Pleuron
- a city in Aetolia, now Castle of Irene, Plin. 4, 2, 3, § 6; Stat. Th. 2, 727; Ov. M. 7, 382.— Hence, Pleurōnĭus, a, um, adj., = Πλευρώνιος, of or belonging to Pleuron, Pleuronian: Pleuronius Acmon, Ov. M. 14, 494. —Subst.: Pleurōnĭa, ae, f., Aetolia, or that part of Aetolia in which Pleuron is situated, Aus. Epit. 10.
(Πλευρών), a son of Aetolus and Pronoe, and brother of Calydon, was married to Xanthippe, by whom he became the father of Agenor, Sterope, Stratonice, and Laophonte. He is said to have founded the town of Pleuron in Aetolia, but he had a heroum at Sparta. (Apollod. 1.7.7 ; Paus. 3.13.5.) [L.S]
PLEURON (Πλευρών: Eth. Πλευρώνιος, also Πλευρωνεύς, Steph. B. s. v., Pleuronius), the name of two cities in Aetolia, the territory of which was called Pleuronia. ( Strab. 10. p. 465; Auson. Epitaph. 10.)
1.OLD PLEURON ( ἡ παλαιὰ Πλευρών, Strab. 10. p. 451), was situated in the plain between the Achelous and the Evenus, W. of Calydon, at the foot of Mount Curium, from which the Curetes are said to have derived their name. Pleuron and Calydon were the two chief towns of Aetolia in the heroic age, and are said by Strabo (10. p. 450) to have been the ancient ornament (πρόσχημα) of Greece. Pleuron was originally a town of the Curetes, and its inhabitants were engaged in frequent wars with the Aetolians of the neighbouring town of Calydon. The Curetes, whose attack upon Calydon is mentioned in an episode of the Iliad (9.529), appear to have been the inhabitants of Pleuron. At the time of the Trojan War, however, Pleuron was an Aetolian city, and its inhabitants sailed against Troy under the command of the Aetolian chief Thoas, the son (not the grandson) of Oeneus. (Hom. Il. 2.639, comp. 13.217, 14.116.) Ephorus related that the Curetes were expelled from Pleuronia, which was formerly called Curetis, by Aeolians (ap. Strab. 10. p. 465); and this tradition may also be traced in the statement of Thucydides (Thuc. 3.102) that the district, called Calydon and Pleuronia in the time of the Peloponnesian War, formerly bore the name of Aeolis. Since Pleuron appears as an Aetolian city in the later period of the heroic age, it is represented in some traditions as such from the beginning. Hence it is said to have derived its name from Pleuron, a son of Aetolus ; and at the very time that some legends represent it as the capital of the Curetes, and engaged in war with Oeneus, king of Calydon, others suppose it to have been governed by the Aetolian Thestius, the brother of Oeneus. Thestius was also represented as a descendant of Pleuron; and hence Pleuron had an heroum or a chapel at Sparta, as being the ancestor of Leda, the daughter of Thestius. But there are all kinds of variations in these. traditions. Thus we find in Sophocles Oeneus, and not Thestius, represented as king of Pleuron. (Apollod. 1.7.7; Paus. 3.14.8; Soph. Trach. 7.) One of the tragedies of Phrynichus, the subject of which appears to have been the death of Meleager, the son of Oeneus, was entitled Πλευρώνιαι, or the Pleuronian Women;a nd hence it is not improbable that Phrynichus, as well as Sophocles, represented Oeneus as king of Pleuron. (Paus. 10.31.4.) Pleuron is rarely mentioned in the historical period. It was abandoned by its inhabitants, says Strabo, in consequence of the ravages of Demetrius, the Aetolian, a surname probably given to Demetrius II., king of Macedonia (who reigned B.C. 239--229), to distinguish him from Demetrius Poliorcetes. (Strab. 10. p. 451.) The inhabitants now built the town of
2.NEW PLEURON (ἡ νεωτέρα Πλευρών which was situated at the foot of Mt. Aracynthus. Shortly before the destruction of Corinth (B.C. 146), we find Pleuron, which was then a member of the Achaean League, petitioning the Romans to be dissevered from it. (Paus. 7.11.3.) Leake supposes, on satisfactory grounds, the site of New Pleuron to be represented by the ruins called τὸ Κάστρον τῆς Κυρίας Εἰρήνης, or the Castle of Lady Irene about one hour's ride from Mesolonghi. These ruins occupy the broad summit of one of the steep and rugged heights of Mt. Zyqos (the ancient Aracynthus), which bound the plain of Mesolonghi to the north. Leake says that the walls were about a mile in circumference, but Mure and Dodwell describe the circuit as nearly two miles. The most remarkable remains within the ruined walls are a theatre about 100 feet in diameter, and above it a cistern, 100 feet long, 70 broad, and 14 deep, excavated on three sides in the rock, and on the fourth constructed of masonry. In the acropolis Leake discovered some remains of Doric shafts of white marble, which he conjectures to have belonged to the temple of Athena, of which Dicaearchus speaks (1. 