Theisoa () was an ancient town in the region of Arcadia. It was located in the district Cynuria or Parrhasia, on the northern slope of Mount Lycaeus.
Theisoa is also the name of a nymph (Theisoa), one of the nurses of Zeus.Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.38.3. Whether the nymph or the place bore the name first cannot be determined.Mattern & Goester 2023, pp. 131-137 and 140. The city was built in the middle 4th century BC. However, there seems to have been a settlement or landscape of this name before,Mattern & Goester 2023, pp. 26–28 and 139–141. as Theisoa is mentioned as a member of the Synoecism of Megalopolis (371 BCE).Pausanias, Description of Greece 8.27.4. The city seems to have lost its importance during the Hellenistic period, but coin finds from the 4th century AD indicate that the settlement continued to exist after that.Mattern & Goester 2023, pp. 141–142. The city walls were reused in the middle ages, when the site probably bore the name of Château Sainte Hélène, mentioned in the Chronicle of Morea.Mattern & Goester 2023, pp. 28–30 and 142–145.
Its site is located near the modern Theisoa. The ancient city wall was 895 meters long; the highest part was cut off by a second wall.Mattern & Goester 2023, pp. 20–26. The agora may have laid in the west of the fortified area.Mattern & Goester 2023, pp. 48–49.
References
Bibliography Mattern, Torsten; Goester, Yvonne C. (2023). Thisoa am Lykaion. Ergebnisse der Forschungen [Thisoa on the Lykaion. Results of the investigation]. Wiesbaden: Reichert, .