Prosymna (ancient)
Coordinates: 37 ° 41 ′ 36 ″ N , 22 ° 46 ′ 24 ″ E
Prosymna ( Greek Πρόσυμνα "much praised land") is the name of an archaeological site west of the Heraion of Argos in Argolis , Greece . Numerous graves from the Mycenaean period were found here.
Lore
Pausanias reports that Prosymna was named after Prosymna , the nurse of the goddess Hera and was an area below the Hera temple. According to Strabo and Stephanos of Byzantium , Prosymna was a city within which the Hera temple was located. Statius gives the city the epithet sublime .
exploration
In 1878 the archaeologist Panagiotis Stamatakis uncovered the Tholos tomb of Prosymna . The other excavations took place under the direction of Carl Blegen , who published the results in 1937. Above all, a Mycenaean necropolis with over 50 chamber tombs was examined, dating from the 16th to the early 12th century BC. BC ( SH I-SH IIIC early) was used. The necropolis is particularly noteworthy due to the fact that ceramics (such as the palace amphora ), bronzes and other objects from the late Geometric period (c. 750 to early 7th century BC) have been found in many tombs . These strongly suggest the cult of the hero , which was here in the late 8th century BC. BC, about half a millennium after the graves were occupied. The graves were evidently considered to be the graves of heroes of the mythical times, which began in the 2nd half of the 8th century BC. BC experienced a renaissance through the spread of Homer's epics . Sacrifices were made to the “heroes”, so the graves were, in a sense, places of pilgrimage . Prosymna is considered to be one of the most important places where the hero cult was found in the late Geometric and early Archaic times.
literature
- Carl Blegen : Prosymna. The Helladic Settlement Preceding the Argive Heraeum . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1937.
- Kim S. Shefton: The late Helladic pottery from Prosymna . Åström, Jonsered 1996, ISBN 91-7081-114-8 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Pausanias: Travels in Greece 2, 17, 1-2.
- ↑ Strabo: Geographica 8, p. 373.
- ^ Publius Papinius Statius: Thebais 4. 44.
- ↑ Penelope A. Mountjoy : Mycenaean Pottery. An Introduction , Oxford 2001, p. 22.