Teuthis

It is mentioned in Pausanias, who visited and described its temples,[1] and who narrated the elaborate story of King Teuthis' dispute with Agamemnon and goddess Athena in Aulis, prior to the Greek fleet's departure for the Trojan War.

Unfortunately, his description of the whereabouts of Teuthis is open to interpretation and, therefore, has caused a great deal of disagreement among the 19th century knowledgeable western travelers of Arcadia.

With regard to Teuthis, their (independent) educated guesses involve two locations: the Akova/Galatas area in the north (the medieval castle of which is situated in a place inhabited in antiquity and whose habitation has had to be continuous),[5]) and the town of Dimitsana in the south (which is also built on older fortified ruins, clearly visible today): 1.

Having practiced - at best - "surface archaeology", most of the distinguished travelers listed above were (understandably) careful when they wrote about the location of the city.

Travelling on the road which joins Heraia with Megalopolis, Pausanias reached the village of Gortys, which used to be a city, and described the temple of Asclepius [Bk VIII, 28 (1)].

The end of the next paragraph in Pausanias's "Arcadika" [Bk VIII, 28 (3)], contains the first significant information about the location problem: "But its springs are in Theisoa, which borders on the Methydrienses" In other words, the Theisoa greater area, which borders the west part of Methydrio, extends all the way north-east of modern Langadia, where the actual springs of Gortynios/Lusios are found.

Thus, (keeping in mind that Pausanias is coming from the south) one must decide for which one of the two situations the phrase "Teuthis borders Theisoa" makes more sense.

As for contemporary arguments in support of such a claim, one can judge for himself reading the following opinions of esteemed personnel of the British and French "archaeology" schools in Athens, respectively: · "Dhimitsana.

· "Si l'on admet que Teuthis était au Sud de Thisoa, près du Gortynios, l'attribution àcette bourgade des vestiges antiques visibles dans le village de Dimitsana, au Sud-Ouest de Karkalou[27]" (If we assume that Teuthis was to the south of Thisoa, near the Gortynios, there can be little doubt as to the attribution of the ancient vestiges visible in the village of Dimitsana to the south-west of Karkalou) Just for the record: In the 1834 attempt to reorganize the local administration of the Greek nation, which had recently been liberated from the Ottoman occupation, Vyziki, the village closest to Akova, was declared "Δῆμος Τεύθιδος" (Municipality of Teuthis).