Tegyra
TEGYRA (Τεγύρα: Eth. Τεγυρεύς), a village of Boeotia, near Orchomenus, and situated above the marshes of the river Melas. It was celebrated for its oracle and Temple of Apollo, who was even said to have been born there. In its neighbourhood was a mountain named Delos. Leake places Tegyra at Xerópyrgo, situated 3 miles ENE. of Skripú (Orchomenus), on the heights which bound the marshes. (Plut. Pel. 16, de Def. Or. 5 and 8; Lycophr. 646; Steph. B. s. v.; Leake, Northern Greece, vol. ii. pp. 155, 159; comp. Ulrichs, Reisen, vol. 1. p. 196.)
A rock situated N of Lake Copais and the Melas river, 5 km NE of Orchomenos and W of Topolia. Ranging in height from 250 to 150 m, it is easily recognized by the mediaeval tower rising in the middle of it (whence the popular name).
Pelopidas fought the Spartans here in 375 B.C. Two miraculous springs gushed forth by the Temple of Apollo, no trace of which remains. It was the seat of an Oracle of Apollo Tegyraios up to the Median wars (Plut. Ages. 286; De def. or. 412 B).
It is unlikely that this small rocky island can be identified with Delos, as has been claimed. Nearby is the Church of Haghios Nikolaos sta Kambia (11th c.).
BIBLIOGRAPHYJ. G. Frazer, Paus. Des. Gr. (1898) V 110-111M(in ed. of N. Papachatzis: [1969] V 18M& 224 n. 1); E.J.A. Kennys in Annals Arch. and Anthrop. 22 (1935) 189-206 & 201-2M; P. Guillon, Trépieds du Ptoion (2d ed. 1943) 196, n. 2; A. Philippson, GL (1951) I.2 487; R. Hope Simpson, A Gazetteer and Atlas of Mycenaean Sites (1965) 115-16, no. 400; W. K. Pritchett, Studies in Ancient Greek Topography, pt. II (1969) 90, 92 fig. 10.
Y. BÉQUIGNON