Agrigento

                                                                                                        

   Province of Agrigento 
 
 

 AGRIGENTO is based on the Roman name (Agrigentum) for the Greek town of AKRAGAS (stem: Akragant-). It was founded in 581 BC by colonists from Gela, a Greek town further along the southern coast. Gela itself had been settled by Greeks from Rhodes and Crete only a century earlier. Akragas was well placed to exploit trade by sea and the rich agricultural land in the area. Over time, the city developed some of the finest vineyards and olive groves on the island, and traded its products with Libya and other areas. The tyrant Phalaris is supposed to have been in power 571 – 556 BC, and may have built walls of the acropolis which lies mainly under the present town, to the northwest of the Valley of the Temples. Theron ruled as tyrant from about 489 to 472 BC. He married his daughter to Gelon of Syracuse (Gelon had come from Gela originally), and they raised a force powerful enough to defeat the Carthaginians at Himera in 480 BC. The victory gave Akragas free manpower from the enemy who was enslaved as a result of the campaign. It was said that some Akragantian citiziens owned 500 captives of war as their slaves.The wealth of the town became legendary, and there’s no doubt the accounts were exaggerated. One man called Gellias was able to offer hospitality to 500 horsemen when they were caught in a storm on their journey from Gela. It was said that the people lived as if they would die tomorrow, and built their houses as if they would live forever, spending money on tombs for their pets and horses, using gold and silver to eat and drink from and sleeping on ivory beds. With its new wealth, the city embarked on a period of public building projects-aqueducts and a public fountain, and a number of temples, including those of Hera, Asklepios and the Dioskouroi (sons of Zeus). They could afford some of the best builders and sculptors of the period. Theron himself, and other rich citizens of Akragas, entered their chariots and charioteers in the rich man’s competitions in Hellenic games, and often won. Coin of the period often show victorious chariots, with the goddess of Victory, Nike. Like other rulers, Theron saw the value of sport and the great figures of literature to give him a good public image, and he welcomed the famous poets Simonides and Pindar to his city. Pindar was a particulary useful catch – he specialised in celebrating the deeds of the modern sporting heroes of the pan-Hellenic games, in poetry. Two of his victory odes are dedicated to Akragas and Theron, celebrating their advantages and achievements. After the death of Theron, democracy was established, as in many other Greek cities after the period of the tyrants. There was tension between Akragas and Syracuse, the other great power in the area, and Syracuse became the main power of the island until the Carthaginians’ power revived. When the Carthaginians captured Selinous in 409 BC, Akragas took in about 2,500 refugees and strengthened its own defences to face a siege by the enemy. The Carthaginians captured Akragas in 406 BC. It remained under Carthaginians rule for a long time. Timoleon’s liberation of 340 BC gave the town a new democratic government and added new settlers to rebuild Akragas. Pyrrhus briefly held the town in 276 BC, and after that the Carhaginians regained contol. When the Carthaginians were defeated by Rome in the first Punic War, the city was sacked and the whole population was sold into slavery (262 BC), and the town came permanently under Roman control in 210 BC, during the second Punic War. Through the period of Roman rule it was a prosperous trading station, producing corn (=wheat), wine, fruits, sulphur and textiles. It declined in the 3rd century AD. In the 9th century AD Agrigento was conquered by the Saracens coming from North of Africa and later on by the Normans, who founded the Bishopric. In the 18th century builders used a lot of the ancient stones from the city to construct the new harbour. Today in Agrigento live about 55.000 people. 
 
 
 
 

The Valley of the Temples

This is usually approached from the higher end, and tourist walk down to rejoin their coach at the bottom, so the temples seen are described in this order, from east to west. When paganism was abolished by the official establishment of Christianity, the temples were neglected and the area was used as a graveyard (necropolis).

Temple of Hera

Built about 450 BC (6 X 13) it shows red stains from the fire damage of the Carthaginian sack of the city. It was restored in the Roman period and the ramp up to the east entrance was created then. There are traces of a stairway on each side of the eastern doorway, between the naos and the pronaos, leading to the roof space. The stylobate, on a massive artificial platform, measures 125ft by 55ft. Its 34 columns, (6 by 13 , 21 ft high ) were built in Doric style and in the local “tufa” stone. Like most ancient temples, it would have been set in the god’s sacred enclosure with trees and altars, votive offerings and probably a boundary wall to mark it out from the next enclosure.

