Many remains of the ancient city can be seen today including: • Parts of the city walls and gates (of 4 km length) • The Theatre • Palaces I and II • Upper and Lower Gymnasiums • House of the mosaics • The Baths • Temple of Apollo Daphnephoros • Temple of Artemis • Temple of Isis • Temple of Dionysos • The Acropolis • Macedonian tomb
Temple of Apollo Daphnephoros The temple of
Apollo Daphnephoros is the most important and wider known monument of Eretria, featuring sparkling and sharp sculptures on the pediments, their postures well in advance of experiments in Athens of the time. Together with its enclosure it constituted the sacred temenos of Apollo, a religious centre and fundamental place of worship within the core of the ancient city, to the north of the Agora. According to the
Homeric hymn to Apollo, when the god was seeking for a location to found its oracle, he arrived to the Lelantine plain. The first temple is dated to the Geometric period and was situated probably near the harbour, as the sea then reached the area of the Agora. The
hecatompedon (hundred-footer) apsidal edifice is the earliest in its type among those mentioned by Homer, and slightly after the hecatompedon temple of
Hera on the island of
Samos. It was flanked to the south by another apsidal building which also came to light: the so-called
Daphniforio or "space with laurels" (7.5 x 11.5m) is the most ancient edifice in Eretria, related to the early cult of Apollo in
Delphi. At the centre of this edifice were preserved the clay bases supporting the laurel trunks that propped up the roof. In the early sixteenth century a second hecatompedon temple was erected through earth fills upon its Geometric predecessor, on a solid artificial terrace. This temple had wooden columns (six at the narrow sides and nineteen at the longer sides), and was subsequently covered with earth in order to build the later and most renowned of all temples in the city. Construction started at the late sixth century BC (520-490 BC) and the temple was perhaps still unfinished when the
Persians razed the city in 490 BC.
Poros stone and
marble were the materials used for this
Doric peristyle (surrounded by colonnades) temple (6 x 14 columns). It had a
prodomos (anteroom) and an
opisthodomos (back section) arranged with two columns in antis; the cella (in Greek
sekos was divided into three naves by two interior colonnades. After the destruction of the city by the
Persians, the temple was repaired and remained in use; yet in 198 BC it was destroyed again, this time by the Romans, a fact which initiated the gradual abandonment and dilapidation of the monument until the first century BC. Some important sculptures were found and are displayed in the
Chalcis museum. One of the Amazons was salvaged in antiquity and carried off to Rome. Several
Niobids perhaps from the pediment of the temple were probably taken to Rome by
Augustus including the dying Niobid and the running Niobid (now in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek). The majority of architectural parts from this temple and other
sanctuaries of the city were re-used as construction material; only a few (column) drums together with fragmented capitals and triglyphs remain from the superstructure of the monument. Of the sumptuous sculptural decoration survive only parts of the west pediment featuring in relief the fight of the
Amazons (or Amazonomachy, a usual motif for the iconography at the time). The centre was occupied by
Athena and is partially preserved, depicting her trunk with the
Gorgoneion on the thorax; a superb work of art is the complex of Theseus and Antiope marked by sensitivity and softness of the form, internal force and clarity, despite the ornamental tendency obvious in the coiffures and the folds of their clothes. These sculptures are impregnated by the rules of archaic plasticity; the analogies are rendered in an innovative manner, a precursor to the idealization and the force of the classical art. The entire composition supposedly featured chariots to Athena's right and left, one chariot presumably carrying
Theseus and
Antiope, while
Hercules might ride the other, and the picture could be complemented by fighting Amazons and a dead warrior. The east pediment possibly narrated the
Gigantomachy (fight of the Giants). The details of the faces and the clothes were coloured, thus rendering the depiction more vivid. Fragmented sculptures that may be part of the temple after the destruction by the Persians (warrior, Amazon and Athena's trunk) have been located in
Rome. Today are visible only the foundations of the Post-Archaic temple, as well as remains of the Geometric temples uncovered in lower deposits. The temples in the
temenos of Apollo Daphniforos were excavated between 1899 and 1910 by
Κ. Kourouniotis. Further investigations were conducted by Mrs.
I. Konstantinou and by the
Swiss Archaeological School.
