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Modern Description: A modern village S of ancient Aigira on the N side of Mt. Chelydorea (Paus. 7.17.5) near the summit of which a rich votive deposit in a deep cave (Cave of Saphtoulis) has been excavated. Extending to a depth of over 20 m and divided into several chambers, the cave was a cult center for the worship of chthonic deities, especially the nymphs and possibly Demeter, from ca. 700 B.C. into the Roman Imperial period.
The finds, which remain largely unpublished, are in the nearby museum of Sikyon and in the National Museum of Athens. They include numerous terracotta figurines, votive pottery (mainly Corinthian), bronze mirrors and jewelry, Corinthian and Sikyonian coins, wooden statuettes, bone dice, etc. The cave is famous, however, for its beautifully painted and well-preserved wooden plaques (on display in the National Museum). Represented on one plaque in free-style, polychrome technique of ca. 550 B.C. is a sacrificial procession with dipinto name-labels and the incomplete signature of a Corinthian painter in the epichoric Corinthian alphabet. Dipinti on this and on another plaque also show that these objects were dedicated to the nymphs. The four plaques from the cave are dated ca. 550-500 B.C. and supply almost unique evidence for nonceramic Corinthian painting of this period. (R. STROUD)
Wikidata ID: Q38283224

Info: Princeton Encyclopedia

(Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, from Perseus Project)

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