Qualla: Sicyon https://qualla.com/sicyon en-us © 2026 Bendyline Thu, 23 Jul 2026 20:34:07 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/b/0/sicyon-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Sicyon https://qualla.com/sicyon Sicyon: Introduction https://qualla.com/sicyon/ Photo credit SchneesturmKatze, CC BY-SA 4.0. Painters learned to paint here. Sculptors learned to sculpt here. For several centuries, if you wanted to master the visual arts in the ancient Greek world, you came to Sicyon — a modest city on a triangular plateau above the Corinthian Gulf, about 3 kilometres from the shore, surrounded by olive groves and orchards. It was not the largest city in Greece, not the most powerful, not the most famous. And yet from this quietly prosperous plateau poured a stream of artists so influential that the city became, in the words of ancient writers, the very capital of Greek art.

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Image: SchneesturmKatze | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/b/0/sicyon-wp/swb0-sicyon-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Sicyon: The City on the Plateau https://qualla.com/sicyon/ Photo credit Nicholas Hartmann, CC BY-SA 4.0. Sicyon occupied a low triangular rise between Corinth and Achaea in the northern Peloponnese, looking out across a fertile coastal plain toward the blue waters of the Corinthian Gulf. The position was defensible without being dramatic — not a cliff-top citadel like Corinth's Acro...

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Image: Nicholas Hartmann | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/b/0/sicyon-wp/swb0-sicyon-the-city-on-the-plateau.mp3 0:06 2 full Sicyon: The School That Shaped Western Art https://qualla.com/sicyon/ Photo credit Alexikoua, CC BY-SA 3.0. What Sicyon produced in painters and sculptors between the 7th and 3rd centuries BC is staggering. Butades of Sicyon is credited in ancient tradition with inventing portrait relief sculpture — pressing a face into clay and firing it in the kiln. Canachus created celebrated statue...

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Image: Alexikoua | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/b/0/sicyon-wp/swb0-sicyon-the-school-that-shaped-western-art.mp3 0:06 3 full Sicyon: Tyrants, Democracy, and the Sacred War https://qualla.com/sicyon/ Photo credit Fremantleboy 15:25, 18 June 2007 (UTC), CC BY 2.5. Sicyon's political life was as eventful as its artistic life. Around 655 BC, a dynasty of tyrants called the Orthagorids seized power — a family whose grip on the city lasted for a hundred years, an exceptional tenure even by the standards of Greek tyranny. The most notable of th...

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Image: Fremantleboy 15:25, 18 June 2007 (UTC) | CC BY 2.5

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/b/0/sicyon-wp/swb0-sicyon-tyrants-democracy-and-the-sacred-war.mp3 0:06 4 full Sicyon: Conquest upon Conquest https://qualla.com/sicyon/ Photo credit Public domain. After Rome destroyed Corinth in 146 BC, Sicyon absorbed Corinth's religious festivals — including the Isthmian Games — for a time, a recognition of its continued prestige. But the city's importance dwindled through the Roman period, and the medieval centuries brought little stabi...

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Image: Public domain

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/b/0/sicyon-wp/swb0-sicyon-conquest-upon-conquest.mp3 0:06 5 full Sicyon: What Remains https://qualla.com/sicyon/ Photo credit Future Perfect at Sunrise, Public domain. The ruins of Sicyon are not spectacular by the standards of Olympia or Delphi — no intact colonnades, no roof still standing. But the site repays a visit. The ancient theatre, carved into the hillside, retains its curved cavea. The remains of a large Doric temple give a sense of ...

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Image: Future Perfect at Sunrise | Public domain

]]> Sun, 14 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/b/0/sicyon-wp/swb0-sicyon-what-remains.mp3 0:06 6 full