Greece Travel Guide the Peloponnese Corinth Prefecture: Ancient Sikyon
The site is open Tues to Sun, 8:30am -3pm; free.
Sikyon the capital of a small district known as Sikyonia, is believed to be one of the oldest of Greek cities. Even thought the name Sikyon means figs, the region was renowned in ancient times (and continues to be two millennia later) for its olive oil and almonds. It was an artistic center during Classical times, its bronze sculpture made famous by Aristokles, Kanakhos, Polykleitos, and Lysippos.
Its academy of painting, established by Eupompos, was exceptional, producing renowned artists such as Pausias and Pamphilos, the master of Apelles, and endured till Hellenistic times. The local dress from Sikyonia was also admired, and in particular, the shoes.
The ancient city lay in the plain, and the later one (founded by Demetrios Poliorketes) on the acropolis, both of them close to the Asopos River, according to Classical tradition to be an extension of the Maeander, which flowed beneath the sea from near Miletus.
The old Greek word for 'cucucumber' gave this city its name, but its earlier name was Aigialeia, probably from the Aigialaean Ionians (coast-dwelling Ionians) who founded it, later calling it Mekone. The city had a series of heroic kings, including the Argive Adastus, who was the only survivor of the Seven Against Thebes. According to Homer, Adastus was the commander of the Sikyonian contingent to Troy.
After the Dorian invasions its became subject to Argos; during the late 7th century BC, a century long dynasty began, under the tyrant Orthagoras, during which the city flourished. This was when its metal work and sculpture reached a high standard, and pottery was also of fine quality. Boutades of Sikyon is believed to have been the originator of the relief form. Kleisthenes, greatest of the kings during the dynasty period joined the Amphiktyonic League in the Sacred War around 590BC, and it was his destruction of the city of Krisa that freed Delphi. He organized the Pythian Games there and started the similar games at Sikyon, abolishing the worship of the Argive here Adrastus. His successor Aeschines was expelled by the Lacedaemonians around 556BC and Sikyon lost its political independence in the Peloponnesian League, but it continued as an important center of both art and industry, and its coinage achieved widespread use during the 5th to 3rd centuries.
During the Persian invasions the Sikyonians were allies of Sparta, as well as during the Peloponnesian War and afterward. The Theban Epaminondas conquered the city in 368BC, though there was a brief revolt during which a citizen seized the government. In 303BC Demetrios Poliorketes (the Besieger) razed the old city and built a new one on the ruins of the old acropolis , naming it for himself (Demetrias). The city became united with the Achaean League in 251BC, under Aratos, son of Kleinias, who later became its leader. After 146 BC and the eclipse of Corinth, Sikyon took over the Isthmian Games, but when Corinth was rebuilt it gradually declined.
This newer city of 303BC was 3km from the sea on a plateau, triangular in shape, between the gorges of the Asopos and the Helison, a smaller river. The new acropolis was on a higher terrace, the older one on a lower, surrounded by a wall, which were in turn surrounded by vertical cliffs.
The Greek Archaeological Society uncovered only a small part of the city. There is an agora, large Roman Baths which houses the Museum, a Temple, reconstructed during the Hellenistic period, which may be the Temple of Apollo mentioned by Pausanius as having been rebuilt by Pythoklis.
A Hellenistic Stoa closed the end of the agora. The 3rd century BC Bouleuterion (Vouleftirion-or senate building) is an amost square hypostyle hall, the ceiling supported by 16 Ionic columns, and used for other purposes in later times.
There are extensive remains of the Gymnasium of Kleinias built on two levels, the lower from 300BC, the upper from Roman times, with a fountain on either side of the central stairway which links them. The Theater, which dates from the 3rd century BC, is one of the largest in mainland Greece (larger than the one at Epidavros), and occupies a natural hollow in the slope that divides the upper and lower terraces. It was excavated by the American School in 1889-91 and restored somewhat in 1951.
The Achaean League met here in 168BC according to Polybius. The Cavea is 120 meters across; there were two vaulted passages from which the lower diazoma could be reached and 16 staircases, fifty tiers of seats, mostly hollowed out of the rock, divided into 15 wedges, each of which forms one twenty-fifth of a circle. The front seats have backs, armrests, and foot rests carved in the shape of the feet meant to rest there. The Orchestra was of packed earth, with a drain around it, and with a diameter of around 20meters. The stage buildings had a Doric portico as its facade of 13 columns. Pine trees have grown in the upper half of the Theater, from which there are stupendous views, which include the site, the village of Vasiliko, olive and lemon groves around Kiato, gulfs and distant mountains.
The Stadium is west of the Theater, with the straight wall built with polygonal masonry, still partly standing. Remains of the Acropolis on the upper terrace are scant. Under the dividing slope are underground Aqueducts. The Cemetery was discovered in 1976 below the track from Vasiliko to Tragana. There isn't much to see of the old city down below in the plain, though in 1966 a necropolis and mosaics were found there. The site is open Tues to Sun, 8:30am-3pm; free.