Tegea, Mantineia, Pallantio – Travels In The Myth, The History And The Monuments (2016)

This book presents the Arcadian highlands of the Tegeatik, the Mantineian and Pallantic plains, places from which the charm of the haunted mountains, as characterized in the ancient myths, are displayed in a riveting way. The historical events and the monuments that form a peculiar palimpsest in which the older aspects, no matter how old, are neither covered nor faded, but always indelibly and eternally project its significance, allowing the next aspect to take its place until it, in turn, becomes the older aspect. The monument that awakens historical memory is certainly the artificial work, but it could also be the natural environment itself, where an important historical or mythological event took place, such as the death of Epameinondas at the foot of the hill of Skopi, or the Temple of Athena Alea at Tegea, where Hercules met the priestess Avgi (Dawn) and Telephos was born. As is often the case in Greece, here too in Arcadia the monument site is linked to the events which are separated by time, such as the region of the great conflict of Mantineia in 362 BC, in which the other great battle, the Battle of the Trench (Γράνας), also took place over two thousand years later.