Temple of Athena Alalkomeneis

Alalcomenae or Alalkomenai (Ἀ), or Alalcomenium or Alalkomenion (Ἀ), was a town in ancient Boeotia, situated at the foot of Mount Tilphossium, a little to the east of Coroneia, and near Lake Copais. It was celebrated for the worship of Athena, who was said to have been born there, and who is hence called Alalcomeneis (Ἀ) in Homer's Iliad. The temple of the goddess stood, at a little distance from the town, on the Triton River, a small stream flowing into Lake Copais. The town was by a hill which Strabo calls Mount Tilphossium (named for Telphousa, the spring visited by the god Apollo). Strabo also records that the tomb of the seer Teiresias, and the temple of Tilphossian Apollo, were located just outside Alalcomenae. Ancient sources preserve three accounts of the origin of the town's name: Stephanus of Byzantium and the geographer Pausanias — and probably Homer — preserve the story that it was named after Alalcomenes (or Alalkomenes, in Stephanus), who raised the goddess Athena there. Pausanias also records an account that it was named after Alalcomenia, daughter of Ogygus, King of the Ectenes, the people to first occupy the land of Thebes. According to Stephanus of Byzantium, the Alexandrian scholar Aristarchus of Samothrace believed the town was named from the Greek verb ἀῖ "to protect" (< ἀ), to reflect Athena's role

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