Temple of Concord

This is one of the best-preserved Greek temples that you will see anywhere. It is called the temple of Concord because an inscription of the Roman period, which refers to Concord, was discovered near it, but the temple would have been dedicated to a different god. It was built 450 – 430 BC (6X13 peristyle). It has staircases to the roof space, in the same place as the Temple of Hera. It has classical-period refinements – entasis of the columns, a slight inward lean of the columns and a slightly wider spacing of columns near the corners than in the middle of each row (pteron). You have to look hard to notice these features. Unless temples were built of the hard-wearing, close-grained and luminous marble, which was very expensive, the local stone would be covered (as here) with a fine plaster. The metopes were not carved, but were probably painted with mythological scenes. The pediment may also have had paintings rather than sculpture. In the 6th century, St Gregory of the Turnips made the temple into a church, adding walls between the columns and knocking down some of the walls of the naos. Because it became a church, the building survived in a reasonable state. In 1748 these later additions were removed, leaving the temple remains that you see today.

Temple of Herakles (Hercules)

Built in the 6th century BC, the temple is longer and narrower than the later, Classical pattern (6×15 peristyle) and the columns are closer together with broader capitals. Like the other two temples to the east, it had staircases up to the roof space. The eight columns standing today were set up again in the 1920s. there are references by Roman authors (Cicero, Livy) to a temple of Herakles near the agora, but it is not certain if this is the temple they were referring to. In the temple of Herakles there had been a fine bronze statue of the god, which the notorious Roman governor Verres tried to remove, but the citizens were alerted and came to the rescue, driving off his men. There was also a fresco (wall painting) by the famous 5th century painter Zeuxis, showing Herakles strangling two snakes which Hera had sent to kill him when he was a baby. Herakles was a role model for athletes and all ambitious aristocrats wanted to succeed and be admired for their prestige. Pindar refers to Herakles, in one of his odes about Akragas, as passing on to the Dioskouroi the role of leardership in horse competitions and chariot racing. His third Olympic Ode, in honour of Theron, for his chariot victory at Olympia in 476 BC, may have been performed publicly in ceremonies at the temple of Herakles. There is a 5th century temple of the Dioskouroi to the west, beyond the Temple of Olympian Zeus.

The Temple of Olympian Zeus

Started after the victory over the Carthaginians at Himera in 480 BC, built to last for thousand of years, the temple was unfinished when the Carthaginians destroyed Akragas in 406-BC. This is the largest Greek temple in Sicily (7×14 peristyle), planned on a huge scale and with some unusual design features. The edifice measures 373 per 185ft. There was a wall constructed between the columns (half columns were stuck into the walls) of the peristyle, and telamones ,giant-like figures which appear to be holding the weight of the entablature: each is about 25 feet tall. If you look at the one remaining telamon, and see how it fits into the design, you will see the vast scale of the building. The niche created by each flute on the columns of the peristyle could hold a person. The Greek historian from Sicily, Diodorus, who was writing circa 40 BC, says that the pediments had sculptures of the Gigantomachy (east end) and the Capture of Troy (west end). These are typical images used by Greeks as parallels for a victory over the threat from an alien culture (in this case, the Carthaginians). The whole building covers an area of 64.000 sq ft. There are traces of a huge altar platform in front of the east end of the temple. Because the temple was built with slabs of stone that were small enough to transport easily they were removed with equal ease in later periods, especially for the building of Porto Empedocle in the 18th century. Beyond the temple of Olympian Zeus remains of other sanctuaries have been found, and a road ( Sacred Way) that would have been used for public processions and rituals. There are shops from the Roman period too, but it is mainly rubble today.

Temple of the Dioscuri

Built c. 480 460 BC in honour of Castor and Polydeukes (Pollux). Four columns were set up again in 1836, but, like the fragments that strew the site, they are a mixture from different buildings.

Sanctuary of the Chthonic Deities

This was a very ancient holy place, probably used by the pre-Greek Sikels of the area. Demeter and Persephone were worshipped here. There are pits which would have held offerings, some altars are round and square.

The National Archeological Museum

It contains unique, remarkably well-presented, collections of Kraters( Greek jars), statues and sculptures. There are two sections, the first devoted to Agrigento the second to the towns provinces and the Caltanissetta region. The most beautiful collection is the Attique black and red ware from the 5th to the 4th century BC. One of the finest craters represents the Battle of the Amazones Among the Museum’s major pieces is the marble statue of Ephebus of Agrigento which dates from about 470 BC.