File:View of the Amphiareion at Oropos from the entrance to the archaeological site on July 24, 2020.jpg

English: The Amphiareion of Oropos

"The Amphiareion, the largest sanctuary in ancient Greece of the chthonic god and hero Amphiaraos, was excavated by Vasileios Leonardos from 1884 to 1929. Its buildings stand on the bank of a winter torrent, Charadra, as it was called by the ancient Greeks. On the left bank the official buildings, the stoa, theatre, temple and altar were situated, while the right side was occupied by the residential quarter.

In ancient times the entrance to the sanctuary was on the east side. The first building we encounter as we approach the sanctuary from the east is a square structure dating from the 4th century B.C., which was converted into a bath-house in Christian times. Its original purpose was probably the same - that of a bathing facility. Immediately beyond this is the great stoa, built in the 4th century B.C. which is 110m. long. It was used for accommodation purposes by visitors to the sanctuary and by the sick. At the east and west ends were two rooms equipped with benches and tables. These rooms were used for sleeping (enkoimesis) by those who sought the oracle from Amphiaraos. They were given his advice, or even cured, in a dream, while they slept. A sleeping and cure scene is depicted in the well-known relief dedicated to Amphiaraos by Archinos of Oropos in the 4th cent. B.C.

Behind the stoa lies the Theatre of the Amphiareion. The stage-building and the restored colonnade of the proscenium bore two inscriptions dated from the 2nd century B.C. Five marble thrones with relief floral decoration, dating from the 1st cent. B.C., can be seen on the edge of the orchestra. To the west of the stoa is a row of bases for the statues that stood on one side of the road leading to the temple. About 150 inscriptions (dedications, epigrams, lists of victors in games, proxenia decrees) are carved on the 25 bases that have been preserved in situ.

The first base we encounter is inscribed with a list of victors dating from the 1st cent. B.C. It is followed by two bases whose statues were dedicated by Kalligeiton, son of Python, of Oropos. Beyond this, the t-shaped base provides an example of inscribing decrees of Oropos and of the Boeotian League on the same pedestal. The next three bases bore bronze statues of citizens of Oropos: of Aristonike and Ptoion, of the priest of Amphiaraos Theodoros and his grandson of the same name, and of the priest Diodoros and hiw wife Phanostrate. The next base was erected during the priesthood of Oropodoros, at the end of the 3rd century B.C. The original votive inscription on this was erased and another was incised about 50 B.C. in honour of Appius Claudius Pulcher, a Roman consul. In this inscription the traces of the erasure of the original dedication are quite clear. Several similar cases of statues re-inscribed for Roman officials are to be found amongst the rest of the bases in front of the temple.

The next bases bore statues of the rulers of Egypt Ptolemy IV Philopator and his wife Arsinoe, Diomedes of Troezen (base in the shape of an arch), Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso and his wife (two bases), and Brutus, the assassin of Julius Caesar. We may also note the bases for the statues of Gaius Scribonius Curio, Marcus Agrippa, who was honoured by a re-inscription after 27 B.C., Hadeia, the wife of Autodikos, brother of the king of Thrace Lysimachos, Gnaios Cornelius Lentulus, and the base of P. Servilius Isauricus, grandson of Metellus. The last base, which stands outside the temple of Amphiaraos, is for the statue of Sulla. Sulla, the Roman dictator, became a benefactor of the sanctuary in 86 B.C. and was honoured through a re-inscription.

The temple of Amphiaraos was a hexastyle Doric structure erected in the 4th cent. B.C. The southern half of it was wept away by the river in the last years of antiquity. Members of the entablature of the temple have been restored and are on display in the Museum courtyard. To the east of the temple is the large altar of the sanctuary (4th cent. B.C.). In its foundations two smaller, earlier altars can be seen. Very close to the south side of the altar is the sacred spring from which water continues to bubble, just as it did in the 5th century B.C. when the sanctuary was founded. Next to the spring are the baths, which were built in the 4th century B.C.

The Sanctuary of Amphiaraos extended also to the right bank of the Charadra (torrent), where the residential quarter, offices, shops, inns, the agora, and the klepsydra (a water clock) were located.” Text: Information board opposite the stoa.