55) ; but the temple mentioned by Dicaearchus must have been at Old Pleuron, since Dicaearchus was a contemporary of Aristotle and Theophrastus, and could not have been alive at the time of the foundation of New Pleuron. Dodwell, who visited the ruins of this city, erroneously maintains that they are those of Oeniadae, which were, however, situated among the marshes on the other side of the Achelous. Leake places Old Pleuron further south, at a site called Ghyfto-kastro, on the edge of the plain of Mesolonghi, where there are a few Hellenic remains. (Leake, Northern Greece, vol. 1. p. 115, seq., vol. 3. p. 539; Dodwell, Tour through Greece, vol. 1. p. 96, seq.; Mure, Tour in Greece, vol. 1. p. 140, seq.)
(Πλευρών). An ancient city in Aetolia, situated at a little distance from the coast. It was abandoned by its inhabitants when Demetrius II., king of Macedonia, laid waste the surrounding country, and a new city was built under the same name near the ancient one. The two cities are distinguished by geographers under the names of Old Pleuron and New Pleuron respectively.
The city is in Aitolia-Akarnania. The name refers to two settlements, the older of which was at the foot of Mt. Kurios (Strab. 10.451) between the river Acheloos and the river Euenos, and was mentioned by Homer (Il. 2.638).
Pleuron, according to Strabo, was founded by the Kouretes; or Thoas, son of Aeneas, guided the Aitolians there (10.461). When Demetrios II of Macedonia destroyed Pleuron the inhabitants founded a new city on the uplands of Arakinthos, which had the protection of Rome before the taking of Corinth. During the Imperial age the uprisings in Aitolia continued. The ruins of the more ancient city are N of the newer one and cosist of a few remnants of Cyclopean walls. Nea Pleuron has been identified on the Arakinthos (Zygos) in the locality of the castle of Κυρίας Εἰρήνης.
The city wall is a large rectangule with seven gates and 31 towers served by stairways. The masonry is partly trapezoidal and partly peudo-isodomic with squared faces, well preserved almost everywhere, and datable to ca. 230 B.C. The acropolis occupies the upper part of the site, but little of it remains. A Byzantine chapel was built on the remains of the Temple of Athena. The actual city occupies a vast terrace 243 m above sea level, with which it is linked N-S by a defense wall that also encircles the port. The civil buildings are to the S. The theater is in the SW part of the city with the proscenium leaning against the inside surface of the city wall. The central part of the building housing the skene is a tower. The proscenium had six columns, and the parascenia must have been elevated above it and must have leaned against the wall. The circle of the orchestra is tangent to the skene building. The cavea, well preserved at the N, had five sections and six staircases. The construction of the theater is contemporary with that of the walls.
Several other areas are recognizable within the city walls, including the site of the agora, with a stoa oriented N-S and ca. 62 m long, and the plan of the gymnasium. To the SE was a large communal cistern (30 x 20 m) with five rectangular basins. There are also remains of unidentifiable public buildings and rather extensive remnants of houses and cisterns. The necropoleis extend to the S of the terrace occupied by the city.
BIBLIOGRAPHYArchAnz 31 (1916); E. Fiechter, Die Theater von Oiniadai und Neupleuron (1931); P. E. Arias, Il teatro greco fuori di Atene (1934); R. L. Scranton, Greek Walls (1941); R. E. Wycherley, How the Greeks Built Cities (1949); W. B. Dinsmoor, The Architecture of Ancient Greece (1950).
N. BONACASA- his shrine: Paus. 3.13.8
- son of Aetolus, husband of Xanthippe: Apollod. 1.7.5
- ancestor of Dioscuri: Paus. 3.13.8
- Apollod. 1.7.5
- severed from Achaean confederacy: Paus. 7.11.3