Tanagra (ancient world)
Tanagra was an ancient city located in eastern Boeotia, central Greece, strategically positioned on a terraced hill near the river Asopus. It was known for its fertile surroundings, particularly famous for fowl. The city is believed to have been founded by Poemandrus and played an active role during the Mycenaean period. Throughout its history, Tanagra was involved in various conflicts, including a notable war against the Eretrians and later interactions with the Athenians and Spartans.
In the 4th century BC, Tanagra became renowned for its production of terracotta figurines, known as "Tanagra figurines," which reflect scenes of daily life and were often found in local cemeteries. The city was also the birthplace of the lyric poet Corinna. Despite periods of occupation and political change, Tanagra maintained its prosperity into the Roman era, continuing to mint coins and displaying significant archaeological features like ancient walls, a theater, and the foundations of a temple associated with Dionysus. The remnants of inscriptions and artifacts from Tanagra offer insights into its rich cultural and historical legacy, making it a point of interest for those exploring ancient Greek civilization.
Subject Terms
Tanagra (ancient world)
(three miles from the modern Tanagra and from Schimatarion)
The principal center of eastern Boeotia (central Greece), situated on a round terraced hill at the eastern extremity of Mount Ceryceium, overlooking the left (north) bank of the river Asopus—one of a number of Greek rivers of that name—where it is joined by the Laris (Lari). A fertile plain, famous for its fowls, extends in the vicinity.
The city claimed to have been founded by Poemandrus, who was also credited with the foundation of another Boeotian town, Poemandria. Tanagra fulfilled an active artistic role in the Mycenaean (late Bronze) Age, and at some date in the early first millennium BC was believed by Pausanias to have fought a war against the Eretrians of Euboea. In about 550 its citizens joined Megara in colonizing Heraclea Pontica (Ereǧli) on the Euxine (Black) Sea, and later in the same country began to issue coins depicting a Boeotian shield (later inscribed BOI), which indicate that Tanagra had by this time become a member of the Boeotian League. In 457 the Athenians and their allies were defeated by a Spartan army near the town, but sixty-one days later they won a decisive victory over the Boeotians at Oenophyta which was probably nearby.
After a period of Spartan occupation (386–374/2), Tanagra still possessed substantial territory of its own. From c 350/330 its workshops, which had made votive objects for centuries, began to produce the famous `Tanagra’ terracotta statuettes, which offer lively and graceful reflections of everyday life, and constitute the city's principal claim to fame; they are habitually named after Tanagra because many specimens were found in an extensive local cemetery, although their principal center of production was probably Athens, anticipated by Taras (Tarentum, Taranto) in southern Italy. Tanagra was the birthplace of the lyric poet Corinna, who probably lived in the third century. In 145 Rome granted the city freedom and immunity from taxes, and in the first century AD, according to Strabo, Tanagra and Thespiae were the only fairly prosperous cities that still existed in Boeotia. Tanagra continued to coin at least until the time of Commodus (180–92).
Its ancient walls (c 385 BC), together with towers and gates, have been traced and partly uncovered. A large theater is visible, and (beneath a ruined chapel) the foundations of a temple: it is tentatively identified as a shrine of Dionysus mentioned by Pausanias and depicted on the coinage of Antoninus Pius (138–61). Pausanias also inspected a pickled corpse identified as a sea monster or Triton who had been caught while ambushing cattle or, according to an alternative version, while attacking the women of Tanagra as they swam in the sea before performing Dionysus' secret rites; an expert on marine monsters, Damostratus, reported that the object had rough, hard scales and stank. Hundreds of Tanagran inscriptions are preserved in the walls of local buildings in the museums at Schimatarion and Thebes.