The Adyton at the Temple of Apollo at Bassae: Multiple Cult Worship in the Adyton

<p>Situated on Mount Kotilion in the Peloponnese, the Temple of Apollo at Bassae sits high in the middle of a mountain range. Upon rediscovery, it became evident that most of the offerings had long since disappeared, and this was in turn paired with a lack of primary literature. Though the temple is mentioned in Pausanias’ work, discussion about the cultic aspects of the temple is severely lacking. This leads to a large gap in the knowledge of the temple’s religious function. It is for this reason that the architecture of Bassae is explored to help understand the cultic aspects of this temple. This thesis shows that multiple cults were celebrated at the temple of Bassae, and that there is a high probability that multiple cult worship occurred in the adyton of the building. The cult at Bassae has been celebrated since geometric times, and worship to Apollo was fairly consistent until the sanctuary’s demise in the third century BCE. Three epikleseis are often associated with this temple: Apollo Epikourios, Apollo Bassitas and Hyperborean Apollo. The epithet of Epikourios comes from Pausanias’ passage, and nowhere else. The original reason for this epithet may be either medicinal or martial, and both are explored within this thesis. Bassitas is another epithet provided. However, this is in the form of a singular archaeological find, a small bronze tablet found in the wider Kotilion sanctuary. The third epithet, Hyperborean, is a tenuous but commonly made connection. This epithet relies heavily on the localised subject matter of the sculptural programme at Bassae. The architecture of the building is also in need of discussion. The temple at Bassae is famed for its odd, and in some cases, unparalleled architectural design. The temple is on a north-south axis, and features not only a northern entranceway, but also an opening in the eastern wall, leading into the adyton. This eastern doorway allows light to enter twice a year, which hits the southern wall. The decorative features of the temple are unparalleled, with the first known Corinthian column and extended engaged Ionic columns. These unusual design features create a focus within the adyton. Within the adyton, four positions can be considered possible sites for housing offerings or cult statues. These include the southwest corner, the centre of the southern wall, the centre of the northern limits of the adyton directly south of the Corinthian column, and finally, the Corinthian column itself. The evidence for these positions being a focus for cult comes from architectural features, such as the paving of the adyton floor, the light phenomenon and a small plinth. These four positions are by no means definite, and this thesis discusses the probability of each of these positions in terms of the likelihood of them being the focus of a cult. While the southwest corner is the most likely position for a cult statue, the Corinthian column seems the least likely. The architecture at the Temple of Apollo at Bassae strongly suggests worship occurring inn the adyton of the temple, and it seems likely it was at least one of these three epithets that was celebrated in one of the four positions in the adyton.</p>

The Adyton at the Temple of Apollo at Bassae: Multiple Cult Worship in the Adyton

10.26686/wgtn.17067503 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Nikki Carter

Keyword(s):

Architectural Design ◽

Third Century ◽

Mountain Range ◽

The Third ◽

Architectural Features ◽

Primary Literature ◽

South Axis ◽

The Temple ◽

Southern Wall ◽

The pottery of a third-century well at Margidunum

The Journal of Roman Studies ◽

10.2307/295681 ◽

1926 ◽

Vol 16 (1) ◽

pp. 36-44 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Felix Oswald

Keyword(s):

Second Century ◽

Third Century ◽

The Third ◽

Small Building ◽

The dating of coarse pottery on Roman sites in the first and second centuries has been fairly well established, but there is still much uncertainty in the chronology of coarse ware during the third and fourth centuries. Hence it may be helpful to describe the pottery found in a Roman well which would appear, from the evidence to be adduced, to have remained open only during the third century. In my plan of Margidunum published in the Journal of Roman Studies, xiii, Pl. VIII, the position of this well, marked R, is shown to be situated halfway between the Via Quintana and the southern rampart. It lies just outside the eastern wall of a small building which may have been used as a stable, at any rate in the earlier occupation of the camp, for in the interior I found a pit (J) which had been filled up in the early part of the second century. The lower two feet contained brushwood, straw and horse-dung quite unaltered, owing to the pit having been hermetically sealed by clay. Doubtless this pit was closed when the camp was dismantled and the Fosse Way driven arbitrarily across it, over the old camp-roads and the foundations of the razed buildings.

Excavation of the Greek Temples at Mycenae by the British School at Athens

The Annual of the British School at Athens ◽

10.1017/s0068245400016701 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 92 ◽

pp. 247-322 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Nancy L. Klein

Keyword(s):

Preliminary Analysis ◽

Third Century ◽

Architectural Drawings ◽

Strong Connection ◽

Architectural Elements ◽

The Third ◽

Early Archaic ◽

British School ◽

The Temple ◽

Material Evidence

The Greek temples on the summit of the citadel at Mycenae were discovered and partially cleared by Ch. Tsountas in 1886, but the major excavation was undertaken in 1939 under the direction of A. J. B. Wace. The results of this season have never been fully studied. This article is based upon a new examination of the material evidence and the documents in the Mycenae archives of the British School at Athens. Previously unpublished architectural drawings, photographs, plans, and sections make it possible to assess the nature of the Archaic and Hellenistic temples at Mycenae. The evidence points to the establishment of the cult in the Geometric period, along with the construction of the northern terraces, followed by a significant reorganization of the temenos and the construction of the first stone temple in the early Archaic period. Preliminary analysis of the preserved architectural elements indicates a strong connection between the Archaic temple at Mycenae and the early temples at Corinth and Isthmia. The well-known stone reliefs from Mycenae, datedc. 630 BC, should also belong to this early structure. In the third century BC, when Mycenae had been resettled as an Argivekome, the temple was rebuilt, incorporating Archaic material in its foundations.

