Mount Thourion

{{Short description|Conical hill in Ancient Greece}}

{{Infobox mountain

| name = Mount Thourion

| other_name = Thurium Mons

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| elevation_m = 188

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| location = Central Greece

| map = Greece

| map_alt =

| map_caption = Location of Mount Thourion in Greece

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| label = Mount Thourion

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| coordinates = {{coord|38|30|0.91|N|22|49|28.05|E|type:mountain_region:GR-0_scale:100000|format=dms|display=inline,title}}

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| first_ascent = Antiquity

| easiest_route = Hike

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Mount Thourion or Thurium Mons was the name of a conical hill in Ancient Greece. A temple to the cult of the Muses may have been situated here.{{cite book|title=Greek Nymphs: Myth, Cult, Lore|author=Jennifer Larson|year=2001|isbn=0-19-514465-1|page=138|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1ww3m1vSRtsC&dq=Mount+Thourion&pg=PA138}}

The location of the hill was gradually forgotten{{cite journal|last=Pritchett|first=W. Kendrick|title=Observations on Chaironeia|journal=American Journal of Archaeology|date=1 July 1958|volume=62|issue=3|pages=307–311|doi=10.2307/501959 |jstor=501959|s2cid=191378872}} and was rediscovered in February 1990 by an archaeologist and four graduate students from the University of California, Berkeley.{{cite journal|last1=Camp|first1=John|last2=Ierardi|first2=Michael|last3=McInerney|first3=Jeremy|last4=Morgan|first4=Kathryn|last5=Umholtz|first5=Gretchen|title=A Trophy from the Battle of Chaironeia of 86 B. C.|journal=American Journal of Archaeology|date=July 1992|volume=96|issue=3|pages=443–455|jstor=506067|doi=10.2307/506067|s2cid=191377509}}

In Plutarch's “Life of Sulla”, the hill is noted as having been the site of a monument to two townsmen of Chaeronea named Homoloichos and Anaxidamos, for their assistance to Sulla during the Battle of Chaeronea. The two showed Sulla's troops a back way up Thourion, enabling them to surprise the invading Pontic soldiers.{{cite book|last=Plutarch|title=The Parallel Lives|year=1916|page=385|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Sulla*.html|edition=Loeb Classical Library|access-date=11 April 2012|chapter=Life of Sulla|volume=IV|quote=As Sulla drew near to Chaeroneia, the tribune who had been stationed in the city, with his men in full armour, came to meet him, carrying a wreath of laurel. 6 After Sulla had accepted this, greeted the soldiers, and animated them for the coming danger, two men of Chaeroneia accosted him, Homoloïchus and Anaxidamus, and engaged to cut off the troops in possession of Thurium if he would give them a few soldiers; for there was a path out of sight of the Barbarians, leading from the so‑called Petrachus along past the Museum to that part of Thurium which was over their heads, and by taking this path it would not be difficult, they said, to fall upon them and either stone them to death from above, or force them into the plain.}}

In gratitude, a monument was erected on the summit with their names carved on it in Greek letters.{{cite book|last=Plutarch|title=The Parallel Lives|year=1916|page=391|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Sulla*.html|edition=Loeb Classical Library|access-date=11 April 2012|chapter=Life of Sulla|volume=IV|quote=... here is another planted on the crest of Thurium, to commemorate the envelopment of the Barbarians there, and it indicates in Greek letters that Homoloïchus and Anaxidamus were the heroes of the exploit.}} The rediscovered monument was a marble block, about three feet wide and one foot high, inscribed with three words “{{lang|grc|HOMOLOICHOS}},” “{{lang|grc|ANAXIDAMOS}},” and “{{lang|grc|aristis}}” (Greek for heroes).{{cite book | last = Seff | first = Philip | title = Petrified lightning and more amazing stories from "Our fascinating earth" | publisher = Contemporary Books | location = Chicago, Ill | year = 1996 | isbn = 0-8092-3250-2 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/petrifiedlightni0000seff/page/123 123–4] | chapter-url = http://www.fascinatingearth.com/node/212 | chapter = Birth of a Legend | url = https://archive.org/details/petrifiedlightni0000seff/page/123 }}

A site likely to be that of the temple of Apollo Thourios was also found.

{{Wikisource|Lives (Dryden translation)/Sylla}}