The ancient theatre of Eretria The most impressive monument of ancient Eretria, one of the oldest known
theatres, lies in the western section of town, between the western gate, the stadium and the upper gymnasium; the temple of
Dionysos was found at its south-west end. As indicated by the architectural remains of the scene, the initial construction phase followed the invasion by the Persians and the reconstruction of the city in the fifth century BC, whereas the fourth century BC marked the site's peak. A striking fact is the construction of the
cavea (Gr. , auditorium) on an artificial hill surrounded by numerous retaining walls, instead of taking advantage of the citadel's slopes. During the first building phase, the scene looked like a palace, disposed of five adjacent rectangle rooms and found itself at the same level as the circular orchestra, leading to it via three entrances. At its peak (fourth century BC), the theatre suffered transformations and was shaped to a large extent in its present form. The cavea comprised eleven tiers divided by ten staircases. The circular orchestra was transferred for 8m to the north, and was lowered by 3m. The scene was amplified by two backstages connected through a portico with an Ionic façade, thus raising above the orchestra. This difference in heights was evened up by a vaulted underground gallery, leading through the scene to the centre of the orchestra; this was in all probability the "charonian stairway" (stairs of
Hades) allowing actors impersonating chthonic deities and the dead to appear and perform at the orchestra. Local
poros stone was used for the foundation and limestone for the
parodoi (passageways), which sloped to the orchestra in order to diminish the difference in height with the cavea. The theatre seated 6,300 spectators and is reminiscent in form to the
Theatre of Dionysos in
Athens, after transformation of the latter in 330 BC. Following the destruction of Eretria by the
Romans in 198 BC, it was rebuilt with lower quality materials and the rooms to the south of the
parodos were then apparently decorated with colour mortars of the first
Pompeian style. Most benches have been looted. There are still the impressive remains of the scene, especially the vaulted underground passage leading to the orchestra centre. Excavation of the monument was undertaken by the American Archaeological School, while the local
Ephorate of Antiquities strived greatly for its restoration.
Temple of Isis Among the most interesting monuments of ancient Eretria is the Iseion, a temple sacred to the goddess
Isis and other
Egyptian deities. Situated to the south of the town, between the baths and the Lower Gymnasium or the
palaistra (wrestling area), it extends behind the small harbour, a detail that correlates the temenos with merchants who had their interests in Eretria. According to excavation and inscription testimonies, the temple was probably built in the fourth century BC and was surrounded by other edifices and auxiliary spaces. The initiation to the cult of Isis and the Egyptian deities occurred during the
Hellenistic period by Greek merchants who came to
Greece from
Egypt after the unification of the then known world by
Alexander the Great. Their worship in Eretria has also been attested by inscriptions, of which the most important is set on a limestone block to the left of the prodomos (anteroom) before the cella. The temple of Isis was initially simple and oriented to the east, with a prodomos that was distyle (two-columned) in antis. The ceremonial clay statue of the goddess stood on a base within the cella. In front of the temple was the altar and nearby a small drain tank. The temple was reconstructed after the destruction of the city by the Romans in 198 BC: it then acquired a larger external prodomos on ameliorated foundations and was surrounded by porticoes on three sides (north, south and west). Only the south-west end of the portico was covered by a roof. The columns were later replaced by a parapet. At the centre of the east forecourt was a portal facing the entrance of the sanctuary. Fifteen more edifices and auxiliary spaces lied to the north, considered by the excavators as places of purification. Among them was a courtyard and an
andren (dining hall for male residents), while one room of the complex had a superb
mosaic floor featuring lozenges. Excavations at the
temenos sacred to Isis and other Egyptian deities were conducted in 1917 by the then Ephor of Antiquities for the island of Evia (Euboea), Ι. Papadakis. In recent years, the Archaeological Service of the Ministry of Culture undertook further excavations in the wider area of the temple, which brought to light an additional complex of courtyards and rooms directly related to the sanctuary.
House with the mosaics This splendid house was built in ca. 370 B.C. and remained in use for about a century. It is distinguished by its floors, covered with elegant pebble mosaics representing mythological scenes: Nereids on the back of a seahorse, legendary battles between Arimaspians and
griffins,
sphinxes and
panthers. The building is a representative specimen of the Classical and Hellenistic domestic architecture. In the first century BC a funerary monument with a massive rectangular
peribolos was erected over the ruins of the house. The monument was excavated between 1975 and 1980.
Macedonian tomb of Erotes The so-called "
tomb of Erotes" lies on a hill to the northwest of Eretria city and counts among the most significant monuments of
Evia island. Based on the findings, it is dated to the fourth century BC, the time when these characteristic burial monuments of the Macedonian type make their appearance in southern Greece after the descent of the Macedons. More Macedonian tombs were found in the wider area around Eretria, namely in the settlements of Kotroni and
Amarynthos. The tomb of Erotes consists of a single vaulted chamber and a
dromos (entrance passageway) of stone and bricks. The burial chamber is reminiscent of a residential room; it is built of
poros stone plastered with white mortar. During the excavation were found two replicas of painted stone thrones bearing relief decoration. At the rear corners of the burial chamber were two marble bed-shaped
sarcophagi. The tomb had been pillaged. Among the findings today exhibited in the
New York Metropolitan Museum, are bronze vases and clay statuettes of Erotes (Amors), which inspired the tomb's conventional name. Above the tomb was uncovered a stone-built construction, probably the basis of a sepulchre. The monument was excavated in 1897 and is well preserved to date.
Tholos Excavations carried out by the Greek Archaeological Service have revealed the limestone foundations and crepis of a circular building. It was erected in the fifth century BC in the
Agora of the city, and underwent several modifications in the fourth and the third centuries BC. A circular
bothros has also survived at the centre of the monument.
Gymnasium and Eileithyia's sanctuary In 1917, archaeologists uncovered traces of a
gymnasium dating to the 4th century BC. A sanctuary dedicated to
Eileithyia, had been placed in the northwestern section of the building. Also, excavations in the area of the sanctuary found a well containing some 100
terracotta cups dating to the 3rd century BC. In 2018, new excavations in the area revealed more buildings. == Modern Eretria ==