Arrephorion

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The Arrephorion , the home of the Arrephors , was one of the buildings on the Athens Acropolis . Pausanias explains the following in his descriptions of the area northwest of the Erechtheion :

“But what amazed me most is not known to everyone, so I want to report on what is happening. Not far from the Temple of Polias live two virgins who the Athenians call Arrhephoroi. They stay with the goddess for some time, and when the time of the festival comes they do the following at night. They put on their heads what the priestess of Athena is giving them to wear, and she does not know what she is giving them, and those who wear it do not know it either, and not far away in the city is a district of Aphrodite in the gardens, to which a natural underground passage leads. This is where the virgins descend. At the bottom they leave what they have worn and receive other things in return and bring them face down. And they release them from then on and instead lead other virgins to the castle. "

A ball playground of the Arrephoren, which has been handed down to Plutarch , is seen in connection with their “house”.

Wilhelm Dörpfeld was the first to identify the foundations of a building in the area in question as belonging to the Arrephorion in the 1920s. Above all, the immediate location on a crevice leading into the lower town, in combination with the statement of Pausanias, supports this interpretation.

The foundation, formed from uniform limestone blocks and preserved several layers high, rests on the castle rock near the northern acropolis wall. Only the north-west corner of the foundation is disturbed by a medieval staircase. The dimensions of the building reached an almost square floor plan with a side length of 12.20 meters, with a lack of regularity. The foundation strips were 1.90–2.00 meters wide. A foundation strip that is 1.30–1.40 meters narrower divides the building into an approximately 4.40 meter deep vestibule and an 8 meter deep, transversely rectangular interior.

Due to the factory technology and the direct structural relationship to the nearby Erechtheion - the area between the two buildings was filled up by three meters to compensate for levels with the aim of a uniform walking horizon - the foundation dates back to the last quarter of the 5th century BC. Dated. Due to improper excavations in the 19th century, further dating bases are missing.

The reconstruction of the rising architecture is controversial. If Dörpfeld was still based on a south-facing front with two columns between the ante - a conjecture that has been effectively taken up again recently - four columns were later reconstructed between the ante. However, since no other four-column antenna structures are known, a reconstruction with a six-column prostyler vestibule was proposed. Because of the strong foundation widths, a step substructure, a crepe , can be assumed on which the actual building stood. Only a gable with a corresponding roof can have risen above the six-column, prostyle vestibule . Older reconstructions with a hipped roof should therefore be discarded. It is unclear what the order of the pillars was. An Ionic order is to be considered, although most of the existing reconstructions assume a Doric order .

literature

  • Helge Olaf Svenshon: Studies on the hexastyle prostylos of archaic and classical times . Darmstadt 2002, pp. 74-106 ( online ; PDF file, 929 kB).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pausanias 1, 27, 3, quoted from F. Eckstein (Ed.): Pausanias, Reisen in Greece . Vol. 1: Athens. Books I – IV: Attica, Argolida, Laconia, Messenia. Zurich and Munich 1986, p. 124 f.
  2. ^ Plutarch, Vitae decem oratorum . Isocrates 839C.
  3. ^ Wilhelm Dörpfeld: The Hekatompedon in Athens . In: Yearbook of the German Archaeological Institute . Vol. 34, 1919, p. 37 f.
  4. ↑ For the dimensions see Jens Andreas Bundgaard: The Excavation of the Athenian Acropolis 1882-1990 . Copenhagen 1974, p. 11 ff.
  5. ↑ For discussion in summary Helge Olaf Svenshon: Studies on the hexastyle prostylos archaic and classical times . Darmstadt 2002, pp. 74-106.
  6. ↑ Richard Economakis: Acropolis restoration . London 1994, p. 43.
  7. ↑ Kristian Jeppesen: The Theory of the Alternative Erechtheion. Premises, Definition, and Implications . Aarhus 1987, pp. 22. 490-491.
  8. ↑ Heiner Knell : The younger temple of Apollon Patroos on the Athner Agora . In: Yearbook of the German Archaeological Institute . Vol. 109, 1994, p. 220.
  9. ↑ Helge Olaf Svenshon: Studies on the hexastyle prostylos of archaic and classical times . Darmstadt 2002, p. 95 f.
  10. ↑ For discussion see Helge Olaf Svenshon: Studies on the hexastylic prostylos archaic and classical times . Darmstadt 2002, p. 106.