Dion, Greece
Encyclopedia
Dion or Dio is a village and a former municipality in the Pieria regional unit, Greece
. Since the 2011 local government reform, it is part of the municipality Dio-Olympos
, of which it is a municipal unit. It is best known for its archaeological site and archaeological museum. Zeus
was honored at the ancient city of Dion located at the foot of Mount Olympus
. It is located 15 km. SW of Katerini
, 425 km to the north of Athens
and 65 km to the north of Larissa
.
The village owes its name to the important sanctuary dedicated to Zeus
(Dias, "of Zeus"), leader of the gods who dwelt on Mount Olympus; as recorded by Hesiod
's Catalogue of Women
, Thyia
, daughter of Deucalion
, bore Zeus two sons, Magnes
and Makednos
, eponym
of Macedon
ians, who dwelt here in Pieria at the foot of Mount Olympus. The ruins of the ancient city lie within the modern city's boundaries.
The first mention of Dion in history comes from Thucydides
, who reports that it was the first city reached by the Sparta
n general Brasidas
after crossing from Thessaly
into Macedon
on his way through the realm of his ally Perdiccas II
during his expedition against the Athenian colonies of Thrace
in 424 BC. According to Diodorus Siculus
, it was Archelaus I
who, at the end of the 5th century BC, gave the city and its sanctuary their subsequent importance by instituting a nine-day festival that included athletic and dramatic competitions in honor of Zeus and the Muse
s.
The modern village at the site was called Malathria until 1961, when it was renamed to Dio.
, Kondariotissa
, Nea Efesos
and Vrontou
. The administrative center was in the village of Kondariotissa
. At the 2011 local government reform Dio merged with the former municipalities East Olympos
and Litochoro
to form the new municipality Dio-Olympos
. Dio became a municipal units, and the former municipal districts became communities.
on December 2, 1806, in the ruins adjoining the village of Malathria. He published his discovery in the third volume of his Travels in Northern Greece in 1835. Léon Heuzey
visited the site during his famous Macedonian archaeological mission of 1855 and again in 1861. Later, the epigraphist G. Oikonomos published the first series of inscriptions. Nevertheless, systematic archaeological exploration did not begin until 1928. From then until 1931, G. Sotiriadis carried out a series of surveys, uncovering a 4th-century BC Macedonian tomb and an early Christian basilica. Excavations were not resumed until 1960 under the direction of G. Bakalakis in the area of the theatre and the wall. Since 1973, Professor D. Pandermalis of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
has conducted archaeological research in the city.
Dion is the site of a large temple dedicated to Zeus, as well as a series of temples to Demeter and to Isis (the Egyptian goddess was a favorite of Alexander
). Alexander assembled his armies in Dion before beginning his westward wars of conquest.
In 2006, a statue of Hera
was found built into the walls of the city. The statue, 2200 years old, had been used by the early Christians of Dion as filling for the city's defensive wall.
).
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
. Since the 2011 local government reform, it is part of the municipality Dio-Olympos
Dio-Olympos
Dio-Olympos is a municipality in the Pieria regional unit, Central Macedonia, Greece. The seat of the municipality is the town Litochoro.-Municipality:...
, of which it is a municipal unit. It is best known for its archaeological site and archaeological museum. Zeus
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
was honored at the ancient city of Dion located at the foot of Mount Olympus
Mount Olympus
Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece, located on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, about 100 kilometres away from Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city. Mount Olympus has 52 peaks. The highest peak Mytikas, meaning "nose", rises to 2,917 metres...
. It is located 15 km. SW of Katerini
Katerini
Katerini is a town in Central Macedonia, Greece, the capital of Pieria regional unit. It lies on the Pierian plain, between Mt. Olympus and the Thermaikos Gulf, at an altitude of 14 m. The town, which is one of the newest in Greece, has a population of 83,764...
, 425 km to the north of Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
and 65 km to the north of Larissa
Larissa
Larissa is the capital and biggest city of the Thessaly region of Greece and capital of the Larissa regional unit. It is a principal agricultural centre and a national transportation hub, linked by road and rail with the port of Volos, the city of Thessaloniki and Athens...
.
History
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
(Dias, "of Zeus"), leader of the gods who dwelt on Mount Olympus; as recorded by Hesiod
Hesiod
Hesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His is the first European poetry in which the poet regards himself as a topic, an individual with a distinctive role to play. Ancient authors credited him and...
