Paestum — Posidonia
Paestum — Ποσειδωνία — Posidonia
Ποσειδωνία
or
Posidonia
was a major city of
Μεγάλη
Ελλάδα
or
Megáli Elláda,
meaning "Greater Greece",
a collection of Greek colonies all around the Mediterranean.
Most of the Italian peninsula from Napoli south,
plus the entire island of Sicily,
was settled by colonists from Greece
beginning in the eighth century BCE.
The Romans later called the area of Greek settlements
Magna Graecia,
and they renamed Posidonia as
Paestum.
Now you can visit and see three Greek temples from
about 550–450 BCE in excellent condition.
Plus, the ancient city's broad grid of streets
with ruins of homes, baths, and temples.
Paestum is south of
Salerno,
easily visited on a day trip from there.
Or, with a little more public transport at the beginning
and end of the day, from the
Amalfitani coast
or from
Napoli.
Greek settlers began to colonize Sicily and the Italian peninsula in the 8th century BCE. Late in that century, in 720 BCE, Greek colonists founded Sybaris at the southern end of Italy. Sybaris was a raging success, its name is the origin of sybaritic, sybarite, and similar terms.
The nearby rich farmland and the busy port let Sybaris grow. It then founded colonies of its own, including Poseidonia around 600 BCE.
Poseidonia flourished for two centuries, then fell to the Oscan-speaking Lucanian tribal people in 400 BCE. Just as at Pompeii, it seems that the Greek and Oscan cultures thrived together.
Rome took control of the city and surrounding territory in 273 BCE, establishing a colony and re-naming the city Paestum. It remained a prosperous Roman city for centuries, but declined throughout the fourth through seventh centuries CE. Drainage had changed and the river had silted up, leading to swampy conditions and malaria. The Roman Catholic church took the Paestum diocese off the official list in 1100. The city was finally abandoned after being asked by Arab raiders in 871 CE, and soon was mostly forgotten.
Pompeii and Herculaneum were rediscovered in the 1700s, bringing historians' attention to this area. Paestum was rediscovered. It was in unusually good condition because it had been totally abandoned and not used as a quarry for cut stone.
Reaching Paestum
There's a train in each direction roughly every hour between Salerno and the Paestum station. Several trains per hour pass rapidly through the Paestum station without slowing down.
From the station it's a short walk to the entrance to the site. It's not quite 700 meters, less than a ten-minute walk.
Entering Paestum
I entered the site close to the First Temple of Hera, at left, and the more-complete Second Temple of Hera, at right. One group of school children is lined up and entering the second temple, another group is seated on the ruins of the altar of the second temple, just left of center.
Yes, the altar is well outside of the temple, to its east, in front of the temple. Greek temple architecture shared many features with other cultures around the Mediterranean, east through Mesopotamia, and elsewhere.
Temples had their front toward the east, facing out over the altar toward the rising Sun. A temple contained a nested structure within it, which served as the deity's dwelling place.
The deity could look out from their dwelling, out through the surrounding temple structure, and see the rising Sun and the sacrifices made on the altar to honor or appease or otherwise worship the deity.
Here's the view from close to the left front corner of the Second Temple of Hera. Notice the structure built on the temple's floor within the rectangle formed by the outer columns.
Notice that the inner structure is built on its own raised floor. In a Greek temple this inner sanctuary is called the ναός or naós.
ORANGE
Of the three temples, the Temple of Athena
(the so-called Temple of Ceres)
and the Temple of Hera I (the so-called Basilica)
date from the 6th century bce,
while the Temple of Hera II (the so-called Temple of Neptune)
was probably built about 460 bce
and is the best preserved of the three.
Temple Design
The outer temple contains a more sacred sanctuary within it. Many cultures have built temples using this design.
Below is a plan of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, the Jewish First Temple, believed to have existed from the 10th century BCE until it was destroyed by Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II's siege of Jerusalem in 587 BCE. King Solomon is thought to have ruled 970–931 BCE over a unified Kingdom of Israel and Judah, although scholars debate his domain's actual extent and influence and opulence. The Hebrew Bible has a detailed description of his Temple's design and dimensions. It was built for the storage of the Ark of the Covenent, holding the original tablets of the Ten Commandments and providing a dwelling place for the one Hebrew God. North is up on this map. The temple opens to the east, overlooking the Altar of Burnt Offerings within the inner Temple Court.
Plan of Soloman's Temple of 10th to 6th century BCE from John Henry Wright's A History of All Nations From the Earliest Times; Being a Universal Historical Library, 1905, via Wikipedia.
