- Mount Lyceum
Lyceum is a
mountain ofArcadia at the frontier of three nomes:Arcadia , Mykines andElis Province . Its top is Prophetis Ilias (Greek forProphet Elijah ), ancient creta 1421 meters height. The name Lyceum is from the root Luc (λυκ) which means light. The mountain is betweenAlphios river and the coasts ofKyparissia (kyparissia that time was costs of arcadia called arcadiά)Mythology - Antiquity
During the era of
Ancient Greece it was theHoly Mountain of Arcadians where it is believedZeus was born. Ancient Arcadians called this mountain 'Olympus' and 'holy mountain'. Rhea took to top of Lyceuum, Cretea, in order to escape to her husbandCronus who ate their children. She gave birth to Zeus there. Rhea wanted to ablute her baby, but there was no water. She bit the ground and found water. The river made wasNeda River (female river). Zeus was given to Agno, Theisoa and Neda which werenymph s ofAlfeios River . Zeus abluted there. Neda later suckled him and brought him up. Ancient Arcadians were saying thatCrete the island was not where Zeus was born,but instead on the top of Lyceum.At the root of the mountain there was
Lycosura (wolftail),which according to Pausanias the geographer was the first city on the world, with other smaller cities around. At the top it was the Altar Of Zeus where the sacrifice of animals and humans took place according to Pausanias. The altar was made of stone and by it there were two smaller columns witheagle s on them which looked towards theeast . There were stories told that those sacrificing to Lyceum Zeus became Werewolves. They should not eat human flesh for the next ten years in order to become human again.Near the altar was a holy place of Pan in a cave where he had sexual relations with
Selene (thelunar deity ). Around the cave was the small forest of PythiosApollo , and after the forest, the Stadium, the Hippodrome and the guest houses. There took place theLykaia , athletic games by honor of Lyceum Zeus. Pausanias reports that these games were the oldest ever held. "Beholders sut on stoned [...] and the winners crowned witholive branch es on pedestals and took a Cu object. They were competing inmusic (diaulos (doubleaulos )), stadion (running 400m),pentathlon (five sports),Greek wrestling (πάλη), andAncient Greek Boxing (πυγμή). Arcadians fight with their natural name Arcades."According to
Thucydides at the altar of Zeus there there was a holy wherePleistoanax was hunted by his fellow Lacedaemonians. The entrance was forbidden for common people. If you got in there you would die within a year. Only priests were allowed.Archeology
The first archaeological diggings were done in 1897 by K. Kontopoulos, in 1902 and in 1909 by K. Kounturiotis. In 2006, new digging research has been done from the
American School of Classical Studies at Athens by David Romano and Michalis Petropoulos. According to the results of their diggings to the altar in 2007 they were at protohelladian era (3000 BC).(translated from the Greek Wikipedia article)
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