Kalydon (Site)

Permalink
Summary:	Setting of the Kalydonian boar hunt.
Type:	Fortified city and sanctuary
Region:	Aetolia

Periods:

Archaic

Classical

Hellenistic

Physical:

N of the entrance to the Gulf of Corinth, Kalydon was a minor city enclosed by a 4 km long circuit wall (3rd century B.C. date) and a strongly fortified acropolis. A sacred road ran ca. 400 m from the West City Gate to the Sanctuary of Artemis Laphria. The sanctuary had originally 2 Archaic temples dedicated to Artemis and Apollo. During the Classical and Hellenistic period the sanctuary developed to include a number of stoas, treasuries and other structures.

Description:

Kalydon was recorded by Homer as the home of Oeneus and the setting of the Caledonian boar hunt. The historical city is little known and apparently unimportant, but the growth of the Sanctuary of Artemis, the construction of the city's walls in the 3rd century B.C., and the size of some of the Hellenistic tombs indicate some prosperity. The city declined in the Roman period, and in 30 B.C. Augustus transferred the inhabitants to the new city of Nikopolis.

Exploration:

Early description of the remains by Leake (1835) and Woodhouse (1897). Excavations on the acropolis and at the sanctuary of Artemis Laphria in 1908 by G. Sotiriadis. In 1926, 1928, and 1932 joint Greek-Danish excavations carried out under F. Poulsen and K. Romaios.

Sources Used:

PECS, 433; Leekley and Efstratiou 1980, 5-6; Rossiter 1977, 463

Other Bibliography:

W.M. Leake, Travels in Northern Greece (1835) III, 534ff. W.J. Woodhouse, Aetolia (1897) 91ff. K. Rhomaios, "Die Ausgrabungen in Thermos und Kalydon," Bericht über die Hundertjahrfeier (1930) 254-58. H. Payne, Necrocorinthia (1931). E. Dyggve, F. Poulsen and K. Romaios, Das Heroon von Kalydon. (Copenhagen 1934) (plans). E. Dyggve, Das Laphrion. Der Tempelbezirk von Kalydon. (Copenhagen 1948) (plans). E. Dyggve, "A Second Heroon at Calydon," in Studies Presented to David M. Robinson I, 360-64, (ed. G.E. Mylonas, St. Louis, 1951).