ANTHE´DON
ANTHE´DON (
Ἀνθηδών: Eth.
Ἀνθηδόνιους, Eth.
Anthedonius), a town of Boeotia, and one of the cities of the League, was situated on the Euripus or the Euboean sea at the foot of Mt. Messapius, and was distant, according to Dicaearchus, 70 stadia from Chalcis and 160 from Thebes. Anthedon is mentioned by Homer (
Hom. Il. 2.508) as the furthermost town of Boeotia.
The inhabitants derived their origin from the sea-god Glaucus, who is said to have been originally a native of the place. They appear to have been a different race from the other people of Boeotia, and are described by one writer (Lycophr, 754) as Thracians. Dicaearchus informs us that they were chiefly mariners, shipwrights and fishermen, who derived their subsistence from trading in fish, purple, and sponges.
He adds that the agora was surrounded with a double stoa, and planted with trees. We learn from Pausanias that there was a sacred grove of the Cabeiri in the middle of the town, surrounding a temple of those deities, and near it a temple of Demeter. Outside the walls was a temple of Dionysus, and a spot called “the leap of Glaucus.” The wine of Anthedon was celebrated in antiquity.
The ruins of the town are situated 1 1/2 mile from
Lukísi. (Dicaearch.
Βίος Ἑγγάδος, p. 145, ed. Fuhr; Strab. pp. 400, 404, 445;
Paus. 9.22.5,
9.26.2; Athen. pp. 31, 296, 316, 679;
Steph. B. sub voce Ov. Met. 7.232,
13.905; Leake,
Northern Greece, vol. ii. p. 272.)
