Altar of Hieron
37°03′35″N 15°17′37″E / 37.059604°N 15.293694°E
Location | Syracuse, Sicily, Italy |
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Type | sacrifical altar |
Length | 198 |
Width | 22.8 |
History | |
Founded | Third century BC |
Site notes | |
Management | Regione Siciliana |
Public access | fenced off |
The Altar of Hieron (
Description
The structure is aligned roughly north-north-west to south-east-east, and is located in the Neapolis, slightly to the southeast of the Greek theatre.[1] Almost nothing except the foundations of the structure survive today. The structure was partly built from masonry blocks and partially carved from the living bedrock. The altar itself is 20.85 metres wide and 195.8 metres long (exactly one Doric stade). It sits on a crepidoma with three steps - at base this is 199.07 metres long and 22.51 metres wide. This makes it the largest altar known from the ancient world.[2]
The upper surface of the altar was divided lengthwise into two levels of different heights: the western half was perhaps 6.06 metres high, and the eastern half was significantly taller, rising to a height of perhaps 10.68 metres. There was a cornice and a Doric triglyph frieze running around the top of each level. The whole structure was covered in plaster, which was used to smooth out imperfections in the stone and for the fine decorative details. The overall structure of the altar mimics that of small fire altars which are common votive offerings in Sicily.[2]
There were stairways on the eastern side of the altar at the northern and southern ends, which led up to the lower level of the structure. Each of the staircases had an entranceway which was supported by two telamones. The feet of one of the northern telamones are still in situ. It is unclear whether it was possible to access the higher level of the structure.[2]
The altar was part of a larger complex. Below the structure, on the eastern side, there was a natural grotto, about 18 metres deep which contained
Purpose
The altar is mentioned by Diodorus Siculus, who attributes its construction to Hiero II. Stylistic analysis of the sculptural fragments from the altar confirms this, showing that they were made at the same time as the third phase of the nearby Greek theatre, which belongs after 235 BC. The votive deposit in the natural grotto under the eastern side of the altar shows that the area was already a sacred site in the Archaic period, not long after the city of Syracuse was established.[2]
One argument suggests that the altar was dedicated to
Other suggestions, not necessarily mutually exclusive, are that the altar, as well as the nearby theatre, played a role in meetings of the League of the Sicilians which was placed under Hiero's control after the First Punic War,[4] or that it was built for the five hundredth anniversary of Syracuse's foundation. At a more general level it served to aggrandise Hiero, as its builder, demonstrating his wealth and piety. In this, it represented the culmination of a long Sicilian Greek tradition of monumental altars - the 54.5 metre long altar of the fifth-century Temple of Olympian Zeus at Agrigento is an important precursor.[2][5]
Excavations
From late antiquity onwards, the altar was quarried away as raw material for other structures in Syracuse, most recently for the Spanish fortifications of Ortygia at the beginning of the fifteenth century. Amateur archaeological excavations were undertaken by Giuseppe Maria Capodieci in 1780, Saverio Landolina in 1813, and F.S. Cavallari in 1839. The only systematic and scientific excavations of the site were undertaken by Robert Koldewey and Otto Puchstein in 1893. All subsequent study of the altar has been based on their findings.[2]
Gallery
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The altar at the beginning of the 20th century
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Detail of the altar
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View of the northern staircase of the altar, from the northwest
References
- ISBN 88-365-0350-0
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Lehmler, Caroline. Syrakus unter Agathokles und Hieron II.: die Verbindung von Kultur und Macht in einer hellenistischen Metropole. Berlin: Verlag Antike, 2005. pp.135-145
- ^ Diodoros 11.72.2
- ^ L. Karlsson "The Altar of Hieron at Syracuse: A Discussion of its Function" Opuscula Romana. Annual of the Swedish Institute in Rome 21 (1996) p.85ff.
- ^ D. Mertens, "Bemerkungen zu westgriechischen Monumentalaltaeren" in L'espace sacrificiel dans les civilisations mediterraneennes de l'antiquite (1991) p.191
External links
- "The Altar of Hieron" (in Italian). Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2016-09-19.