ARISTODEMUS ‘THE GOOD’ AND THE TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS AGROTERA AT MEGALOPOLIS

The Classical Quarterly ◽

10.1017/s0009838816000306 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 66 (1) ◽

pp. 128-133

Author(s):

Annalisa Paradiso

Keyword(s):

Third Century ◽

Violent Death ◽

The South ◽

The Road ◽

The Third ◽

The North ◽

On The Road ◽

Aristodemus, a Phigalian by birth, was tyrant of Megalopolis for around fifteen years in the first half of the third century b.c., possibly from the time of the Chremonidean War (267–262) until around 251, when he was murdered by two Megalopolitan exiled citizens, Megalophanes and Ecdelus, pupils of the Academic Arcesilaus. While giving an account of his violent death, Pausanias, none the less, draws a very positive portrait of him, also mentioning the nickname ‘the Good’ which he probably read on Aristodemus' grave. Pausanias also reports the foundation of two temples by the tyrant, both dedicated to Artemis. At 8.35.5 he locates one of the two temples at thirteen stades from Megalopolis on the road to Methydrion, so to the north. There, he says, is a place named Scias, where there are ruins of a sanctuary of Artemis Sciaditis. At 8.32.4, Pausanias briefly refers to the temple of Artemis Agrotera at Megalopolis. He says only that the sanctuary was on a hill in the south-east district of the polis, and adds that it was dedicated as an ἀνάθημα by the tyrant as well.

Expressions of Art in a Roman commercial city: Ostia

The Journal of Roman Studies ◽

10.2307/296304 ◽

1915 ◽

Vol 5 ◽

pp. 165-172

Author(s):

Guido Calza

Keyword(s):

Double Series ◽

Third Century ◽

Ground Floor ◽

The Third ◽

Dwelling House ◽

The City ◽

The noteworthy discovery which I have the honour of illustrating for the Journal of Roman Studies is a very recent one, and it was unlooked for because one would not expect to find a rich and beautiful series of small artistic bronzes among the ruins of a great bakehouse. This building consisted of a double series of rooms in which are gathered together the machines for crushing the grain, the machines for kneading the flour (machinae quae farinae subiguntur), and, lastly, two enormous ovens for the making of the bread. This great bakehouse, placed in the heart of the city, near the temple of Vulcan, was destroyed by a fire in the third century, as is proved by certain coins, and it was never re-built. The small bronzes, touched but not destroyed by the fire, were found among the ashes covering the pavement of the ground floor, and since they have nothing in common with the great bakehouse, they come assuredly from the first floor of the building, which was perhaps the dwelling-house of the miller, and it may be supposed from this that they were the religious and artistic furniture of his private chapel.

Other Minds and a Mind of One's Own

Conversations The Journal of Cavellian Studies ◽

10.18192/cjcs.vi7.4635 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 158-189

Author(s):

Lawrence Rhu

Keyword(s):

Third Century ◽

Other Minds ◽

Stanley Cavell ◽

The Third ◽

Christian Culture ◽

The Temple ◽

Positive Results

In an early round of the famous competition between poetry and philosophy, reason claims the upper hand against emotion. Though Plato achieves nothing like absolute victory for philosophy in this regard, Stanley Cavell rightly discerns that the stakes in this contest are high: nothing less than the soul. Not long after Plato, however, Aristotle ably defends poetry as an art that intends to work beneficially upon the passions to bring about positive results in both the soul and the commonwealth. Later, as Christian culture begins to supersede Hellenistic and Roman alternatives, St. Paul’s resonant prioritizing of charity over eloquence (both human and angelic) starts to carry the day. Early in the third century, Tertulian asks, “What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” and memorably crystalizes the distinction St. Paul suggests by contrasting light with darkness, Christ with Belial, and idols with the temple of God.

Why Was the Base Where It Was, and As It Was?

