The Heraion of Perachora (Greek, Modern: Ηραίον Περαχώρας) was a sanctuary of the goddess Hera Hera was the wife and one of three sisters of Zeus in the Olympian pantheon of classical Greek Mythology. Her chief function was as the goddess of women and marriage. In Roman mythology, Juno was the equivalent mythical character. The cow, and later, the peacock were sacred to her. Hera's mother was Rhea and her father, Cronus situated in a small cove of the Corinthian gulf at the end of the Perachora peninsula. In addition to a temple of Hera of unusual construction and antiquity, the remains of a number of other structures have also been found, including a L-shaped stoa, a large cistern, dining rooms, and a second potential temple. The Sanctuary of Hera at Perchora is located 14.2 km NNW of Ancient Corinth Corinth, or Korinth (Greek Κόρινθος, Kórinthos ( [ˈkorinθos] ) is a city in Greece. In antiquity it was a city-state, on the Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow stretch of land that joins the Peloponnesus to the mainland of Greece. To the west of the isthmus lies the Gulf of Corinth, to the east lies the Saronic Gulf. Corinth is about 78, and 75.9 km W of Athens The Greek capital has a population of 745,514 within its administrative limits and a land area of 39 km2 (15 sq mi). The urban area of Athens extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3,130,841 (in 2001) and a land area of 412 km2 (159 sq mi). According to Eurostat, the Athens Larger Urban Zone (LUZ) is the 8th most. Although there is debate between Argos Argos is a city in Greece in the Peloponnese 11 kilometres from Nafplion, which was its historic harbour (named supposedly after the legendary hero Nauplius), Megara Megara is an ancient city (pop. 23,032 in 2001) in Attica, Greece. It lies in the northern section of the Isthmus of Corinth opposite the island of Salamis, which belonged to Megara in archaic times, before being taken by Athens. Megara was one of the four districts of Attica, embodied in the four mythic sons of King Pandion II, of whom Nisos was and Corinth, the sanctuary was probably under the control of Corinth, as it faced the harbors of that powerful city across the Corinthian gulf. Cult activity at the site continued from perhaps the 9th century BCE to 146 BCE, when the Roman general Mummius sacked Corinth during the war with the Achaean League. In the Roman period, domestic structures were built on the site, indicating that the area was no longer a sanctuary. This site is significant for the study of the origins of Greek temple architecture and rural cults.

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Mythology and History

There is a legend recounted in Euripides Euripides (ca. 480 BC – 406 BC) was the last of the three great tragedians of classical Athens (the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles). Ancient scholars thought that Euripides had written ninety-five plays, although four of those were probably written by Critias. Eighteen or nineteen of Euripides' plays have survived complete. There has that Medea Medea is a woman in Greek mythology. She was the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, niece of Circe, granddaughter of the sun god Helios, and later wife to the hero Jason, with whom she had two children: Mermeros and Pheres. In Euripides's play Medea, Jason leaves Medea when Creon, king of Corinth, offers him his daughter, Glauce. The play tells buried her murdered children at a sanctuary of Hera Akraia as she fled from Corinth. [1] This may be a reference to this site. Herodotus Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who lived in the 5th century BC (c. 484 BC – c. 425 BC). He was born in Caria, Halicarnassus (modern day Bodrum, Turkey). He is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture. He was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain tells the story of Periander Periander was the second tyrant of Corinth, Greece in the 7th century BC. He was the son of the first tyrant, Cypselus. Periander succeeded his father in 627 BC stripping the clothes off of the Corinthian women at a sanctuary of Hera. [2] In the 1st century CE, the Greek historian Strabo Strabo was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher wrote that there was an oracle associated with the sanctuary.

Archaeology

Overview of the Cove looking south; the West Court is at the top right.

The known structures of the sanctuary cover a rectangle approximately 45m NS and 245m EW. The sanctuary wrapped around a small cove and extended toward the east uphill along a ridge. The structures will be discussed in order from west to east.

West Court

At the extreme SW end of the sanctuary, there is a polygonal area of roughly 25 by 25m largely cut into the rock beside the cove. This structure has been variously termed the agora, or the west court. This structure may date to the 6th century BCE and thus be contemporary with the Temple of Hera Akraia. It appears to have been destroyed in the 4th BCE; it has been proposed that the L-shaped stoa took over its function. There appear to have been colonnades on the western and southern sides. There are remains of a house from the Roman period roughly at the center of the area.

