Archaeological site

Temple of Artemis Amarynthia

Greece

About

The Temple of Artemis Amarynthia was a sanctuary in Amarynthos in Euboea, dedicated to the goddess Artemis. It was a significant shrine of Artemis and arguably the foremost center of her cult in Northern Greece. Archeological excavations reveal the date of founding to the 6th-century BC. The sanctuary is mentioned by ancient authors from the 3rd-century BC until the 3rd-century AD. According to Callimachus in the 3rd century BC, the temple was established by Agamemnon and often referred to as the temple of Artemis Kolainis (Hornless), "because Agamemnon sacrificed to her a hornless ram made of wax." Strabo described the sanctuary:

The village Amarynthos, which is seven stadia distant from the walls [of Eretria in Euboia], belongs to this city... As for the power the Eretrians once had, this is evidenced by the pillar which they once set up in the temple of Artemis Amarynthia. It was inscribed thereon that they made their festal procession with three thousand heavy-armed soldiers, six hundred horsemen, and sixty chariots. And they ruled over the peoples of Andros, Teos, Keos, and other islands. The temple was the center for the cult of Artemis in Northern Greece, and the destination...