Just the temple and the two surrounding courts.
Notice the large altar out in front of the temple,
and the three chambers within the temple's sanctuary:
Innermost with "T",
Central with "EMPL", and
Outermost with "E".
The inner sanctuary is surrounded by small storage rooms.
You reached the temple by passing through two layers of surrounding walls. Each passage through a gateway was a transition into an increasingly holy space, the same as in any other religious architecture.
The temple had an outer rectangle of walls supporting a roof, and within that, a windowless rectangular structure. Its only opening was a doorway at the front.
The deity's dwelling place was within the innermost chamber of that structure, from which there was a view out through the temple to the altar, and the rising Sun beyond.
Starting to move inward through the temple's inner structure, the ulam or porch of the Jewish First Temple had two bronze pillars named Jachin and Boaz.
The porch led to the largest chamber, the heikal, the sanctuary. At its far end a wooden door guarded by two cherubim led to the Holy of Holies.
The Kodesh HaKodashim or the Holy of Holies, the "Inner House", had roughly 20 metric tons of gold on the floor and walls. It contained two cherubim carved from olive wood, with wings spread out to touch the walls and touch each other's at the room's center.
The Ark of the Covenant, containing the original tablets of the Ten Commandments, was below the touching cherubim wings at the center of the Holy of Holies. The Ark had a lid made of pure gold, called the "mercy seat". This was the space for the Shekhinah, the dwelling-place of God. 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles describe how the Ark was brought to Jerusalem and placed inside the Holy of Holies.
Once the Ark was placed there, only the High Priest of Israel could enter the Holy of Holies, and only on Yom Kippur, and only while carrying the blood of a sacrificial lamb and burning incense.
Under later rulers, other deities began to be worshiped there as well — Ba'al, Hadad, El and his consort Asherah, Dagon, and others. The Hebrew people practiced monolatry or henotheism, in which many gods exist but they worship primarily or only one of them. As one of the Ten Commandments says, "You shall have no other gods before me", not simply "no other gods" at all.
Josiah took the throne in 643 BCE when he was just eight years old. The Hebrew Bible records that in the eighth year of his reign, 635 BCE, he "began to seek the God of his father [meaning ancestor] David." In the twelfth year of his reign, 631 BCE, he began a program of destroying "high place" altars and other objects associated with worship of all deities other than Yahweh.
In ancient Greece, the inner temple was the ναός or naós, and the outer porch or antechamber was the πρόναος or prónaos, or possibly the νάρθηξ or nάrthex. The Holy of Holies in a Greek temple was the ἅδῠτον or ádyton. It would house the cult image of the deity, and it was a space restricted to the oracles, priestesses, priests, and acolytes.
The Romans changed many terms into Latin, and then things evolved further into the terminology of western Christian architecture.
| Jewish | Greek | Latin | Western Christian architecture |
| ulam | πρόναος
or prónaos, or νάρθηξ or nάrthex |
narthex | narthex |
| heikal | ναός
or naós |
cella | nave |
| Kodesh HaKodashim
or Holy of Holies |
ἅδῠτον
or ádyton |
sanctum sanctorum |
sanctuary or chancel |
Shintō shrines in Japan have an analogous nested architecture. The honden or main hall is the most sacred structure, typically at the rear of the shrine, dedicated to use by the enshrined kami or spirit. The go-shintai, a temporary repository or carrier of the enshrined kami, is kept there. The doors to the honden are usually kept closed. Shintō priests may carry out a rite to open those doors and enter the honden to perform a ritual.
The haiden or oratory is at the front of the shrine, visible to visitors who may sometimes enter it for a ritual.
The haiden and honden are often connected by a heiden or hall of offerings.
The Second Temple of Hera
Back to Paestum and its Greek temples.
Here is a view back through the sanctuary within the Second Temple of Hera.
ORANGE
Of the three temples, the Temple of Athena
(the so-called Temple of Ceres)
and the Temple of Hera I (the so-called Basilica)
date from the 6th century bce,
while the Temple of Hera II (the so-called Temple of Neptune)
was probably built about 460 bce
and is the best preserved of the three.
Plan of the Second Temple of Hera, from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, via Wikipedia.
The above plan of the temple shows that the inner sanctuary had solid side walls which are now missing. The two layers of colonnade topped by architraves and entablatures were within the sanctuary's solid walls.
This is the reverse view down the side of the naós. This is looking toward the east, this temple is built with the deity's view down the length of the sanctuary and out over the altar toward the rising Sun.
