Psophis was an ancient Greek

Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...

 city in the northwest end of Arcadia

Arcadia

Arcadia is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Peloponnese. It is situated in the central and eastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. It takes its name from the mythological character Arcas. In Greek mythology, it was the home of the god Pan...

, bounded on the north by Arcadia, and on the west by Elis

Elis

Elis, or Eleia is an ancient district that corresponds with the modern Elis peripheral unit...

.

City name and mythology

Psophis was said to have been originally called Erymanthus, and its territory to have been ravaged by the Erymanthian Boar

Erymanthian Boar

In Greek mythology, the Erymanthian Boar is remembered in connection with The Twelve Labours, in which Heracles, the enemy of Hera, visited in turn "all the other sites of the Goddess throughout the world, to conquer every conceivable 'monster' of nature and rededicate the primordial world to its...

. It afterwards received the name of Phegia or Phegeia ( or ), apparently from the oaks (Gr.

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

 phegoi) which at least up until the 19th century could still be found upon the site of the town. The ancients, as usual, derived the name from an 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...

ous founder, Phegeus

Phegeus

Phegeus was a Greek mythological king who offered succor and his daughter, Arsinoe , to Alcmaeon, who was fleeing from the Erinyes. Alcmaeon left his mother's, Eriphyle's, jewelry and clothing with him and then returned for it later in order to please the river god Achelous and have his daughter,...

.

The city was said to have been renamed "Psophis" by Echephron

Echephron

Echephron is the name of three characters in Greek mythology.*Echephron, a son of Nestor and Eurydice .*Echephron, a son of Priam, king of Troy....

 and Promachus

Promachus

Promachus is a name that refers to several different people.-Mythology:*Son of Aeson and Alcimede, killed by Pelias along with his father while his brother, Jason, searched for the Golden Fleece....

, two sons of Heracles

Heracles

Heracles ,born Alcaeus or Alcides , was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus...

, who are said to have come from Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

, and who named the town after their mother, Psophis

Psophis (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Psophis was the name of three characters , all of whom were considered possible eponyms for the city of Psophis. They are enlisted in one passage of Pausanias' Description of Greece.Male:...

.

The city, while still called "Phegia", was celebrated as the residence of Alcmaeon, who fled here from Argos

Argos

Argos is a city and a former municipality in Argolis, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Argos-Mykines, of which it is a municipal unit. It is 11 kilometres from Nafplion, which was its historic harbour...

 after murdering his mother

Matricide

Matricide is the act of killing one's mother. As for any type of killing, motives can vary significantly.- Known or suspected matricides :* Amastris, queen of Heraclea, was drowned by her two sons in 284 BC....

. Here Alcmaeon married Arsinoe (named Alphesiboea

Alphesiboea

Alphesiboea was the name of several characters in Greek mythology:*Alphesiboea, the mother of Adonis with Phoenix .*Alphesiboea, a daughter of Phegeus, who married Alcmaeon. In some versions of this myth, she is called Arsinoe....

 in some versions), daughter of Phegeus. In consequence of their connection with Alcmaeon, the Psophidians took part in the second expedition against Thebes

Ancient Thebes (Boeotia)

See Thebes, Greece for the modern city built on the ancient ruins.Ancient Thebes was a Boeotian city-state , situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain...

, and refused to join the other Greeks in the Trojan War

Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...

.

History

Psophis is rarely mentioned in history. In 219 BC, it was in the possession of the Eleians, and was taken by Philip V of Macedon

Philip V of Macedon

Philip V was King of Macedon from 221 BC to 179 BC. Philip's reign was principally marked by an unsuccessful struggle with the emerging power of Rome. Philip was attractive and charismatic as a young man...

, who was then in alliance with the Achaea

Achaea

Achaea is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of West Greece. It is situated in the northwestern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. The capital is Patras. The population exceeds 300,000 since 2001.-Geography:...

ns. In narrating this event, Polybius

Polybius

Polybius , Greek ) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic Period noted for his work, The Histories, which covered the period of 220–146 BC in detail. The work describes in part the rise of the Roman Republic and its gradual domination over Greece...

 gives a detailed description of the town:
About 300 feet below the junction of the two rivers the united stream is joined by a third, smaller river, called the Lopesi

Lopesi

Lopesi may refer to:* Katarrakti, a mountain village in Archaea, Greece; 'Lopesi' is an old name for this village* biological species named after a 'Lopes' discoverer, thereby adopting 'lopesi' according to nomenclature standards...

