AULIS
Boiotia, Greece.
Situated on the
Boiotian shore of the Euripos, between the bay of Mikro
Vathy to the N and the bay and village of Vathy to the
S. According to legend it was here that the Greek fleet
gathered before setting sail for Troy and awaited the
favorable winds that Againeinnon obtained by sacrificing
his daughter Iphigenia to Arteinis (Eur.,
Iphigeneia at
Aulis). Remains of a Mycenaean settlement have been
located on the rocky Yeladhovouni promontory separating the two bays. Never a city, Aulis was part of the
Theban districts up to 387 B.C., then of the territory of
Tanagra. Agelisaus, king of Sparta, the “new Agamemnon,” sacrificed here before setting off for Asia in
397 B.C. Aulis depended for its livelihood on the sanctuary, its potters' workshops, and fishing.
The Sanctuary of Artemis Aulideia was excavated from
1955 to 1961 by I. Threpsiadis. Open to the SE, the
temple is built on the oblong archaic plan (31 x 9.70 m).
In front of the two columns in antis of the 5th c. temple
a prostoon of four Doric columns was added in the
Hellenistic period. Inside the sekos were two rows of
four columns; in the rear a double door, whose marble
threshold has been preserved, led to the adyton; two
statues of Arteinis and Apollo flanked the doorway, and
in front of the N statue was a round altar for libations,
with a drain. A large base found in the sekos may have
been used to support the 1000-year-old plane tree mentioned by Pausanias (
9.19.7). Inside the adyton, which
measured 3.70 x 7.55 m, was the offering table, part of
which has been recovered, along with a triangular tripod
base and two round altars. Underneath the pronaos were
found the remains of a circular building assumed to
date from the 8th c. B.C. In Roman times all the columns
were replaced; later the prostoon was incorporated into
some small therinae covering part of the sekos.
In front of the temple a square fountain was excavated
which measured 1.8 m square inside; six steps led
down inside it. Close by are the remains of an altar.
SW of the temple were found two or three potters' establishments, with a store of clay and a kiln. A large hostelry for pilgrims was immediately to the S.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I. Threpsiadis in
Praktika (1956) 94-104; in
Ergon (1956-61); “Chronique des Fouilles,”
BCH
(1956-62); E. Kirsten & W. Kraiker,
Griechenlandkunde5
(1967) 183-84
P; N. Papahadjis,
Pausaniou Hellados
Periegesis V (1969) 109-16
MPI; R. Hope Simpson &
J. F. Lazenby,
The Catalogue of the Ships in Homer's
Iliad (1970) 19; S. C. Bakhuizen,
Salganeus and the
Fortifications on its Mountains (1970) 96-100, 152-56
MI.
P. ROESCH