's Catalogue of Women
Catalogue of Women
thumb|275px|[[Guido Reni]]'s first Atalanta e Ippomene , depicting the race of [[Atalanta]], a myth which was known to Reni from [[Ovid]]'s [[Metamorphoses]], but is now also represented by several fragments of the Catalogue of Women.The Catalogue of Women —also known as...
, Thyia
Thyia
According to a quotation from Hesiod's lost work Eoiae or Catalogue of Women, preserved in the De Thematibus of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, Thyia was the daughter of Deucalion and Pyrrha and mother of Magnes and Makednos by Zeus.In the Delphic tradition, Thyia was also the naiad of a spring on...
, daughter of Deucalion
Deucalion
In Greek mythology Deucalion was a son of Prometheus and Pronoia. The anger of Zeus was ignited by the hubris of the Pelasgians, and he decided to put an end to the Bronze Age. Lycaon, the king of Arcadia, had sacrificed a boy to Zeus, who was appalled by this savage offering...
, bore Zeus two sons, Magnes
Magnes (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Magnes was a name attributed to two men.*Magnes, son of Zeus and Thyia, daughter of Deucalion, or of Aeolus and Enarete, or of Argus and Perimele, eponym and first king of Magnesia, and brother of Makednos...
and Makednos
Makednos
Makedon, also Macedon or Makednos , was the eponymous mythological ancestor of the ancient Macedonians according to various ancient Greek fragmentary narratives...
, eponym
Eponym
An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...
of Macedon
Macedon
Macedonia or Macedon was an ancient kingdom, centered in the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula, bordered by Epirus to the west, Paeonia to the north, the region of Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south....
ians, who dwelt here in Pieria at the foot of Mount Olympus. The ruins of the ancient city lie within the modern city's boundaries.
The first mention of Dion in history comes from Thucydides
Thucydides
Thucydides was a Greek historian and author from Alimos. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC...
, who reports that it was the first city reached by the Sparta
Sparta
Sparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...
n general Brasidas
Brasidas
Brasidas was a Spartan officer during the first decade of the Peloponnesian War.He was the son of Tellis and Argileonis, and won his first laurels by the relief of Methone, which was besieged by the Athenians . During the following year he seems to have been eponymous ephor Brasidas (died 422...
after crossing from Thessaly
Thessaly
Thessaly is a traditional geographical region and an administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, Thessaly was known as Aeolia, and appears thus in Homer's Odyssey....
into Macedon
Macedon
Macedonia or Macedon was an ancient kingdom, centered in the northeastern part of the Greek peninsula, bordered by Epirus to the west, Paeonia to the north, the region of Thrace to the east and Thessaly to the south....
on his way through the realm of his ally Perdiccas II
Perdiccas II of Macedon
Perdiccas II was a king of Macedonia from about 454 BC to about 413 BC. He was the son of Alexander I and had two brothers.-Background:After the death of Alexander in 452, Macedon began to fall apart. Macedonian tribes became almost completely autonomous, and were only loosely allied to the king...
during his expedition against the Athenian colonies of Thrace
Thrace
Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...
in 424 BC. According to Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who flourished between 60 and 30 BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily . With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doings beyond what is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca...
, it was Archelaus I
Archelaus I of Macedon
Archelaus I was a king of Macedon from 413 to 399 BC. He was a capable and beneficent ruler, known for the sweeping changes he made in state administration, the military, and commerce. By the time that he died, Archelaus had succeeded in converting Macedon into a significantly stronger power...
who, at the end of the 5th century BC, gave the city and its sanctuary their subsequent importance by instituting a nine-day festival that included athletic and dramatic competitions in honor of Zeus and the Muse
Muse
The Muses in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture, that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths...
s.
The modern village at the site was called Malathria until 1961, when it was renamed to Dio.
Administration
In October 1992, the municipality Dio (Dimos Diou) was formed. It encompassed the municipal districts Agios Spyridonas, Dio, KaritsaKaritsa, Pieria
Karitsa is a lowland town of the former Municipality of Dio, which is part of the municipality of Dio-Olympos, in the Pieria regional unit, Central Macedonia, Greece. Pieria with 2,220 residents . It is located 13 km south of Katerini. Livestock farming and tobacco growing are the main...
, Kondariotissa
Kondariotissa
Kondariotissa is a village in the Pieria regional unit of Macedonia, Greece. It is located 9 km south of the prefectural capital, Katerini. Its population is 1,980 . The nearest interchange with GR-1 lies to the east. The main occupation of the people is growing tobacco...
