Panionium
PANIO´NIUM(Πανιώνιον), a place on the western slope of Mount Mycale, in the territory of Priene, containing the common national sanctuary of Poseidon, at which the Ionians held their regular meetings, from which circumstance the place derived its name. It was situated at a distance of 3 stadia from the sea-coast. (Strab. 14. p. 639; Hdt. 1.141, foll.; Mela, 1.17; Plin. Nat. 5.31; Paus. 7.5.1.) The Panionium was properly speaking only a grove, with such buildings as were necessary to accommodate strangers. Stephanus B. is the only writer who calls it a town, and even mentions the Ethnic designation of its citizens. The preparations for the meeting and the management of the games devolved upon the inhabitants of Priene. The earlier travellers and geographers looked for the site of the Panionium in some place near the modern village of Tshangli;but Col. Leake (Asia Minor, p. 260) observes: The uninhabitable aspect of the rocks and forests of Mycale, from Cape Trogilium to the modern Tshangli, is such as to make it impossible to fix upon any spot, either on the face or at the foot of that mountain, at which Panionium can well be supposed to have stood. Tshangli, on the, other hand, situated in a delightful and well watered valley, was admirably suited to the Panionian festival: and here Sir William Gell found, in a church on the sea-shore, an inscription in which he distinguished the name of Panionium twice. I conceive, therefore, that there can be little doubt of Tshanglibeing on the site of Panionium.
[L.S]A spot on the north of the promontory of Mycalé, with a temple to Poseidon, which was the place of meeting for the cities of Ionia. See Mycale.
- near Mycale: Hdt. 1.148, Hdt. 1.170, Hdt. 6.7
- federal assembly of Ionians at: Paus. 7.5.1
- Ionians sacrifice at: Paus. 7.4.10