Metroon (Olympia)

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Plan of the sanctuary of Olympia; the Metroon is number 7.

The Metroon was an ancient Greek sanctuary, the smallest temple in Olympia . According to Pausanias, he was consecrated to the mother of the gods (μήτηρ θεῶν). The Doric temple with 6 by 11 columns, pronaos and opisthodom stood north of the Zeus sanctuary , south of the treasure house terrace and east of the temple of Hera .

history

Which deity is meant by the μήτηρ θεῶν is controversial. Rhea and Cybele or a fusion of these two figures come into question . The Asian cult of Cybele became popular throughout Greece in the 5th century BC, which also led to a revival of the Demeter cult , which was of an orgiastic and mysterious nature. It is possible that it was also cared for in Olympia, which could then have led to the construction of the temple, which, however, had rather modest dimensions. During the Roman Empire , the temple was rededicated and dedicated to Augustus .

The remains of the 2010 Metroon

The Metroon was apparently badly damaged by an earthquake in antiquity and was therefore renovated. At least since this renovation, the temple had a wooden ceiling; it is not known whether it was originally covered at all. On the remains of the geison, there are clear traces of processing, which probably go back to this renovation, and it was also found that a layer of plaster was applied in the course of the repairs. Perhaps the interior columns were also renewed at that time. After the renovation, the panels with which the metope fields had been adorned, as well as the gable figures were no longer present on the temple, from which one can conclude that this building decoration was so badly damaged that it seemed necessary to remove it. A reclining figure of a youth, which was interpreted as Dionysus and was found during excavations in the Prytaneion , could once have been a gable figure of the Metroon and may have been used in the Prytaneion.

The renovation of the Metroon can possibly be dated from an inscription on an architrave stone , which apparently refers to Emperor Augustus. This is referred to as σεβαστός, the Greek synonym for the Latin “pius”, but has not yet been divinized, resulting in the period between 27 before and 14 after Christ. The old statue of the Mother of Gods is also likely to have been replaced by the statues of Roman emperors that Pausanias found inside the temple during his visit to Olympia. During the excavations towards the end of the 19th century, the remains of a Claudius and a Titus statue were initially identified, followed by interpretations of other statues such as an image of Agrippina minor and a colossal statue of Augustus. Eventually it was concluded that the colossal statue was actually Augustus, the other six were the couples Claudius and Agrippina minor, Titus and Iulia Titi and Domitian and Domitia . The archaeologist Georg Treu , who z. T. had provided headless statues with these identities, it was assumed that these figures would simply be placed in chronological order one by one until the space in the temple had become too tight for the installation of further statues. Erika Schmidt, on the other hand, considered the statues to be a unified group from the Flavian period and partly reinterpreted them as opposed to Treu's interpretation. According to Schmidt, Vespasian and the two Flaviae Domitillae were represented in the group . Further reflection on the identity of the sitter published about Hans-Joachim Kruse , Werner Gauer , Shelley Stone and Renate Bol and Konrad Hitzl , who stated: "As you can see, the scope for determining the sculptural group of Metroon is not very large, leaving nevertheless a Abundance of interpretations too. "

In the 3rd century AD, the Metroon was largely demolished in order to gain building material for a fortress wall. This was considered necessary because of the Herulian incursion ; apparently they did not reach the Olympics. The blocks from the Metroon were built into the northern and eastern fortress walls and were later located there by archaeologists and removed again.

Photo from the time of the excavation. In the foreground the northwest corner of the Metroon stylobate

The account of Pausanias in the fifth book of his description of Greece directed archaeologists in the 19th century to the right place to excavate the remains of the Metroon. In May 1878 they found what they were looking for.

Findings

The Metroon was built from shell limestone . Dimensions of 10.62 by 20.67 meters were determined for the stylobate ; the three-aisled cella was 6.30 meters long and 5.15 meters wide. A height of 4.63 meters is assumed for the columns. The above-mentioned 90 centimeter high Dionysus statue made of Parian marble probably comes from the gable frieze . The cult image has apparently not been preserved, but should have been rather modest in accordance with the dimensions of the temple. On the other hand, parts of the foundation of the Metroon and some other remains from which conclusions can be drawn about the shape of the building have been preserved, such as remains of the stylobate on the north-west corner of the temple, from which the column ratio 6:11 and the normal yoke width of 2.01 Meters could be developed. The outer pillars were 0.85 meters in diameter at the bottom and 0.65 meters at the top. A remnant of the corner geison gave information about the gable inclination or the gable height, which was about 1.20 meters. Contrary to common custom, the altar and entrance were on the west side of the temple instead of the east side. This unusual arrangement may have been chosen because the altar was there earlier and the temple was subsequently built according to the spatial conditions. Or maybe there was an altar further north, where a temple would not have found a place on the terraced area. The Metroon would then have been erected south of the actual altar, but in its immediate vicinity.

Dating

As a terminus ante quem , Wilhelm Dörpfeld , among others, already used the list of the first Zanes in 388 BC. Cited. The bases of these atonement statues of Zeus, which had to be financed by athletes convicted of fraud, were located between the Metroon and the entrance to the stadium; their placement could have been dependent on that of the temple. Konrad Hitzl pointed out in 1991, however, that the reverse case is also conceivable: “The [...] argument of consideration when setting up the Zanes bases on the Metroon is not valid, because the same logic can be used to assert that the Tempel is clearly based on the older Zanes and must therefore be younger. ”Hitzl, who also discussed further attempts at dating, tended to believe that the Metroon could be built as early as the end of the 5th century BC. When Elis was not yet weakened by Sparta .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Metroon in the Perseus Project
  2. ↑ Hitzl discusses this extensively in 1991, pp. 9-12 , where he finally settles on Rhea.
  3. ↑ The Metroon at Arachne
  4. ↑ On the dispute about the number and originality of the interior columns, cf. Hitzl 1991, p. 18.
  5. ↑ Hitzl 1991, pp. 15-18.
  6. ↑ Hitzl 1991, p. 24.
  7. ↑ Hitzl 1991, p. 32.
  8. ↑ a b c Alice Fedrizzi, Metroon
  9. ↑ Hitzl 1991, p. 4.
  10. ^ Pausanias 5, 20, 9 and 5, 21, 2.
  11. ↑ Hitzl 1991, pp. 2-3.
  12. ↑ Hitzl 1991, p. 5.
  13. ↑ Hitzl 1991, p. 8.

Coordinates: 37 ° 38 ′ 19.7 ″  N , 21 ° 37 ′ 51 ″  E