Mount Lykaion

Mount Lykaion
Λύκαιος ορος Mons Lycaeus
A view from the summit of Mt. Lykaion, looking E toward the stoa and hippodrome.
Highest point
Coordinates	37°27′25″N 21°58′30″E / 37.45694°N 21.97500°E / 37.45694; 21.97500
Geography
Mount Lykaion Location of Mount Lykaion in Greece
Location	Arcadia, Greece

Mount Lykaion (Ancient Greek: Λύκαιον ὄρος, Lýkaion Óros; Latin: Mons Lycaeus) is a mountain in Arcadia, Greece. Lykaion has two peaks: Stefani to the north and St. Ilias (Άγιος Ηλίας, Agios Īlías) to the south where the altar of Zeus is located.^[1]

The northern peak is higher, 1,421 m, than the southern, 1,382 m (4,662 and 4,534 ft). Mount Lykaion was sacred to Zeus Lykaios, who was said to have been born and brought up on it, and was the home of Pelasgus and his son Lycaon, who were said to have founded the ritual of Zeus practiced on its summit. This seems to have involved a human sacrifice and a feast in which the man who received the portion of a human victim was changed to a wolf, as Lycaon had been after sacrificing a child. The altar of Zeus consists of a great mound of ashes with a retaining wall. It was said that no shadows fell within the precincts and that any who entered it died within the year. The sanctuary of Zeus played host to athletic games held every four years, the Lykaia.

Archaeological excavations were first carried out in 1897 by K. Kontopoulos for the Greek Archaeological Service,^[2] followed by K. Kourouniotes between 1902 and 1909.^[3][4][5]

The Mt. Lykaion Excavation and Survey Project, a joint effort of the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Arizona began work at the site in 2004, with the aim of continuing the topographical survey begun in 1996 and carrying out a full topographical and architectural analysis not only of the altar and temenos, but of the nearby valley where the Lykaian Games were held. The detailed digital records and drawings of every architectural stone block.^[6] To date, a complete map of the area has been made, including not only the Ash Altar and temenos, but also two fountains, including the Hagno fountain mentioned by Pausanias, the hippodrome, the stadium, a building that was probably a bathhouse, the xenon (hotel), a stoa, several rows of seats, and a group of statue bases.

Many of these buildings seem to have been planned in relation to each other: the baths at the northern end of the hippodrome are on the same alignment as it is, and the stoa, the xenon, the lower fountain, and the rows of seats all appear to have been built in an intentionally similar alignment. Just to the north of the stoa four rows of seats were excavated, with the remains of a group of stelae and statue bases nearby. These would have bordered the hippodrome's southern edge, and correspond to an earlier excavated row of seats on the south-eastern edge of the racetrack. The majority of the spectators of events in the hippodrome, however, would have sat on the surrounding hills.^{[7]: 381–396}