Lykaion
The Sacred mountain of W Arkadia, site of the Lykaian Gaines, was famed as the birthplace of Zeus and the home of Pan (Paus. 8.38.2-6). There are two peaks; the slightly lower one to the S is more prominent. Between these two peaks at a height of ca. 1200 m there have been found the remains of an early Hellenistic or Roman hippodrome, a stoa, a stadium, and other service buildings. Fifteen minutes SW, is the Sanctuary of Zeus Lycaios on the S peak. There are to be found traces of the precinct of the god which no man was to enter, and the bases of two columns on which originally stood gold eagles. The entire summit of the peak is composed of the great ash altar on which human sacrifice was practiced even in Classical times (Pl. Min. 3 15c). Pausanias also mentions a Sanctuary of Parrhasian Apollo on the E side of the mountain.
BIBLIOGRAPHYK. Kuruniotis in ArchEph (1904) 153-214; (1905) 161-78 (all on Lykaion); (1910) 29-36 (Apollo Sanctuary); id. in Praktika (1909) 185-200PI; RE XIII (1927) 2235-44; G. Mylonas, Classical Studies in Honor of William Abbott Oldfather (1943) 122-33.
W. F. WYATT, JR- Paus. 1.19.3
- gymnasium at: Paus. 1.29.16