Temple of Apollo Epicurius, Bassae
About
Perched at eleven hundred meters on a windswept Arcadian mountainside, this Doric temple was raised around 420 BCE and credited to Iktinos, architect of the Parthenon, dedicated to Apollo Epikourios, 'the Helper,' for sparing the region from plague. Its inner chamber held the first known Corinthian column capital in Greek architecture, a single ornate exception amid otherwise austere stonework. Roof tiles were still being repaired here in the 2nd century CE, evidence the temple stayed in active use for over five centuries after it was built. The traveler Pausanias, visiting in 174 CE, ranked it the finest temple in the Peloponnese after the one at Tegea.
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.
Sources
Nearby
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