Tag: ancient greece
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Temple on the Ridge: Enchanting Sicily, Day 4
Agrigento’s archaeological site Valley of the Temples is 13 square kilometers. It contains eight different archaeological finds–five of which are temples. Pictured on this ridge is the outstanding Tempio della Concordia. Come tour this UNESCO World Heritage site with me this September on Day 4 of Experience Sicily’s Enchanting Sicily tour. Contact me at experience_sicily@yahoo.com…
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The Magnificent Temple of Concord at Agrigento
The Temple of Concord in Agrigento’s Valley of the Temples is one of the best preserved Doric temples in the world. Built in c. 430 B.C. by Greek colonists, it has 34 enormous columns. It owes its relatively excellent state to a 4th century A.D. conversion to a Christian basilica. It’s unclear to whom the…
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Silver Scylla
The hill-top town of Aidone hosts a world-class archaeological museum containing treasures unearthed at Morgantina, an ancient Greek town down the road a stretch. Morgantina was founded in 850 BC, and over the next 400-600 years the settlement was destroyed and rebuilt until it was finally abandoned in 211 BC. Throughout the centuries, the citizens…
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Segesta: Enchanting Sicily, Day 2
The temple at Segesta has 36 very large, limestone Doric-style columns. Just like in 19th century paintings of Italy you’ve seen in your aunt’s living room, this temple gracefully sits in the midst of rolling hills. You might even see a shepherd and his sheep in its shadow! The temple is in excellent condition, considering…
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Ancient Mixology
In the end of the 5th century B.C., “The Lugano Painter,” or “Il Pittore di Lugano,” worked on many pieces that archaeologists have unearthed and attributed to him. This “calyx krater,” or urn, shows a bearded Dionysus with his thyrsus (staff topped with a pine cone), a bacchante (female follower of Dionysus (a.k.a., Bacchus) playing…
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She was Popular
Sicily’s archaeological museums are full of terracotta statuettes of goddesses, many of which represent Demeter. Like these pictured here, the goddess of the grain, agriculture, and fertility is portrayed sitting on a throne with her cylindrical headdress (called a polos) and rows of pendants upon her breast. These from Agrigento’s museum are dated to the…
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Bronze Treasure
This bronze statue of a young man was found in the Contrada Galera necropolis of Sicily’s southwestern archaeological site Selinunte. It is dated to be from c. 460-450 BC. I was thrilled that I was able to see it in Castelvetrano’s Museo Civico because I’d only read about it and saw photos of it in…
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We’re Waiting for Her
Terracotta statuette of Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, from Morgantina’s North Sanctuary, c.300 BC.
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Hail Demeter, Hail Kore
Demeter and Kore-Persephone were fervently venerated in Sicily in ancient times. This exhibit from the Regional Archaeological Museum at Aidone features two acroliths (That is, sculptures that have been constructed of stone, such as marble, and other materials, such as, in this case, iron, and draped with fabric) most likely depicting the mother goddess and…