Stymfalia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Silver obolus from Stymfalia depicting Heracles on obverse, Stymphalian bird and inscription ΣΤΥΜΦΑΛΙΑ on reverse.

Stymfalia (Στυμφαλία) is a municipality in Corinthia, Greece. Population 2,852 (2001). The seat of the municipality is in Kalianoi. The municipality occupies a mountain valley with an average height of 600 metres above sea level. Mt. Kyllene dominates it to the north east, rising to ca. 2400 metres. The largest village is Lafka, but the principal antiquities are just south of the modern village of Stymphalia, a hamlet of ca. 100 inhabitants. The remains of ancient Stymphalos like within several kilometres of city walls on the north shore of Lake Stymphalos. It was in this lake that Heracles performed his Sixth Labour by eliminating the man-eating Stymphalian birds which presumably had metallic feathers.

Anastasios Orlandos excavated parts of the site for the Archaeological Society of Athens in the 1920s. Archaeological surveys and excavations by the University of British Columbia since 1982 have revealed a grid planned town of the 4th century BC with houses, streets, a theatre, a palaestra, a fountain house, several temples and a sanctuary (either to Athena or Artemis), and four early Christian cemeteries. Just to the north of the ancient city are the remains of the medieval Cistercian monastery of Zaraka, also partially excavated by the Canadian Institute. There are various other smaller sites scattered around the valley, but as yet there has been no systematic survey of them.

This Peloponnese location article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.