Arcadia

Statistics
Capital:	Tripoli
Area:	km²
Inhabitants:	(1991), (2001)
Pop. density:	inh./km² 2001
ISO 3166-2:	GR-
Map

Arcadia (Greek Αρκαδία) is a region of Greece in the Peloponnesus that was named after the mythological character Arcas.

Table of contents

1 Modern Arcadia
2 Arcadia in Mythology and The Arts
3 Other places
4 Other uses of the name

Modern Arcadia

Arcadia's present-day capital is in Tripoli. It is the largest prefecture on the peninsula. It currently covers about 18% of the entire peninsula, although it once extended to about 20 to 25% of the peninsula.

The prefecture has a skiing resort on Mount Maenalus. Arcadia is linked by the GR-7, E-55 freeway, which was extended after 1997. A nuclear and coal power station which produces electricity for most of southern Greece is powered from south of Megalopolis along with a coal mine.

Arcadia has now two tunnels. The first to open was the Artemisio Tunnel, and the other is the tunnel east of Megalopolis; both connect traffic from Messenia and Athens.

The chief cities and communities in this prefecture are Tripoli, Astros, Vytina, Dimitsaina, Langadi, Leonidi, Leontari, Levidi, Megalopoli and Stremnitsa.

Arcadia in Mythology and The Arts

According to Greek mythology, Pan the shepherd goat lived there. The Roman poet Virgil was inspired by the Greek myths when he wrote his Eclogues, a series of poems set in Arcadia. As a result of the influence of Virgil in medieval European literature (see, for example, The Divine Comedy), Arcadia became a symbol of pastoral simplicity. The theme was often revisited by European Renaissance writers (for instance, the Spanish poet Garcilaso de la Vega), and the name was given to any idyllic location or paradise. Unlike the word utopia (after Thomas More's book), Arcadia does not carry the connotation of a humanly designed civilization.

See also Golden Age, millennialism, and the painting Et in Arcadia ego.

Other places

A region of Nova Scotia was known for some time as Acadia; its discoverer, Giovanni da Verrazano, was so impressed by the natural beauty of the region that he named it 'Archadia', after the Greek Arcadia.

It is also the name of several places in Canada:

Arcadia, Nova Scotia
Arcadia, Alberta

Arcadia is also the name of a number of places in the United States of America:

Other uses of the name

Arcadia is the title of a play by Tom Stoppard (see Arcadia (play)).

Arcadia was the name of a 1980s synth-pop band created by Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and Roger Taylor of Duran Duran (see Arcadia (band)).

Arcadia Corporation was the original name of video game company Starpath, which made hardware and software for the Atari 2600.

Arcadia is the name of an NES game publisher (see Arcadia (game publisher)).

The Arcadia Group is a British group of companies which specialises in retail clothing. They are among the most popular of British stores.