Alea

A´LEA(Ἀλέα: Eth. Ἀλέος, Ἀλεάτης), a town of Arcadia, between Orchomenus and Stymphalus, contained, in the time of Pausanias, temples of the Ephesian Artemis, of Athena Alea, and of Dionysus. It appears to have been situated in the territory either of Stymphalus or Orchomenus. Pausanias (Paus. 8.27.3) calls Alea a town of the Maenalians; but we ought probably to read Asea in this passage, instead of Alea. The ruins of Alea have been discovered by the French Commission in the middle of the dark valley of Skotiní, about a mile to the NE. of the village of Buyáti. Alea was never a town of importance; but some modern writers have, though inadvertently, placed at this town the celebrated temple of Athena Alea, which was situated at Tegea. [TEGEA] (Paus. 8.23.1; Steph. B. s. v.;Boblaye, Recherches, &c., p. 147; Leake, Peloponnesiaca, p. 383.)