghios Christos
stream, are some ruins of mediaeval houses containing
many ancient stones; nearby are a great quantity of
archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic potsherds. However, up
to now this area has never been dug.
The little fort on the mountain top consists of an
elliptical surrounding wall (approximately 150 x 30 m)
that links the “Tower of Askra,” mentioned by Pausanias.
To the E a postern gate 1.45 m wide opened onto the
old pathway. The wall is of rough polygonal rubblework;
4.5 m thick, it very probably was topped with a palisade
of stakes. At the highest point is a 7.7 m square tower,
still with its 13 courses, very carefully built in isodomic
masonry. The blocks, which were quarried on the
spot, have a convex surface. The four corners of the
tower are carefully grooved. To the E is a gate, 2 x 0.88
m, that leads to a narrow guard house (2 x 6 m), from
which a stairway runs to the upper floor. The rest of the
surface is filled with large blocks of stone divided into
two lots by a cross-wall. A floor covered the whole surface (6 sq. m). In spite of the differences in masonry,
the surrounding wall and tower may have been built
together in the 4th c. B.C., either shortly before the
battle of Leuktra (371) with the aid of the Spartans, or
in the second half of the century.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. Dodwell,
A Classical and Topographical Tour through Greece I (1819) 255-56; Pouqueville,
Voyage de la Grèce IV (1826) 198; W. M. Leake,
Nor. Gr. (1835) II 491; A. Conze,
Philol., 19 (1863)
181-82; I. G. Frazer,
Paus. Des. Gr. V (1898) 149-50;
A. Philippson-Kirsten,
GL I (1951) 452; 672; 718, n. 82;
G. Roux, “La tour d'Ascra,”
BCH 78 (1954) 45-48
PI; N. Papahadjis,
Pausaniou Hellados Periegesis V (1969) 95, 172-77.
P. ROESCH
