The city of Poseidonia/Paestum in southern Italy was settled by Greeks from the Argolid. Within the walls to the south of the city, the new inhabitants built a Doric temple of Hera in the sixth century. The temple is notable for its double cella; the two halves are separated by a central row of columns. Since there was no technical need for this feature, which had been used in early temples to support the roof, scholars have speculated that there may have been two cult images. Perhaps Zeus was worshiped with Hera, as he was at Olympia. Terracottas from the sanctuary show the king and queen of the gods enthroned together. A second temple to Hera was built beside the first in the fifth century, and must have contained a newer cult image. Another theory about this temple holds that it was consecrated to Poseidon, the patron god of the city.15
The Hera cult in the city was linked to an extraurban sanctuary at the mouth of the river Sele, north of Paestum. The medieval lime kilns on the site show that the sanctuary’s structures were long ago dismantled and the marble components burned, yet here one of the most significant caches of Greek sculpture to be uncovered in the twentieth century escaped destruction. Buried in the sand, excavators found more than thirty sculptured metopes from what was probably the earliest Hera temple at the site (c. 560). Many of these metopes illustrate the deeds of Herakles; others are scenes from the epic cycle of poems about Troy.16 A second, larger temple of Hera, dating to about 500, was differently ornamented, with metopes depicting dancing pairs of maidens. The terracotta votives in this sanctuary are very reminiscent of those in the other Heraia we have studied: they show the enthroned goddess holding a spear, a child, a horse, or a pomegranate. Not coincidentally, the Virgin of the eighth-century CE church built near this site is known as the Madonna of the Pomegranate. Other typical gifts to the goddess, also found at both Argos and Samos, are implements of war: miniature terracotta shields and armor. Like the Heraion at Samos, this famous sanctuary was supposed to have been founded by Jason and the Argonauts to honor Argive Hera.17
The sanctuary of Hera Lakinia at Kroton has been described as the most important sanctuary in southern Italy during the Classical period because of its role as the seat of the Achaian and Italian Leagues. Its rich votives begin in the seventh century and include a bronze ship model and a diadem decorated with leaves and acorns that may have adorned a wooden cult image. Like the other Olympian goddesses, Hera often received gifts of clothing, among which an elaborate purple cloak, embroidered with figures in gold and silver and presented by Alkistenes of Sybaris, was renowned. The nearby sanctuary
Figure 3.2 Metope from Hera sanctuary at Foce del Sele: Centaur, 570-60. Museo Archeologico Nazionale. Bildarchiv Foto Marburg.
Of Vigna Nuova contained numerous chains and tools, which may have been dedications to Hera by prisoners captured during Kroton’s destruction of Sybaris (510) and ultimately freed.18
World History
