Sanctuary of Poseidon and meeting place of the Ionian League.
The sanctuary is on a low hill on the N slope of Mt. Mycale, overlooking the sea. It was in the territory of Priene, which is ca. 5 km due S on the opposite slope of the mountain, and linked to that city by a paved road.
The sanctuary was enclosed by a temenos wall and at the center of the site was a rectangualr altar of ca. 17.50 m by 4.25 m. There were no temples or other buildings at the sanctuary, but a small theater or odeum consisting of 11 semicircular rows of seats cut into bedrock is located ca. 50 m SW of the altar at the foot of the small hill. This was almost certainly the meeting place for the delegates of the Ionian League. There is also a large cave above the meeting place, but it has not been shown to have had a cult function.
Description:
At an early date, possibly before 800 B.C., the 12 main Ionian cities formed the Panionic League which had religious and cultural importance, but no political or military function. The League established its center at a site which may have already been sacret to the small city of Melia and dedicated the new sanctuary to Poseidon Heliconius. The sanctuary served as the meeting place of the League and as the location for the Paionia, a regularly held festival in honor of Poseidon. The city of Priene managed the sanctuary and had some privileges in appointment of priests.
During the Persian period activities of the League and the sanctuary were limited and for a time the Panionia was held in the neighborhood of Ephesus for saftey. After the conquests of Alexander, the Paionia was revived at its origianl sanctuary and continued to be held throughout the Roman period. The cultural and religious significance of the Panionium sanctuary and the festival, however, never regained the importance they held before the 5th century B.C.
Exploration:
The location of the Panionium was first suggested by the discovery of an inscription in the area in 1673. T. Wiegand discovered the actual location of the sanctuary at the end of the 19th century and the site was partially excavated by a German team in 1958.
PANIO´NIUM (Paniônion), a place on the western slope of Mount Mycale, in the territory of Priene, containing the common national sanctuary of Poseidon, at which the Ionians held their regular meetings, from which circumstance the place derived its name. It was situated at a distance of 3 stadia from the sea-coast. (Strab. xiv. p. 639; Herod. i. 141, foll.; Mela, i. 17; Plin. v. 31; Paus. vii. 5. § 1.) The Panionium was properly speaking only a grove, with such buildings as were necessary to accommodate strangers. Stephanus B. is the only writer who calls it a town, and even mentions the Ethnic designation of its citizens. The preparations for the meeting and the management of the games devolved upon the inhabitants of Priene. The earlier travellers and geographers looked for the site of the Panionium in some place near the modern village of Tshangli; but Col. Leake (Asia Minor, p. 260) observes: The uninhabitable aspect of the rocks and forests of Mycale, from Cape Trogilium to the modern Tshangli, is such as to make it impossible to fix upon any spot, either on the face or at the foot of that mountain, at which Panionium can well be supposed to have stood. Tshangli, on the, other hand, situated in a delightful and well watered valley, was admirably suited to the Panionian festival: and here Sir William Gell found, in a church on the sea-shore, an inscription in which he distinguished the name of Panionium twice. I conceive, therefore, that there can be little doubt of Tshangli being on the site of Panionium. [L.S.]
Near Güzelçamli in Ionia, 17 km S of Kuşadasl. Here was the Sanctuary of Poseidon Helikonios, the religious place of assembly of the Ionian League. The site was unknown until quite recently; Herodotos (1.148) places it on Mt. Mykale facing N; Strabo (639) calls it the first place after the Samos strait going N, three stades from the sea. This region was disputed between Priene and Samos, but the priesthood belonged to the Prienians. The assembly was accompanied by a festival, the Panionia, held on the ample plain to the N. According to Diodoros (15.49.1) the festival was transferred, because of the constant wars, to a safe place near Ephesos, and it seems to be referred to as the Ephesia by Thucydides (3.104). It was suspended under Persian rule and revived after the time of Alexander.
The sanctuary lay on the summit of a low hill called Otomatik Tepe (formerly the hill of St. Elias) at the foot of the mountain; the remains are scanty in the extreme. From one to three courses of the enclosing wall may be seen, with an entrance on the W; in the middle are traces, mostly cuttings in the rock, of a structure some 18 by 4 m; this is evidently the altar of Poseidon, dated by the excavators to the end of the 6th c. B.C. No temple was found, and none is mentioned in the ancient authorities, who refer only to sacrifices (Diod. l.c.; Strab. 384).
At the SW foot of the hill is the council chamber of the Ionian League, a theaterlike building some 30 m in diameter with 11 rows of seats. There is no speaker's platform, but only the leveled rock. Diodoros says that nine cities, not twelve, shared in the assembly, and the excavators see some confirmation of this in the arrangement of the front row of seats; the historian's statement has generally been regarded as a mistake.
Between the council chamber and the sanctuary is a large cave in the hillside. This may well have played a part in the cult of Poseidon, though nothing of interest has been found in it.