, Nea Efesos
Nea Efesos
Nea Efesos is a big settlement of the former Municipality of Dio, which is part of the municipality of Dio-Olympos, in the Pieria regional unit, Central Macedonia, Greece....
and Vrontou
Vrontou, Pieria
Vrontou is a town of the former Municipality of Dio, which is part of the municipality of Dio-Olympos, in the Pieria regional unit, Central Macedonia, Greece, at an altitude of 120 meters, with 2,081 inhabitants ....
. The administrative center was in the village of Kondariotissa
Kondariotissa
Kondariotissa is a village in the Pieria regional unit of Macedonia, Greece. It is located 9 km south of the prefectural capital, Katerini. Its population is 1,980 . The nearest interchange with GR-1 lies to the east. The main occupation of the people is growing tobacco...
. At the 2011 local government reform Dio merged with the former municipalities East Olympos
East Olympos
East Olympos is a former municipality in Pieria regional unit, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Dio-Olympos, of which it is a municipal unit. Population 9,374...
and Litochoro
Litochoro
Litochoro is a town and a former municipality in the southern part of the Pieria regional unit, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Dio-Olympos, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. It is located at the base of Mount Olympus, on the western shore...
to form the new municipality Dio-Olympos
Dio-Olympos
Dio-Olympos is a municipality in the Pieria regional unit, Central Macedonia, Greece. The seat of the municipality is the town Litochoro.-Municipality:...
. Dio became a municipal units, and the former municipal districts became communities.
Archaeology
The site of ancient Dion was first identified by the English traveler William Martin LeakeWilliam Martin Leake
William Martin Leake, FRS , British antiquarian and topographer, was born in London.After completing his education at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and spending four years in the West Indies as lieutenant of marine artillery, he was sent by the government to Constantinople to instruct the...
on December 2, 1806, in the ruins adjoining the village of Malathria. He published his discovery in the third volume of his Travels in Northern Greece in 1835. Léon Heuzey
Léon Heuzey
Léon Heuzey was a noted French archaeologist and historian.In 1855 Heuzey came to Greece as a member of the École française d'Athènes, and for the next two years traveled extensively in Macedonia and Akarnania. The record he kept of his journey, "Le Mont Olympe et l'Acarnanie", was published in...
visited the site during his famous Macedonian archaeological mission of 1855 and again in 1861. Later, the epigraphist G. Oikonomos published the first series of inscriptions. Nevertheless, systematic archaeological exploration did not begin until 1928. From then until 1931, G. Sotiriadis carried out a series of surveys, uncovering a 4th-century BC Macedonian tomb and an early Christian basilica. Excavations were not resumed until 1960 under the direction of G. Bakalakis in the area of the theatre and the wall. Since 1973, Professor D. Pandermalis of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki is the largest Greek university, and the largest university in the Balkans. It was named after the philosopher Aristotle, who was born in Stageira, Chalcidice, about 55 km east of Thessaloniki, in Central Macedonia...
has conducted archaeological research in the city.
Dion is the site of a large temple dedicated to Zeus, as well as a series of temples to Demeter and to Isis (the Egyptian goddess was a favorite of Alexander
Alexander
Alexander is a common male first name, and less common surname. The most famous is Alexander the Great, the King of Macedon who created one of the largest empires in ancient history.- Origin :...
). Alexander assembled his armies in Dion before beginning his westward wars of conquest.
In 2006, a statue of Hera
Hera
Hera was the wife and one of three sisters of Zeus in the Olympian pantheon of Greek mythology and religion. Her chief function was as the goddess of women and marriage. Her counterpart in the religion of ancient Rome was Juno. The cow and the peacock were sacred to her...
was found built into the walls of the city. The statue, 2200 years old, had been used by the early Christians of Dion as filling for the city's defensive wall.
Other
Dion has a school, lyceum, gymnasia, a post office, and squares (plateiesPlateia
Plateia or platia is the Greek word for town square. Most Greek and Cypriot cities have several town squares which are a point of reference in travelling and guiding...
).
Historical population
| Year | Town population | Municipality population |
|---|---|---|
| 1981 | 1,236 | - |
| 1991 | 1,149 | 9,876 |
| 2001 | 1,314 | 10,885 |
External links
- Municipality of Dion website
- Official website of the archaeological park of Dion
- Archaeological site of Dion
- Images from the archaelogical site
See also
- Archaeological Museum of Dion
- Communities of Pieria