Pellana (;
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
: ἡ Πέλλανα; τὰ Πέλλανα; Πελλήνη; ''Agis''), was a city of ancient
Lacedaemonia, on the
Eurotas
In Greek mythology, Eurotas (; Ancient Greek: Εὐρώτας) was a king of Laconia. Family
Eurotas was the son of King Myles of Laconia and grandson of Lelex, eponymous ancestor of the Leleges. The ''Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus), Bibliothe ...
river, and on the road from
Sparta
Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...
to
Arcadia.
Pellana is now a village and a municipal unit of the
municipality of Sparti, Greece. It was a
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality' ...
until the 2011 local government reform.
The municipal unit has an area of 153.763 km
2.
The seat of the municipality was in
Kastoreio. It was called Καλύβια Γεωργίτσι Kalivia Georgitsi (lit. the huts of
Georgitsi) until it was
renamed after a nearby ancient city in 1932.
Though the site of modern Pellana was clearly occupied in antiquity, it is probably not the site of the ancient Pellana mentioned by
Pausanias and other ancient authors. The ancient Pellana was more likely near the modern
Sellasia.
History
According to archaeologist
Theodore Spyropoulos, Pellana was the
Mycenaean capital of
Laconia
Laconia or Lakonia (, , ) is a historical and Administrative regions of Greece, administrative region of Greece located on the southeastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. Its administrative capital is Sparti (municipality), Sparta. The word ...
. Today, Pellana is a small village in north Laconia, located 27 kilometers north of Sparta, 5 kilometers west of the main road that connects Sparta with Tripoli. It is built on a hill that is an extension of the
Taygetos
The Taygetus, Taugetus, Taygetos or Taÿgetus () is a mountain range on the Peloponnese peninsula in Southern Greece. The highest mountain of the range is Mount Taygetus, also known as "Profitis Ilias", or "Prophet Elias" (Elijah).
The name is o ...
mountains in the Peloponessus. Pellana has an area of 15 square kilometers, and is 355 meters above sea level.
[ The population of the modern village peaked in the 1940s, and has steadily declined, to the current population of 250.
The town suffered badly during the Second World War and the subsequent ]Greek Civil War
The Greek Civil War () took place from 1946 to 1949. The conflict, which erupted shortly after the end of World War II, consisted of a Communism, Communist-led uprising against the established government of the Kingdom of Greece. The rebels decl ...
.
There are ancient tombs about 400 meters from the main palace said to have housed King Menelaus
In Greek mythology, Menelaus (; ) was a Greek king of Mycenaean (pre- Dorian) Sparta. According to the ''Iliad'', the Trojan war began as a result of Menelaus's wife, Helen, fleeing to Troy with the Trojan prince Paris. Menelaus was a central ...
and his wife Helen (of Troy).
Transport
The highway from Tripoli to Sparta passes Pellana.
Name
There are two possibilities about the origin of the name ''Pellana''. ''Pellana'' has its roots in the Greek word ''pella'', which can mean "stone" or a "rocky hill". Indeed, the main waterway in the village is at the base of a rocky hill. Pellana, linguistically, is a cognate of Pella, the capital of Macedonia but also of Pallene, a deme of Attica, Pelle of Ithaca, Pellene
Pellene (; ; ) was a city and polis (city-state) of ancient Achaea, the most easterly of the twelve Achaean cities (the Achaean League). Its territory bordered upon that of Sicyon on the east and upon that of Aegeira on the west. Pellene was s ...
of Achaia, Palamedion, the acropolis of Nauplion, Pelion of Epirus, etc., all of them being "citadels on a cliff" or a hill, except for Pelion of Thessaly which is a mountain.[Miltiades E. Bolaris: "Macedonian names and makeDONSKI pseudo-linguistics: The case of the name Pella]
/ref> According to modern oral folk tradition is that it received its name by a woman named “Pellania.” This woman was going to get some water; as she was getting water, she slipped and fell into the waterway. So, the village was named “Pellana”, and the main waterway: “Pellania fountain.”
It was said to have been the residence of Tyndareos, when he was expelled from Sparta, and was subsequently the frontier-fortress of Sparta on the Eurotas, as Sellasia was on the Oenus. Polybius describes it (iv. 81) as one of the cities of the Laconian Tripolis, the other two being probably Carystus
Carystus (; , near modern Karystos) was a polis (city-state) on ancient Euboea. It was situated on the south coast of the island, at the foot of Mount Oche. It is mentioned by Homer in the Catalogue of Ships in the ''Iliad'', as controlled by ...
(or, alternatively, Aegys) and Belemina
Belemina (), or Belmina (Βέλμινα), or Belbina (Βελβίνα), or Blenina (Βλένινα), was a town of ancient Laconia and ancient Arcadia, at the northwest frontier of the former, the territory of which was called Belminatis (Βελμι ...
. It had ceased to be a town in the time of Pausanias, but he noticed there a temple of Asclepius
Asclepius (; ''Asklēpiós'' ; ) is a hero and god of medicine in ancient Religion in ancient Greece, Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology. He is the son of Apollo and Coronis (lover of Apollo), Coronis, or Arsinoe (Greek myth), Ars ...
, and two fountains, named Pellanis and Lanceia.
Below Pellana, was the Characoma (Greek: Χαράκωμα), a fortification or wall in the narrow part of the valley; and near the town was the ditch, which according to the law of Agis Agis or AGIS may refer to:
People
* Agis I (died 900 BC), Spartan king
* Agis II (died 401 BC), Spartan king
* Agis III (died 331 BC), Spartan king
* Agis IV (265–241 BC), Spartan king
* Agis (Paeonian) (died 358 BC), King of the Paeonians
* Ag ...
, was to separate the lots of the Spartans from those of the Perioeci
The Perioeci or Perioikoi (, ) were the second-tier citizens of the ''polis'' of Sparta until 200 BC. They lived in several dozen cities within Spartan territories (mostly Laconia and Messenia), which were dependent on Sparta. The ''perioeci'' ...
. (Plut. l. c.)
Pausanias says that Pellana was 100 stadia from Belemina; but he does not specify its distance from Sparta, nor on which bank of the river it stood. It was probably on the left bank of the river at Mt. Burliá, which is distant 55 stadia from Sparta, and 100 from Mt. Khelmós, the site of Belemina. Mt. Burliá has two peaked summits, on each of which stands a chapel; and the bank of the river, which is only separated from the mountain by a narrow meadow, is supported for the length of 200 yards by a Hellenic wall. Some copious sources issue from the foot of the rocks, and from a stream which joins the river at the southern end of the meadow, where the wall ends. There are still traces of an aqueduct, which appears to have carried the waters of these fountains to Sparta. The acropolis of Pellana may have occupied one of the summits of the mountain, but there are no traces of antiquity in either of the chapels. ( Leake, ''Morea'', vol. iii. p. 13, seq.; Boblaye, ''Récherches, &c.'' p. 76 ; Ross, ''Reisen im Peloponnes'', p. 191; Curtius, ''Peloponnesos'', vol. ii. p. 255.)
References
*
Mycenaeans
by Rodney Castleden
*Peter Adami
Pellana by Theodore Spyropoulos
{{Sparti div
History of Sparta, Laconia
Populated places in ancient Laconia
Mycenaean sites in the Peloponnese (region)
Former populated places in Greece