Tegea

🏛 placeΤεγέα

geography

An Arcadian city with a great temple of Athena Alea, and possessor of the tusks of the Calydonian Bo‌‌‌‌‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ar and the bones of Orestes.

The Story of Tegea

Tegea was the most important city in Arcadia after Sparta's domination of the Peloponnese began.‌‌‌‌‌‍‍‌‌‌‍‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ Its great sanctuary of Athena Alea was one of the most sacred in the region — even Spartan kings came as suppliants to its altar. The city possessed remarkable relics: the boar's tusks from the Calydonian hunt, and what were claimed to be the bones of Orestes, which an oracle had told Sparta to retrieve in order to defeat Tegea in war. A Spartan named Lichas found the bones in a blacksmith's yard — the massive skeleton the smith had dug up, explained by the oracle's coded prophecy about iron striking iron.

Parents

{Athena Alea (patron),Orestes (relics)}

Children

{}

Symbols

boar tusksbonessanctuaryblacksmiths bellows

Fun Fact

The story of finding Orestes' bones at Tegea is one of antiquity's earliest documented relic-hunting episodes — a Spartan spy decoding an oracle to locate bones that would magically transfer military luck.

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