Troezen

Troezen (TREE-zun, Greek: Τροιζήν), modern: Troizina or Trizina is a city in Argolis located southwest of Athens and a few miles south of Methana.

According to Greek mythology, Aegeus, king of Athens visited Troezen on his way back from a visit to the Delphic oracle. Pittheus, king of Troezen made Aegeus drunk, and partnered him with his daughter Aethra. Legend has it that Aethra slept with Poseidon the same night, and she fell pregnant with the great Greek hero Theseus. Before returning to Athens, Aegeus left his sandals and sword under a large boulder, and requested that when the child was able to prove himself by moving the boulder he must return the items to his father in Athens.

When Theseus came of age his mother took him to a forest clearing outside the city walls and challenged him to lift the boulder. Beneath it he found his father's arms, and began his heroic adventures by taking the dangerous overland route to Athens.

Troezen is also the setting of the Euripides tragedy Hippolytus, which recounts the story of the eponymous son of Theseus who becomes the subject of the love of his stepmother, Phaedra. When Hippolytus discovers his stemother's feelings for him he is appalled. Phaedra subsequently kills herself in shame, but not before writing a suicide note accusing Hippolytus of raping her. When Theseus finds the note, he banishes Hippolytus, invoking a curse from Poseidon upon him. While fleeing the city, Hippolytus is killed when his chariot is attacked by a bull rising from the sea. Other plays on the same subject have been written by Seneca and Jean Racine.

A cult built up in in the ancient city around the legend of Hippolytus. Troezen girls traditionally dedicated a lock of their hair to him before marriage.

Before the Battle of Salamis, Athenian women and children were sent to Troezen for safety on the instructions of the Athenian statesman Themistocles. In 1959 a stele was found in a coffee house in Troezen, depicting the Decree of Themistocles, the order to evacuate Athens. The stele has since been dated to some 200 years after the Battle of Salamis, indicating that it is probably a commemorative copy of the original order.

The temple of Isis was built by the Halicarnassians in Troezen, because this was their mother-city, but the image of Isis was dedicated by the people of Troezen. The ancient city also possessed a spring, which formed at where the winged horse Pegasus once came to ground.

Troezen, Episkopi Church (build on an ancient Aphrodite Temple)

Episkopi Church

Ovid's description of the eruption of Methone ('Metam.', xv.)

"Near Troezene stands a hill, exposed in air
To winter winds, of leafy shadows bare:
This once was level ground; but (strange to tell)
Th' included vapors, that in caverns dwell,
Laboring with colic pangs, and close confined,
In vain sought issue for the rumbling wind:
Yet still they heaved for vent, and heaving still,
Enlarged the concave and shot up the hill,
As breath extends a bladder, or the skins
Of goats are blown t'inclose the hoarded wines;
The mountain yet retains a mountain's face,
And gathered rubbish heads the hollow space."
'Dryden's Translation'.

The municipality of Troizina population 6507 (2001) is divided in

• Galatas / Δ.δ. Γαλατά [ 2.707 ]
  
  • Galatas / ο Γαλατάς [ 2.592 ]
    
  • Agia Sotira / η Αγία Σωτήρα [ 41 ]
    
  • Vlachaiika / τα Βλαχαίικα [ 50 ]
    
  • Saronida / η Σαρωνίδα [ 24 ]
    
• Ano Fanari / Δ.δ. Άνω Φαναρίου [ 387 ]
  
  • Ano Fanari / το Άνω Φανάρι [ 160 ]
    
  • Agia Eleni / η Αγία Ελένη [ 227 ]
    
• Dryopi / Δ.δ. Δρυόπης [ 1.320 ]
  
  • Dryopi / η Δρυόπη [ 318 ]
    
  • Kalloni / η Καλλονή [ 751 ]
    
  • Mylos / ο Μύλος [ 11 ]
    
  • Neratzia / η Νερατζιά [ 23 ]
    
  • Nisida / η Νησίδα [ 3 ]
    
  • Skapeti / το Σκαπέτι [ 171 ]
    
  • Chora / η Χώρα [ 43 ]
    
• Karatzas / Δ.δ. Καρατζά [ 401 ]
  
  • Karatzas / ο Καρατζάς [ 350 ]
    
  • Zervaiika / τα Ζερβαίικα [ 51 ]
    
• Taktikoupoli / Δ.δ. Τακτικούπολης [ 737 ]
  
  • Taktikoupoli / η Τακτικούπολης [ 391 ]
    
  • Agios Konstantinos / ο Άγιος Κωνσταντίνος [ 73 ]
    
  • Akti Agapis / η Ακτή Αγάπης [ 27 ]
    
  • Vydi / το Βύδι [ 23 ]
    
  • Metamorfosi / η Μεταμόρφωση [ 174 ]
    
  • Psifta / η Ψήφτα [ 49 ]
    
• Troizina / Δ.δ. Τροιζήνας [ 955 ]
  
  • Troizina / η Τροιζήνα [ 671 ]
    
  • Agios Georgios / ο Άγιος Γεώργιος [ 284 ]