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Kalydon 40 pictures 2 minutes HQ video This Aetolian city is associated with the feats of the hero Meleager and the famous myth of the hunt of the Kalydonian boar. It is also the site of a very sacred shrine to Artemis Laphria (8^th-3^rd centuries B.C.). The turreted city walls in sandstone and gravel are partly open to visitors. The remains of the so-called heroon and the Artemision bear ample witness to the glory of the city. The heroon, long thought to have been a sanctuary consecrated to a hero, is now clearly identified from its ground plan as a gymnasium. It was built by the inhabitants of the city in honor of the citizen Leon and his wife Krateia for their contributions to the city (110-100 B.C.). Around a peristyle courtyard reserved for gymnastics and accessible from the north, were a meeting room and banquet halls, as well as recreational and educational game rooms. There was also a chapel with an altar in honor of Leon depicted in a heroic pose with his family, to indicate the hero buried in the underground chamber below the chapel. The chamber can only be accessed from outside the building, It features two sarcophagi in the shape of funerary beds in which were found urns containing ashes. The walls were painted with plant motifs, a common grave decoration. View from the Site (north) Temple of Artemis The large temple of Artemis, rebuilt several times between the 7^th and 4^th centuries B.C., lies beyond a small propylon once sumptuously decorated by marble eaves. The temple itself was covered by terracotta decorations as important at those found at the temple of Apollo at Thermos. Theater Structure Back to Greece Index