Pisa () is a village situated to the east of Olympia, Greece, located on the northwest side of the

Peloponnesus The Peloponnese ( ), Peloponnesus ( ; , ) or Morea (; ) is a peninsula and geographic regions of Greece, geographic region in Southern Greece, and the southernmost region of the Balkans. It is connected to the central part of the country by the ...

peninsula. Currently it is not politically independent but it is a community of the municipality of Ancient Olympia, in the regional unit of Elis. Modern Pisa is the putative location of ancient Pisa. Greek history tells of a contention between Olympia, Pisa, and Elis, a village of

ancient Elis Elis () or Eleia (; ; Elean: ; ) is an ancient district in Greece that corresponds to the modern regional unit of Elis. Elis is in southern Greece on the Peloponnese, bounded on the north by Achaea, east by Arcadia, south by Messen ...

, for supremacy of the region and management of the sacred precinct. The existence of an ancient district called Pisatis (ἡ Πισᾶτις), which included 8 villages over half of modern Elis, is indicated by many ancient authors. Such a political unit is certain for the 4th century BC. The tradition of an earlier unit is not an unreasonable one. Eventually Olympia was victorious in the contention and Pisa became part of Olympia rather than vice versa.

Pisatis area

The current location thought to be Pisa is about 1km east of Olympia. A confederacy of eight states apparently existed in Pisatis, of which, besides Pisa, the following names are recorded: Salmone, Heracleia, Harpinna, Cycesium, and

Dyspontium Dyspontium () was one of the eight towns of Pisatis in ancient Elis. It was situated in the plain between Elis and Olympia, north of the river Alpheus and not far from the sea. It has been identified with the modern village Skafidia. Pausania ...

. The celebration of the festival of

Zeus Zeus (, ) is the chief deity of the List of Greek deities, Greek pantheon. He is a sky father, sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus is the child ...

at Olympia had originally belonged to the Pisatans, in the neighbourhood of whose city Olympia was situated.

Legendary foundations

Pisa was said to have been founded by an eponymous hero, Pisus, the son of Perieres, and grandson of

Aeolus In Greek mythology, Aiolos, transcribed as Aeolus (; ; ) refers to three characters. These three are often difficult to tell apart, and even the ancient mythographers appear to have been perplexed about which Aeolus was which. Diodorus Siculus m ...

; but others derived its name from a fountain Pisa. Modern writers connect its name with Πῖσος, a low marshy ground, or with Πίσσα, the name of the black fir or pinetree. It was celebrated in mythology as the residence of Oenomaus and Pelops. The Virgilian commentator Servius wrote that the Teuti, or Pelops, the king of the Pisatans, arrived on the Tyrrhenian coast after the

Trojan War The Trojan War was a legendary conflict in Greek mythology that took place around the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. The war was waged by the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans (Ancient Greece, Greeks) against the city of Troy after Paris (mytho ...

and founded the Italian (and more famous)

Pisa Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...

in the 13th century BCE. These traditions are regarded as having no merit of historical truth today, but are classed as folk-etymologies.

Early Olympic Games

In the eighth

Olympiad An olympiad (, ''Olympiás'') is a period of four years, particularly those associated with the Ancient Olympic Games, ancient and Olympic Games, modern Olympic Games. Although the ancient Olympics were established during Archaic Greece, Greece ...

(747 BCE) the Pisatans succeeded in depriving the Eleians of the presidency by calling in the assistance of Pheidon I, king of Argos, in conjunction with whom they celebrated the festival. But almost immediately afterwards the power of Pheidon was destroyed by the

Spartans 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 valley of Evrotas river in Laconia, in southeastern P ...

, who not only restored to the Eleians the presidency, but are said even to have confirmed them in the possession of the Pisatis and Triphylia. In the Second Messenian War the Pisatans and Triphylians revolted from Elis and assisted the Messenians, while the Eleians sided with the Spartans. In this war the Pisatans were commanded by their king Pantaleon, who also succeeded in making himself master of Olympia by force, during the 34th Olympiad (644 BCE), and in celebrating the games to the exclusion of the Eleians. The conquest of the Messenians by the Spartans must also have been attended by the submission of the Pisatans to their former masters. In the 48th Olympiad (588 BCE) the Eleians, suspecting the fidelity of Damophon, the son of Pantaleon, invaded the Pisatis, but were persuaded by Damophon to return home without committing any further acts of hostility. But in the 52nd Olympiad (572 BCE), Pyrrhus, who had succeeded his brother Damophon in the sovereignty of Pisa, invaded Elis, assisted by the Dyspontii in the Pisatis, and by the Macistii and Scilluntii in Triphylia. This attempt ended in the ruin of these towns, which were razed to the ground by the Eleians. From this time Pisa disappears from history; and so complete was its destruction that the fact of its ever having existed was disputed in later times. Although Pisa ceased to exist as a city from this time, the Pisatans, in conjunction with the Arcadians, celebrated the 104th Olympic festival in 364 BCE.

Later testimonies

Pausanias found its site converted into a vineyard. Its situation, however, was perfectly well known to

Pindar Pindar (; ; ; ) was an Greek lyric, Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes, Greece, Thebes. Of the Western canon, canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian wrote, "Of the nine lyric poets, Pindar i ...

and

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

. Pindar frequently identifies it with Olympia; and Herodotus refers to Pisa and Olympia as the same point in computing the distance from the altar of the twelve gods at Athens.

References

Attribution

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External links

Mait Kõiv, Early History of Elis and Pisa: Invented or Evolving Traditions?
{{Archaia Olympia div Populated places in ancient Elis Cities in ancient Peloponnese Former populated places in Greece Olympia, Greece Populated places in Elis