Tenea ( el, Τενέα) is a municipal unit within the municipality of

Corinth Corinth ( ; el, Κόρινθος, Kórinthos, ) is the successor to an ancient city, and is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese (region), Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Since the 2011 local government refor ...

Corinthia Corinthia ( el, Κορινθία ''Korinthía'') is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the modern regions of Greece, region of Peloponnese (region), Peloponnese. It is situated around the city of Corinth, in the north-eastern part ...

, Peloponnese,

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

. The municipal unit has an area of . Until 2011, it was a municipality whose seat was in Chiliomodi. The modern city is named after ancient Tenea, established approximately SE of

and NE of

Mycenae Mycenae ( ; grc, Μυκῆναι or , ''Mykē̂nai'' or ''Mykḗnē'') is an archaeological site near Mykines in Argolis, north-eastern Peloponnese, Greece. It is located about south-west of Athens; north of Argos; and south of Corinth. ...

shortly after the

Trojan War In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and ...

. According to

Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to: *Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium'' *Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC * Pausanias of Sicily, physician of t ...

, Tenea's founders were Trojan prisoners of war whom

Agamemnon In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (; grc-gre, Ἀγαμέμνων ''Agamémnōn'') was a king of Mycenae who commanded the Greeks during the Trojan War. He was the son, or grandson, of King Atreus and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus, the ...

had allowed to build their own town. The name Tenea is styled upon

Tenedos Tenedos (, ''Tenedhos'', ), or Bozcaada in Turkish, is an island of Turkey in the northeastern part of the Aegean Sea. Administratively, the island constitutes the Bozcaada district of Çanakkale Province. With an area of it is the third l ...

, the founders' home town, whose mythological eponym was the hero

Tenes In Greek mythology, Tenes or Tennes (Ancient Greek: Τέννης) was the eponymous hero of the island of Tenedos. Family Tenes was the son either of Apollo or of King Cycnus of Colonae by Proclia, daughter or granddaughter of Laomedon. ...

. Tenea and

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, according to

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; la, Aenē̆is or ) is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who fled the fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of th ...

, had in the years following the Trojan War produced citizens of Trojan ancestry. Under the leadership of Archias in 734 or 733 BC, Teneans and Corinthians established the joint colony of Syracuse in

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, the homeland of Archimedes.

History

Strabo mentions Tenea: as does

: Tenea was the most important place in ancient Corinthia after the city of Corinth and its port towns; it was situated 60 stadia south of Corinth, according to Pausanias, hence the southern gate of

was called the Teneatic. Stephanus of Byzantium describes Tenea as lying between Corinth and Mycenae. Pausanias says that the Teneatae claimed descent from the inhabitants of

, who were brought over from

Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Ç ...

as prisoners, and settled by

in this part of Corinthia; and that it was in consequence of their Trojan origin that they worshipped

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...

above all the other gods. Strabo also mentions here the temple of Apollo Teneates, and says that Tenea and Tenedos had a common origin in Tennes, the son of

Cycnus :''The butterfly genus ''Cycnus'' is now synonymized with ''Panthiades. In Greek mythology, multiple characters were known as Cycnus (Ancient Greek: Κύκνος) or Cygnus. The literal meaning of the name is "swan", and accordingly most of them end ...

. It was at Tenea that Oedipus was said to have passed his childhood. It was also from this place that Archias took the greater number of the colonists with whom he founded Syracuse. After the destruction of Corinth by

Lucius Mummius Achaicus Lucius Mummius (2nd century BC), was a Roman statesman and general. He was consul in the year 146 BC along with Scipio Aemilianus. Mummius was the first of his family to rise to the rank of consul thereby making him a novus homo. He received the ...

, Tenea had the good fortune to continue undisturbed, because it is said to have assisted the

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

against Corinth. We cannot, however, suppose that an insignificant place like Tenea could have acted in opposition to Corinth and the

Achaean League The Achaean League ( Greek: , ''Koinon ton Akhaion'' "League of Achaeans") was a Hellenistic-era confederation of Greek city states on the northern and central Peloponnese. The league was named after the region of Achaea in the northwestern P ...

; and it is more probable that the Teneatae were spared by Mummius in consequence of their pretended Trojan descent and consequent affinity with the Romans themselves.

Archaeological findings

Ruins of ancient Tenea are one kilometre south of Chiliomodi. Some archaeological finds are housed in the Archaeological Museum of Ancient Corinth. The most famous find, the Kouros of Tenea (c. 550 BC), found near Athikia in 1846, is in the Munich

Glyptothek The Glyptothek () is a museum in Munich, Germany, which was commissioned by the Bavarian King Ludwig I to house his collection of Greek and Roman sculptures (hence γλυπτο- ''glypto-'' "sculpture", from the Greek verb γλύφειν ''glyphe ...

. It is a great example of 6th century BC Greek sculpture and of the so-called Aeginetean or archaic smile. In 1984, archaeologists discovered a sarcophagus of the Greek early archaic period containing the skeletal remains of what had been a high-society woman along with offerings. A lost ancient city built by Trojan War captives has been found, Greek officials say
The Washington post, 2018-11-13. In 2013, archaeologists surveyed a site in the area and, encouraged by pottery and other small finds, began excavating. They said that “The concentration of ceramics and architectural remains… were the reasons that led us to the excavation of the site,” In 2017, they found a trove of riches while digging up what had been a dual-chambered burial ground at the Tenea site. In 2018, they found “proof of the existence of the ancient city” of Tenea led by Elena Korka near the village of Chiliomodi. An image of the excavation site depicts stone walls, clay and marble floors, about 200 rare coins, the remains of what were probably houses from the settlement. During the excavation, seven burials with vases and jewelry were revealed dating to the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

and

Hellenistic period In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

s. Besides, skeletons of a woman and an infant were found. According to Elena Korka, Tenea’s cutting coins was the indicator of its complete independence. In 2019, a complex of massive baths, roughly , was discovered in Tenea, dating back to the Roman times between the end of 3rd to mid-1st century BC.

Subdivisions

The municipal unit Tenea is subdivided into the following communities (constituent villages in brackets): * Agionori * Agios Vasileios * Chiliomodi * Klenia * Koutalas (Koutalas, Mapsos, Spathovouni) * Stefani

Historical population

References

External links

Kouros of TeneaStrabo, Book 8Gallery
and description n Greekof monuments in and around Tenea. * Korka, Eleni; Lefantzis, Michalis; Corso, Antonio
Archaeological Discoveries from Tenea.
''Actual Problems of Theory and History of Art: Collection of articles. Vol. 9.'' Ed: A. V. Zakharova, S. V. Maltseva, E. Iu. Staniukovich-Denisova. Lomonosov Moscow State University / St. Petersburg: NP-Print, 2019, pp. 172–179. ISSN 2312-2129 {{Corinth div Populated places in ancient Corinthia Former populated places in Greece Cities in ancient Peloponnese Locations in Greek mythology Populated places in Corinthia Populated places established in the 2nd millennium BC Trojan colonies Greek city-states