Metroon
About
Small Doric temple built around 400 BCE for Rhea, mother of the gods, and repurposed under Roman rule for the imperial cult. By 117 CE its cella held statues of Roman emperors rather than the old Anatolian goddess, including an oversized Augustus posed as Zeus with a thunderbolt. The switch turned a centuries-old temple into a showcase for Rome's living rulers. Six by eleven Doric columns still framed the small shrine at Trajan's death.
What happened here
The building itself is a house for the god, and most people never go inside. Everything public happens on the steps and at the altar in front: an animal led up, examined, killed cleanly, its organs read, the meat divided and eaten. The priest covers his head and a flute player keeps up a noise so no ill-omened word is heard. Worshippers leave what they can afford — a terracotta figure, a coin, a model of the body part they want healed — and the accumulated clutter is periodically cleared and buried on site. On festival days the doors are opened and the cult statue is dressed, garlanded, and sometimes carried out through the streets. The temple also holds money, which is why towns keep their treasury in one.
In ancient writing
- Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.20.9
A Doric temple of the Mother of the Gods that by Roman times held statues of emperors instead.
Sources
Roman Maps shows the empire frozen at 11 August 117 CE, the day Trajan died — its moment of greatest territorial extent. Explore the full map →