Alalcomenae (Boeotia)


Alalcomenae or Alalkomenai, or Alalcomenium or Alalkomenion, 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 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. 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:
In view of the cult of Athena there, presumably local myth in Alalcomenae followed the first of these theories.
Beyond the modern village of Solinari, the site of Alalcomenae, are some polygonal foundations, apparently those of a single building, which are probably remains of the peribolus of the temple. Both the town and the temple were plundered by the Roman general Sulla, who carried off the statue of the goddess. Pausanias recalls a story after Sulla stole the statue of Athena from the temple, in revenge Athena sent a plague of lice upon him; but afterwards the temple was neglected. The nearby Alalkomenes was renamed in 1928 to reflect association with the ancient town.