Argura (Ancient Greek: Ἄργουρα),[1][2] called Argissa (Ἄργισσα) in Homer's Iliad,[3] was a town and polis (city-state)[4] in Pelasgiotis in ancient Thessaly, on the Peneus, and near Larissa. The name of the town was also given as Argusa (Ἆργουσσα) in some ancient sources.[5] The distance between this place and Larissa is so small as to explain the remark of the Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes, that the Argissa of Homer was the same as Larissa.[6] The editors of the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World and The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites identify the site of Agura with a place called Gremnos Magoula, approximately 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) west of Larissa, which has a nearby tumulus.[7][8]
  Shown within Greece | |
| Location | Gremnos Magoula, near Larissa |
|---|---|
| Region | Pelasgiotis |
| Coordinates | 39°39′35″N 22°20′28″E / 39.65986°N 22.34118°E |
| Type | Settlement |
| History | |
| Periods | Archaic Greece – Roman Greece |
Archaeology
editExcavations of the site have yielded a walled enclosure of the 5th and 4th centuries BCE opus isodomum style, with square towers. The agora has been located and the temples have been identified. The ceramic material found covers from the seventh century BCE to the third century CE.[9] Dedications found attest to the cult of Apollo Pythius and of Artemis.[10]
References
edit- ^ Strabo. Geographica. Vol. ix. p.440. Page numbers refer to those of Isaac Casaubon's edition.
- ^ Stephanus of Byzantium. Ethnica. Vol. s.v.
- ^ Homer. Iliad. Vol. 2.738.
- ^ Mogens Herman Hansen & Thomas Heine Nielsen (2004). "Thessaly and Adjacent Regions". An inventory of archaic and classical poleis. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 691–692. ISBN 0-19-814099-1.
- ^ "Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire". Archived from the original on 2018-08-28. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
- ^ Schol. in Apoll. Rhod. 1.40.
- ^ Richard Talbert, ed. (2000). Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World. Princeton University Press. p. 55, and directory notes accompanying. ISBN 978-0-691-03169-9.
- ^ Stillwell, Richard; MacDonald, William L.; McAllister, Marian Holland, eds. (1976). "Argura". The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites. Princeton University Press.
- ^ Hanschmann, Eva. (1981). Die mittlere Bronzezeit: die deutschen Augsrabungen auf der Argissa-Magula in Thessalien IV, p. 120.
- ^ Helly, B. (1979). Argoura, Atrax et Crannon. attribution of quelques documents épigraphiques, ZPE 35, p. 250.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William, ed. (1854–1857). "Agura". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. London: John Murray.