city state · Greece and the Aegean

Tanagra

700 BCE – 146 BCE (approx.) · capital Tanagra

Boeotian city famed for its painted terracotta figurines and the poet Corinna, and site of the battle where Sparta defeated Athens in 457 BCE.

Origins

Tanagra lay in eastern Boeotia on a hill above the Asopus valley, near the border with Attica. Settled since the Bronze Age, it was a city by the Archaic period and a member of the Boeotian League, often second only to Thebes.

Rule and society

Tanagra was the home of the lyric poet Corinna, said to have competed with Pindar. In 457 BCE Sparta and its allies defeated Athens at the Battle of Tanagra, though Athens won at nearby Oenophyta soon afterwards and controlled Boeotia for a decade. In the 4th century BCE Tanagra's workshops produced elegant terracotta figurines of women, now called Tanagras.

Decline and legacy

Tanagra survived Theban dominance and the Macedonian period as a prosperous town and came under Roman control in 146 BCE. Its cemeteries, looted in the 1870s, filled museums with its figurines.

Connections (1)

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Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Tanagra. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/tanagra
MLA
“Tanagra.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/tanagra. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Tanagra.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/tanagra.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Tanagra’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/tanagra (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