Apsidal Structure and Temple of Hera Akraia

The western end of the 6th BCE Temple of Hera Akraia showing the three aisles.

The earliest structure at the site was an apsidal building of perhaps the late 9th century BCE, which is thought to resemble the house-temple models known from the Argive Heraion. On that analogy, it would have had a high-peaked rook, covered perhaps in thatch. There were Early Helladic sherds under this structure.

In the 6th BCE a Doric order tetrastyle-prostyle temple (c. 10 by 30m) was built a little to the west of the apsidal structure. [3] The epithet Akraia refers to the position of the sanctuary at the point of the peninsula. The cella A cella or naos (from the Greek Ναός meaning temple), is the inner chamber of a temple in classical architecture, or a shop facing the street in domestic Roman architecture (see domus). Its enclosure within walls has given rise to extended meanings, of a hermit's or monk's cell, and since the 17th century, of a bilogical cell in plants or of this temple was divided into three aisles – a highly unusual design. There was a wall to divide the west end of the cella and a screen in front of the cult statue. Evidence for the reuse of some blocks may indicate that there was a prior phase of the structure in the 7th BCE. The roof of this temple was in marble. No evidence has yet been found of pedimental sculptures.

The lime kiln in the 6th BCE temple

The Doric order triglyph and metope frieze may have only extended along the eastern face, as few of the elements of this survive. The metopes were c. 15 cm thick and slotted into the triglyph blocks rather than forming a single block with them, as is more typical. Roughly in the center of the southern side of the temple was a c. 4.5m diameter limekiln A lime kiln is a kiln used to produce quicklime by the calcination of limestone . The chemical equation for this reaction is: used to reduce the marble of the temple (and of the sanctuary generally) into lime Calcium oxide , commonly known as quicklime or burnt lime, is a widely used chemical compound. It is a white, caustic and alkaline crystalline solid at room temperature for the construction of the Hexamilion wall across the Isthmus of Corinth The Isthmus of Corinth is the narrow land bridge which connects the Peloponnese peninsula with the mainland of Greece, near the city of Corinth. The word "isthmus" comes from the Ancient Greek word for "neck" and refers to the narrowness of the land. To the west of the Isthmus is the Gulf of Corinth, to the east the Saronic in the 5th century CE. Scorch mark remain visible on the stones of the temple around a circular area where the heat of the limekiln caused the breakdown of the underlying stones.

Triglyph and Metope Altar

The triglyph and metope altar from the south; beyong the altar is the western end of the L-shaped stoa.

Fifteen meters east of the Temple of Hera Akraia, there was a stone altar decorated with a triglyph and metope frieze dating from the early 4th century BCE. This altar measured c. 2.5 by 4m. In the late 4th BCE Ionic columns were added to the corners, perhaps for a canopy.

L-Shaped Stoa

Overview of the lower sanctuary looking west with the L-shaped stoa in foreground and the temple of Hera Akraia in the distance at right and the West Court in the distance at left.

Immediately east of the altar was a two-storied stoa Stoa in Ancient Greek architecture; covered walkways or porticos, commonly for public usage. Early stoae were open at the entrance with columns lining the side of the building, creating a safe, enveloping, protective atmosphere and were usually of Doric order. Later examples consisted of mainly two stories, with a roof supporting the inner with an L-shaped plan, also though to date to the late 4th BCE. The eastern arm of the stoa was c. 16.5m north to south and c. 5.5m in depth, while the northern arm of the stoa was c. 17.5m east to west and c. 5m in depth. [4] The lower level employed an external colonnade of the Doric order The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of Ancient Greek or classical architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian, while the upper floor used the Ionic order The Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian. (There are two lesser orders, the stocky Tuscan order and the rich variant of Corinthian, the Composite order, added by 16th century Italian architectural theory and practice.). This is the first known example of this combination. The stairs to the second floor are not preserved. A water channel extended to this structure from the hydraulic system east of the sanctuary.

Double-Apsidal Cistern

Around thirty-five meters east of the L-shaped stoa, there was a c. 6 by 21m cistern with each end rounded off into an apsidal shape. Stone internal piers supported the vaults for the roof. On the eastern end of the structure there was a settling tank of c. 3 by 5m. Ten meters to the NE of the settling tank there was a diversion point in the water channel with one branch directed to the cistern and the other to the L-shaped stoa. The excavator dates the cistern to within the 6th to the 4th centuries BCE.

Dining Rooms

View south over the water channel, the double-apsidal cistern, and the dining rooms.