The Roman Military Base at Dura-Europos, Syria ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198743569.003.0027 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Simon James

Keyword(s):

Second Century ◽

Third Century ◽

City Wall ◽

The Third ◽

Open Ground ◽

Face Saving ◽

Saving Measure ◽

The Military ◽

The City ◽

In the foregoing, it was argued that the unitary base area seen in the third century, encompassing the entire N part of the city from the W defences almost to the River Gate, resulted from expansion and coalescence of two later-second-century nuclei, one near the Temple of Bêl, the other focused on the Citadel. Subsequently, presumably increasing Roman troop numbers at Dura led to takeover of the far N part of the intramural area, linking up the military holdings. But why did it start as two nuclei? When Roman power became permanently established over Dura c.165, and a decision was made to station Palmyrene symmachiarii there, while the Realpolitik may have been that these were proxy forces holding the city for Rome, the option of sending in troops from a long-standing friend of Dura may have been chosen as a face-saving measure for the Durene elite. The Palmyrenes were likely presented as defending the newly ‘liberated’ city from Arsacid interference. Under such circumstances, a less obtrusive, peripheral location would have been appropriate. The zone around the Temple of Bêl appears at the time to have comprised only partially built-up city blocks offering open ground, with more free space along the city wall to accommodate the Palmyrene force with minimal disruption to civic life. The temple plaza also offered a ready-made military assembly space. It is further possible that the Palmyrenes attested in Arsacid Dura—visiting traders and soldiers, and resident expatriates—already tended to congregate in or use this zone, around the temple which, at least later, would become especially associated with Palmyrene Bêl. With subsequent arrival of regular Roman troops, and the proposed enrolling of the Palmyrene archers as the nucleus of the nascent cohors XX, the NW cantonment was then probably expanded as it was developed into a Roman auxiliary base. With regard to the inner wadi/Citadel zone, it was suggested above that the incoming Romans would have taken over the great inner stronghold by default, as part of the defensive circuit. They also used the flat wadi floor in its shadow as a campus.

Greek Graffiti from Der el Bahari and El Kab

The Journal of Hellenic Studies ◽

10.2307/623840 ◽

1899 ◽

Vol 19 ◽

pp. 13-18

Author(s):

C. R. Peers

Keyword(s):

Nile Valley ◽

Western Side ◽

The Temple ◽

Southern Wall ◽

The following inscriptions were copied during the winter of 1897–8: those from the temple of Der el Bahari in November and December; those from the neighbourhood of El Kab in February, 1898.Der el Bahari.—The funerary temple of Queen Hatshepsut of the XVIIIth Dynasty, dedicated in honour of Amen Ra, and now known as Der el Bahari, stands on the western side of the Nile valley, under the eastern cliffs of the limestone ridge which separates the valley of the tombs of the kings from the great Theban cemetery which stretches from Goornah to Medinet Habou. The temple is laid out at three levels, having an entrance court on the lowest level, from which there is access by a central incline to a second or middle court, and this leads to a third or upper court, whose western and northern sides are built against the cliffs in which the sanctuary is excavated. All the graffiti given here (Fig. 1) come from the Eastern and Southern walls of this upper court. They are noted in the order they occur, on the Eastern wall from N. to S., on the Southern wall from E. to W.

Trajan's Column and Mars Ultor

The Journal of Roman Studies ◽

10.1017/s0075435816000289 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 106 ◽

pp. 124-146

Author(s):

Martin Beckmann

Keyword(s):

First Century ◽

Third Century ◽

The Third ◽

AbstractThis paper makes two arguments. The first is that Trajan deliberately orchestrated the dedication of his Column on 12 May, the anniversary of the dedication of the Temple of Mars Ultor, to coincide with the beginning of a new war against Parthia ina.d. 113. The second is that although most modern commentators focus on the function of Mars Ultor as avenger of Caesar, the evidence of his actual invocation from the late first centuryb.c. through the third centurya.d. more strongly supports another interpretation: as agent of vengeance against foreign enemies, and against Parthia/Persia in particular.

Boat-races at Athens

The Journal of Hellenic Studies ◽

10.2307/623571 ◽

1881 ◽

Vol 2 ◽

pp. 315-317 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Percy Gardner

Keyword(s):

University Education ◽

Regular Part ◽

Third Century ◽

The Third ◽

The Subject ◽

A Site ◽

The Temple ◽

The Town ◽

Boat Racing

In my paper on ‘Boat-races among the Greeks’ (above, pp. 90—8) I brought together a considerable number of testimonies to prove that boat-racing was a Hellenic sport. As I was to a great extent breaking new ground, it can scarcely arouse surprise if I failed to make my collection of authorities complete. Since the paper appeared friends have been good enough to point out to me two or three fresh passages of writers bearing on the subject of boat-races. Of these the most important is quoted by Mr. Ridgeway from Pausanias. That writer speaking of the town of Hermione, says, ‘Near by is the temple of Dionysus Melanaegis. In his honour is yearly held a musical festival, with swimming races, and boat-races (καὶ πλοίων τιθέασιν ἆθλα).’ Hermione is situate on a very sheltered bay at the extremity of Argolis, and so admirably adapted as a site for swimming races and for races of small boats.A far more interesting reference than that I have mentioned I owe to the courtesy of Dr. Hirschfeld. He points out to me that in the valuable series of Ephebic inscriptions recently discovered, mention is more than once made of boat-races engaged in by the Attic Ephebi, as a regular part of their training. I could scarcely have missed these mentions had not Dumont misled me by calling the races joutes nautiques. To us they are specially interesting because the system of training of Ephebi at Athens, which we can trace upwards to the third century B.C., corresponds more closely to a modern English University education than anything else in antiquity.