Amphiareion of Oropos

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Amphiareion of Kalamos, situated in the hills 6 km southeast of the fortified port of Oropos, was a sanctuary dedicated in the late fifth century BCE to the hero Amphiaraos, where pilgrims went to seek oracular responses and healing. It became particularly successful during the fourth century, to judge from the intensive building at the site. The hero Amphiaraos was a descendant of the seer Melampos and initially refused to participate in the attack on Thebes (detailed in the Seven Against Thebes of Aeschylus) because he could foresee that it would be a disaster. In some versions of the myth,the earth opens and swallows the chariot of Amphiaraos, transforming him into a chthonic hero.The sanctuary is located 37.2 km NNE of Athens at a sacred spring; it contained a temple of Amphiaraos (with an acrolithic cult statue), as well as a theater, a stoa, and associated structures. The temenos extended for some 240 metres northeast from theTemple of Amphiaraos (hence Amphiareion) along a streambed.