Tenea
Encyclopedia
Corinthia
Corinthia is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Peloponnese. It is situated around the city of Corinth, in the north-eastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula.-Geography:...
, Peloponnese, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Corinth
Corinth (municipality)
The municipality of Corinth is a Greek municipality located in the Peleponnese periphery established on 1 January 2011 under the Kallikratis programme for local government reform. The municipality is made up of five previous municipalities: Assos-Lechaio, Corinth, Saronikos, Tenea and Solygeia...
, of which it is a municipal unit. The seat of the municipality was in Chiliomodi
Chiliomodi
Chiliomodi is a village in east-central Corinthia in the Peloponnese. It was the seat of the municipality of Tenea. Chiliomodi is situated on the old GR-7, the old road linking Tripoli and Corinth...
. Ancient Tenea was established approximately 15 kilometres SE of Corinth
Corinth
Corinth is a city and former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Corinth, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit...
and 20 kilometres NE of Mycenae
Mycenae
Mycenae is an archaeological site in Greece, located about 90 km south-west of Athens, in the north-eastern Peloponnese. Argos is 11 km to the south; Corinth, 48 km to the north...
shortly after 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...
. It is believed that the first inhabitants were Trojans prisoners of war to whom Agamemnon
Agamemnon
In Greek mythology, Agamemnon was the son of King Atreus and Queen Aerope of Mycenae, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of Clytemnestra, and the father of Electra and Orestes. Mythical legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos, thought to be different names for the same area...
permitted to built their own town. Hence the name Tenea resembles that of Tenedos
Tenedos
Tenedos or Bozcaada or Bozdja-Ada is a small island in the Aegean Sea, part of the Bozcaada district of Çanakkale province in Turkey. , Tenedos has a population of about 2,354. The main industries are tourism, wine production and fishing...
, their home-town. Tenea and Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, according to the Aeneid
Aeneid
The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of roughly 10,000 lines in dactylic hexameter...
of Virgil
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
, are two historical cities known to be associated with Trojan ancestry following the Trojan War. Corinthians and Teneans in 734 or 733 BC under the leadership of Archias
Archias of Corinth
Archias was a quasi-mythological Corinthian citizen and founder of the colony of Syracuse in Sicily.-Legend:Archias fell in love with the son of Melissus, named Actaeon - the most handsome and modest youth of his age in the city - and proceeded to court him...
established the joint colony of Syracuse
Syracuse, Italy
Syracuse is a historic city in Sicily, the capital of the province of Syracuse. The city is notable for its rich Greek history, culture, amphitheatres, architecture, and as the birthplace of the preeminent mathematician and engineer Archimedes. This 2,700-year-old city played a key role in...
in 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,...
, the homeland of Archimedes
Archimedes
Archimedes of Syracuse was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists in classical antiquity. Among his advances in physics are the foundations of hydrostatics, statics and an...
.
Historical Accounts
Mention of Tenea was made by StraboStrabo
Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...
Tenea, also, is in Korinthia, and in it is a temple of the Apollon Teneatos; and it is said that most of the colonists who accompanied Archias, the leader of the colonists to Syracuse, set out from there, and that afterwards Tenea prospered more than the other settlements, and finally even had a government of its own, and, revolting from the Corinthians, joined the Romans, and endured after the destruction of Corinth. And it seems, also, that there is a kinship between the peoples of Tenedos and Tenea, through Tennes the son of Kyknos, as Aristotle says; and the similarity in the worship of Apollon among the two peoples affords strong indications of such kinship. |
| Strabo, (8.6.22) |
and 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...
Such is the account I heard of the Asopus. When you have turned from the Acrocorinthus into the mountain road you see the Teneatic gate and a sanctuary of Eilethyia. The town called Tenea is just about sixty stades distant. The inhabitants say that they are Trojans who were taken prisoners in Tenedos by the Greeks, and were permitted by Agamemnon to dwell in their present home. For this reason they honor Apollo more than any other god. |
| Pausanias, Description of Greece, |
Archaeological findings
Ruins of Tenea can still be found one kilometre south of ChiliomodiChiliomodi
Chiliomodi is a village in east-central Corinthia in the Peloponnese. It was the seat of the municipality of Tenea. Chiliomodi is situated on the old GR-7, the old road linking Tripoli and Corinth...
. Some of the archaeological findings are located today in the Archaeological Museum of Ancient Corinth. The most famous finding, the statue
Statue
A statue is a sculpture in the round representing a person or persons, an animal, an idea or an event, normally full-length, as opposed to a bust, and at least close to life-size, or larger...
from Tenea, known as Kouros of Tenea
Kouros of Tenea
The grave statue of a youth from Tenea known as the Kouros of Tenea is now located in the Glyptothek in Munich, Germany....
(c. 550 BC), which was found near Athikia
Athikia
Athikia is the seat of the municipality of Saronikos, located in the prefecture of Corinthia in Greece. Athikia has a population of approximately 2000 and is located 15 km South of the city of Corinth....
in 1846, today stands in the Glyptothek of Munich. It is a great example of the sixth century BC Greek sculpture and also example of the so-called Aeginetean or archaic smile
Archaic smile
The Archaic smile was used by Greek Archaic sculptors, especially in the second quarter of the sixth century BCE, possibly to suggest that their subject was alive, and infused with a sense of well-being. To viewers habituated to realism, the smile is flat and quite unnatural looking, although it...
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Subdivisions
The municipal unit Tenea is subdivided into the following communities (constituent villages in brackets):- Agionori
- Agios Vasileios
- ChiliomodiChiliomodiChiliomodi is a village in east-central Corinthia in the Peloponnese. It was the seat of the municipality of Tenea. Chiliomodi is situated on the old GR-7, the old road linking Tripoli and Corinth...
- Klenia
- Koutalas (Koutalas, MapsosMapsosMapsos is a settlement in the southern Corinthia prefecture. Mapsos is in the community of Koutalas and the municipal unit of Tenea. Mapsos is located southwest of Corinth, west-southwest of Athens, north of Chiliomodi, northeast of Tripoli and east-southeast of Patras and Aigio...
, Spathovouni) - Stefani
Historical population
| Year | Population |
|---|---|
| 1991 | 5,245 |
| 2001 | 5,136 |
See also
- Gallery and description [in Greek] of monuments in and around Tenea.
- List of traditional Greek place names