The Phokikon and the Hero Archegetes

Abstract

A SHORT DISTANCE WEST of the Boiotian town of Chaironeia the Sacred Way I L crossed the border into Phokis. The road went past Panopeus and on toward Daulis before turning south toward the Schiste Odos and, eventually, Delphi (Fig. 1). To reach the famous crossroads where Oidipos slew his father, the Sacred Way first had to pass through the valley of the Platanias River. In this valley, on the left side of the road, was the federal meeting place of the Phokians, the Phokikon.1 This is one of the few civic buildings from antiquity whose internal layout is described by an eyewitness.2 Pausanias says,