Phigalia

Phigalia

(fĭgā`lēə), ancient city of Greece, in SW Arcadia (now Arkadhía). It gives its name to the Phigalian Marbles, a frieze c.100 ft (30 m) long and 2 ft (61 cm) high, in high relief, representing battles between the Lapithae, a legendary people from Thessaly, and the Centaurs and between the Amazons and the Greeks. The frieze, dating from c.420 B.C., was originally on the walls of a temple of Apollo at Bassae, near Phigalia. Since 1814 it has been in the British Museum. The geographer Pausanias names Ictinus as the architect of the temple.

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