Papers of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (6.1890-1897 (1897))

DISCOVERY OF A TEMPLE OF ARCHAIC PLA2H.

53

the Agora of the Roman town, and it seems probable that it was built
on the site of the old /caTaywyiov, erected by the Thebans for the
"reception of those who might come to worship at the temple of
Juno," 34 and who would have no accomodations after, the destruction
of the city. Such a building, the resort of pilgrims and merchants,
would naturally become, in course of time, the commercial centre of
the new-built city, and might well be replaced by the Roman Agora.
If this is indeed the case, our temple is undoubtedly the Heraeum ;
and we have further evidence to the same effect in the layer of black-
ened earth, which proves that an earlier building once existed on the
site. This earlier building may have been destroyed by the Persians,
before the battle of Salamis, or perhaps by the Thebans, though it
is unlikely that they would have burned a temple of Hera.35 It seems
hardly probable, however, that they would build a new temple; though
they may perhaps have pulled down the old structure to replace it by
one more splendid. The plan in its disposition is evidently pre-Per-
sian ; and it may very well be that the Thebans used the old founda-
tions, and made a new superstructure of marble, which would accord
with the use of the word \idivov.

We get further confirmation of this view from a consideration of
the word eKaTo/j,7reSo<t and an examination of the dimensions of our
temple. It is well known that the naos of the Athenian temple of
Athena was called Hecatompedon from its length of 100 Attic feet,
without counting the end walls, one Attic foot corresponding to 0.308
metre. Adding the lengths of the compartments Q, R, S, T, and the
walls C, D, E (leaving out the walls B, F), in the plan of our temple,
we get a length of 35.30 m., only 4.50 m. longer than the 30.80 m.
required. The difference is not great, and it is very probable that the
term was used merely as an approximation.36

All the facts and arguments thus seem to point to the conclusion
that the newly discovered temple is the famous Heraeum, and that it
was built by the Thebans in the year 426-5, after the destruction of
an earlier temple on the same site. This being the case, the statue

3J Arnold, Note (o Thuc, nr. 68.

33 If they did, the new temple and the dedicatory couches may be considered as
offerings in expiation.

S6 [From the east side of wall E to the columns at B is a length of 30 m., which is
very close to that of the Athenian Hecatompedon. If this view is adopted, it is
probable that the chamber S opened into the celJa S, as at Segesta.—C. W.]