Immediately south of the cistern was a double dining room, probably associated with the cult activity at the site. This structure was initially identified as a Hellenistic Hellenistic civilization represents the zenith of Greek influence in the ancient world from 323 BC to about 146 BC ; note, however that Koine Greek language and Hellenistic philosophy and religion are also indisputably elements of the Roman era until Late Antiquity. It was immediately preceded by the Classical Greece period, and immediately house, but the cuttings for the legs of the dining couches make the identification as a dining room secure. Tomlinson proposes before 490 BCE as the date for this structure.

Sacred Pool

Around 30m east of the cistern, was a pool c. 2m deep though to perhaps have a sacred function within the cult. Significant numbers of mesomphalic phiales (libation A libation is a ritual pouring of a drink as an offering to a god or deity. It was common in the religions of antiquity, including Judaism: vessels) were found within this structure. This structure is now backfilled.

Temple of Hera Limanaia

The temple (?) of Hera Limanaia, looking SE.

Around seventy-five meters east of the Cistern, there was a structure that dates perhaps to the 8th century BCE. During its excavation a bronze bull was discovered, inscribed with Sikyonian letters and dating to the end of the 6th BCE. There was a hearth at the center of the building. It may have been a house-temple or a dining room, as evidenced by spits for roasting meat found inside. Many diagrams and reconstructions of this structure show a door in the western side-wall; the gap in the stones, however, may have been created by a trial trench dug by an earlier excavator.

Remains Outside the Sanctuary

Remains are known to extend for 1.7 km eastward from the Sanctuary to a lagoon. The best preserved of these constitute an extensive hydraulic system.

Rock-cut Cisterns

The stairway down into the upper rock-cut cisterns.

750m ENE of the sanctuary, there was a series of massive cisterns, reached by a rock-cut stairway extending c. 50m down into the bedrock. The opening of the stairway is 64m NW of the openings of the cisterns. The descent is steep and the steps are not all well-preserved. There are cuttings for a parapet wall around the vertiginous upper openings of the cisterns to prevent falls. It has been proposed that the water was raised from the cisterns to the water channel by the use of large human-powered waterwheels.

Fountain house

540m ENE of the sanctuary, there was a hexastyle A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea first appeared in Ancient Greece and has influenced many cultures, including most Western cultures-prostyle fountain house (having six columns in its facade). Behind the facade there were three rock-cut basins, similar to the Pirene fountain house at Corinth. This structure was later incorporated into a rural villa in the Roman period. This fountain house is thought to date to the same time as the L-shaped stoa, which is the ultimate destination of the water of the system.

Aqueduct

Water channels join the upper cisterns to the fountain house and the fountain house to the cistern of the sanctuary and the L-shaped stoa. At intervals there were settling basins along the water conduit, including one immediately above the fountain house.

Significance of the Site

As is the case for the rural sanctuary of Artemis Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Some scholars believe that the name, and indeed the goddess herself, was originally pre-Greek. Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron "Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals". In the classical period of Greek mythology, Artemis (Greek: Ἄρτ at Brauron in relation to the religion of Athens, the sanctuary of Hera at Perachora is important or the study of rural cult in the Corinthia. The unusual plan of the 6th century BCE temple of Hera Akraia coupled with its location on the remains of a 9th BCE apsidal structure are of interest to the study of the development of the Greek temple as an architectural and cultic form. While it has been proposed that the cult of Hera Akraia had chthonic Chthonic designates, or pertains to, deities or spirits of the underworld, especially in relation to Greek religion elements, [5] this idea has not been generally accepted. The reference in Strabo to an oracle may fit with the idea that the children of Medea were buried at the site, and thus explain any chthonic elements to the cult as pertaining to a heroon.

Images of the Sanctuary of Hera at Perachora

A triglyph of the Temple of Hera Akraia showing the slots for inserting the metope.

A Doric column drum from the L-shaped stoa resting on the stylobate; plaster is visible.

The double-apsidal cistern of the sanctuary.

Notes

  1. ^ Euripides, Medea 1378-1383
  2. ^ 5.92
  3. ^ The hawksbill molding of the geison blocks is said to indicate a date close to 525 BCE.
  4. ^ Coulton reconstructs the Stoa at a height of c. 9.5m.
  5. ^ Menadier

References

Ancient Sources

External links

Categories: Corinthia | Temples of Hera | Ancient Greek religion | Ancient Greek buildings and structures | Historical religious sanctuaries | Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Greece | Sanctuaries in Greece

 

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