Temple of Demeter in Pergamon

The Sanctuary of Demeter and Persephone was an ancient sanctuary dedicated to Demeter and Persephone, in Pergamon, in Asia Minor, Turkey. Its ruins are located on the southern slope of the acropolis of Pergamon, and it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage of Pergamon and its multi‑layered cultural landscape.

History

The location of the sanctuary was a place of worship no later than the Classical period to the late 400 BC or early 300 BC. The current sanctuary was built by Philetus, founder of the Attalid dynasty that ruled Pergamon (283–263 BC) in the early 3rd century BC. Therefore, it was one of the earliest sanctuaries, if not the first, of Hellenistic Pergamon. It was expanded during the reign of Attalus I (241–197 BC), when at least part of it was built, according to an inscription, by his consort Apollonides. The sanctuary was associated with the city’s Tesmophoria festivals.

It was renovated on two occasions during the Roman period, first in the early Imperial period, around the beginning of the Common Era, and again in the second half of the 1st century AD, when at least part of the renovation works were funded by the counselor Claudius Silianus Esimus. Thus, the sanctuary was not only one of the oldest in the city, but also one of the longest‑lasting; in the Byzantine period the ancient sanctuary area was used residentially.

Description

It is located on the northwest side of the gymnasium of Pergamon, on an embankment about 100 m long. In the centre of the sanctuary there was a small Ionic‑style temple with an entrance at the eastern end. It was a temple with antae and two columns (distyle in antis) on the façade. The temple measured about 14.1 × 8 metres, and its pronaos and naos were approximately the same size, that is, the pronaos was exceptionally large and the naos exceptionally small. The temple’s frieze was decorated with bucrania. The altar, decorated with volutes, was situated on the east side of the temple, opposite the door, about 9.5 m away. Its size was about 7.2 × 2.6 metres and its height almost one metre. The temple and the altar were the oldest parts of the sanctuary and dated to the time of Philetus.

The entrance to the sanctuary was made from the eastern end through the propylaeum. On the north, west and south sides, the sanctuary was flanked by stoas, which represented different directions of the classical orders. The stoa on the north side consisted of an upper stoa, about 87 × 5.6 m in plan, and a shorter lower stoa, about 41.5 × 3.5 m in plan. At the end there was an auditorium (theatron) of straight rows of benches for the followers of the tesmophorian cult. The west nave measured about 21.6 × 4.6 m and the south one about 91.7 × 10.4‑10.8 m. These buildings surrounding the sanctuary were built by Apollonides or later.