Artemision
A promontory on the NW coast, named for the Sanctuary of Artemis Proseoia. The first encounter between the Greek and Persian fleets took place offshore in July 480 B.C. Although Pliny lists it among the cities of Euboia, Herodotos and Plutarch mention only the temple; it seems probable that the region took on the name because of the importance of the sanctuary. The site was identified by Lolling at Haghios Georgios near Potaki on the Bay of Pevki. It lies to the W of Gouves on an isolated spur of the hills which limit the small coastal plain of Kurbatsi, and is now marked by the ruins of a 6th c. Byzantine complex. These were cleared by excavators, digging several trenches. They reported numerous ancient blocks, column drums, stele bases, and terracottas ranging from an early painted sima to a Roman acanthus leaf fragment, but failed to find the location of the temple itself. Lolling concluded that the Byzantine building, of which he excavated only one room, must have followed the foundations of the Classical period. Other building blocks indicated the site of a settlement on the higher slope to the S.
The well-known bronze statue of Poseidon, now in the National Museum at Athens, was found off Cape Artemision itself, an arm in 1926, the rest in 1928.
BIBLIOGRAPHYHdt. 7.175f; Plut. Them. 8; Plin. 4.12.64; H. G. Lolling, AM 8-9 (1883) 7fM, 200ffP. Sculpture: AJA 33 (1928) 141.
M. H. MCALLISTER