, or Skupi, which rises on the frontiers of Cleitor near Seirae. From these three rivers the place is now called Tripotamo

Tripotamo

Tripotamo may refer to several villages in Greece:*Tripotamo, Arcadia, a village in Arcadia*Tripotamo, Evrytania, a village in Evrytania...

. The banks of the Erymanthus are precipitous, but not very high; and between them and the steep summit of the hill upon which the town stood there is a small space of level or gently-rising ground. The summit is a sharp ridge, sending forth two roots, one of which descends nearly to the angle of junction of the two streams, the other almost to the bank of the Erymanthus at the eastern extremity of the city.

Philip

Philip V of Macedon

Philip V was King of Macedon from 221 BC to 179 BC. Philip's reign was principally marked by an unsuccessful struggle with the emerging power of Rome. Philip was attractive and charismatic as a young man...

, in his attack on Psophis, crossed the bridge over the Erymanthus, and then drew up his men in the narrow space between the river and the walls. While the 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 were attempting to scale the walls in three separate parties, the Eleians

Elis

Elis, or Eleia is an ancient district that corresponds with the modern Elis peripheral unit...

 made a sally from the gate in the upper part of the town. Euripidas and the garrison then retreated into the Citadel of Zakynthos

Zakynthos (person)

In Greek mythology, Zakynthos was the son of the legendary Arcadian chief Dardanus. The name, like all similar names ending in -nthos, is pre-Mycenaean or Pelasgian in origin....

, and shortly afterwards surrendered to Philip.

Ruins

In the 2nd century, Pausanias

Pausanias (geographer)

Pausanias was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical...

 saw at Psophis a ruined temple of Aphrodite

Aphrodite

Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.Her Roman equivalent is the goddess .Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia....

 Erycina

Erycina

Erycina may refer to:*Erycina, an orchid*Aphrodite, a goddess*Erycinae, a subfamily of snakes...

, heroa

Heroon

A heroon , also called heroum, was a shrine dedicated to an ancient Greek or Roman hero and used for the commemoration or cult worship of the hero. It was often erected over his supposed tomb or cenotaph....

 of Echephron

Echephron

Echephron is the name of three characters in Greek mythology.*Echephron, a son of Nestor and Eurydice .*Echephron, a son of Priam, king of Troy....

 and Promachus

Promachus

Promachus is a name that refers to several different people.-Mythology:*Son of Aeson and Alcimede, killed by Pelias along with his father while his brother, Jason, searched for the Golden Fleece....

, the tomb of Alcmaeon, and near the Erymanthus a temple sacred to that stream. In the early 19th century, William Martin Leake

William 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...

 also noticed a part of a theatre unmentioned by Pausanias, on the side of a hill. Nine hundred feet upstream from the junction of the two rivers, and near the walls on the bank of the Erymanthus, Leake also found some remains of a public building, 96 feet in length, below which there is a source of water in the bank. He conjectured that they may be the remains of the temple of Erymanthus.

Psophis was about two miles in circumference. The town walls followed the crest of the ridge to the north, and the bank above the two rivers on the opposite side; and at least up through the 19th century they were traceable nearly throughout the entire circuit of the place. On the north-eastern side of the town, which is the only part not protected by the two rivers or by the precipices at the back of the hill, there was a double enclosure surrounding the citadel, although this has since entirely disappeared.

At a distance of 30 stadia (roughly 3.4 miles) from Psophis was the Seirai , which Pausanias

Pausanias (geographer)

Pausanias was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical...

 describes as the boundary of the Psophians and the Cleitorians. On the road from Psophis to Thelpusa

Thelpusa

Thelpusa or Thelpousa was an ancient city-state in Azania in Arcadia....

 lay Tropaea, upon the left bank of the Ladon River

Ladon River

The river Ladon features in Greek mythology. It rises in Arcadia, west of Tripoli. It is a tributary to the river Alfeios, which empties into the Ionian Sea....

, near which was the grove Aphrodisium, after which came a column with an ancient inscription upon it, marking the boundaries of Psophis and Thelpusa.