Skillous
City in Triphylia, 20 stades (3.5 km) S of Olympia, on the Selinus River (Xen. Anab. 5.3.11; Strab. 8.343; Paus. 5.6.4). The land of Skillous was fertile, as it is today, and also abounded with game (Xen. Anab. 5.3.7; Paus. 5.6.5). In the 7th and early 6th c. B.C., Skillous, a close friend and ally of Pisa, which at that time assumed control of the Olympic sanctuary, built the heraion at Olympia (Paus. 5.16.1). In 570 B.C. the people of Skillous were evicted from the city after the total defeat of their allies the Pisaians in battle with the Eleians (Paus. 5.6.4, 6.22.4). In 400 B.C. Skillous was resettled by Sparta. After the peace of Antalkidas (King's Peace) the city was proclaimed free (Xen. Hell. 6.5.2) but shortly afterwards it came under the control of Sparta. The farm assigned by Sparta to the Athenian exile, Xenophon, was in the territory of Skillous. Xenophon erected a shrine there which was a copy of the Temple of Ephesian Artemis (Xen. Anab. 5.3.7f; Paus. 5.6.4). A short distance from the shrine, Pausanias (5.6.6) saw the tomb of Xenophon with his statue. In the area of Skillous was also a remarkable Temple of Skillountian Athena (Strab. 8.343). After the battle of Leuktra (371 B.C.) Skillous again came under Eleian control. Skillous was probably deserted in the Hellenistic period and for this reason is not mentioned at all by Polybios. Pausanias, on the road to Olympia after Samikon, mentions the uninhabited remains of Skillous in the distance to the left; that is, in the area between the present communities of Krestaina, Makrysia, and Ladikou, where the city must have been.
BIBLIOGRAPHYGeyer in RE III A (1929) 526, s.v.; Partsch in Olympia I 12; Annales de la Faculte des Lettres d'Aix en Provence 29 (1955) ed. Delebeque 5ff; E. Meyer, Neue Peloponnesische Wanderungen (1957) 63ffI; Themelis, Deltion 23 (1968) A 284ffMPI.
N. YALOURIS- Paus. 5.6.4-6
- revolts against Elis: Paus. 6.22.4
- destroyed by Eleans: Paus. 5.6.4
- given by Lacedaemonians to Xenophon: Paus. 5.6.5ff.
- people of Scillus build temple of Hera at Olympia: Paus. 5.16.1