The Allies began the invasion of the Italian peninsula on 9 September 1943 with Operation Avalanche, landings on the beaches from Paestum to Salerno. Some medical units set up within the three large temples, hoping that the Nazi defenders wouldn't shell ancient temples. They were joined by some communication and other headquarters units.
Department of the Army photo via Wikipedia showing a communications unit set up within the temple in 1943. On the right side, seated by the columns, front to back: Sgts. James Shellman, Gilbert A. Terry, John W. Phoenix, Curtis A. Richardson, and Leslie B. Wood. On the left, standing, front to back: T/Sgt. Gordon A. Scott, M/Sgt. Walter C. Jackson, Sgt. David D. Jones, and WO Carlyle M. Tucker.
_of_an_ancient_Greek_temple_of_Neptune,_built_about_7_-_NARA_-_531170.jpg){kind=link}
Here is a plan of the Second Temple of Hera. The front and entrance are at the bottom. The inner structure has the full three-chamber design: prónaos, naós, and ádyton. Notice that the inner structure is centered along the front-to-rear axis. Roman temples usually moved the inner structure toward or all the way to the rear of the overall structure.
The altar is aligned with the line down the center of the naós. An animal would be slaughtered on the altar, and a portion carried inside to be placed on a small altar in the naós.
The First Temple of Hera
The First Temple of Hera is less complete. It stops at the architrave directly on the column tops.
ORANGE
Of the three temples, the Temple of Athena
(the so-called Temple of Ceres)
and the Temple of Hera I (the so-called Basilica)
date from the 6th century bce,
while the Temple of Hera II (the so-called Temple of Neptune)
was probably built about 460 bce
and is the best preserved of the three.
ORANGE
First Temple of Hera in foreground,
Second Temple of Hera in distance.
Parthenon was built in 447–438 BCE.
All are of the Doric order,
and all were dedicated to Athena.
Sei qui is Italian for "You are here", and this sign and the reader stand close to the front right corner of the temple. Front to back, right to left here, are the prónaos, naós (called cella here), and ádyton.
143933
YELLOW
A heroön or heroon (plural heroa) (/hɪˈroʊ.ɒn/; Ancient Greek: ἡρῷον, romanized: hērôion, pl. ἡρῷα, hērôia), also latinized as heroum, is a shrine dedicated to an ancient Greek or Roman hero and used for the commemoration or cult worship of the hero. They were often erected over his or her supposed tomb or cenotaph.
YELLOW
The Romans and the Greeks practised an
extensive and widespread cult of heroes.
Heroes played a central role in the life of a polis,
giving the city a shared focus for its identity.
The cult typically centred on the heroön in which
the hero's bones were usually believed to be contained.
In a sense, the hero still lived: he was offered meals;
he was imagined to be sharing feasts.
His allegiance was seen as vitally important to
the continued well-being of the city.
YELLOW
The Greek city of Paestum, south of Naples,
has an unlooted heroon of an unknown figure,
perhaps the city founder,
with its contents intact (now in the museum there),
including large metal vases.
YELLOW
Heroa sites were often linked to hero cults,
due to the variety of different uses for hero cults
that they provided.
They acted as places of worship,
where cult followers could leave grave goods
and other worship offerings,
and were used as locations where feasts could be held
to honor the hero and remember the hero's great feats.
These events occurred primarily because of the Greek belief of
heroes possessing special abilities that lingered locally
even when he died, and it was believed that offerings and
worship towards this hero would allow living cult members
to tap into this power.
ORANGE
Of the three temples, the Temple of Athena
(the so-called Temple of Ceres)
and the Temple of Hera I (the so-called Basilica)
date from the 6th century bce,
while the Temple of Hera II (the so-called Temple of Neptune)
was probably built about 460 bce
and is the best preserved of the three.
It was absorbed into the Roman Republic after the Pyrrhic War (280-275 BC). However, a small population in the "heel" of Italy still speaks Griko, a language combining ancient Doric, Byzantine Greek, and Italian.
Operation Avalanche:
The Salerno Landing of 1943
When you're done seeing the ancient history at Paestum, it's just a short 1.5 kilometer walk to the beach and the site of the 9 September 1943 landing of the U.S. 36th Infantry Division during Operation Avalanche, the Allied invasion of Italy.
The U.S. 36th Infantry Division landed right at Paestum, and the initial hours of the battle passed through the ruins.
The invasion went well.
However, the following war up the length of the Italian peninsula was brutal.
The German forces had been in place for a few years, and had had plenty of time to plan and build defenses.
The Allies slowly pushed them north up the peninsula, but it was a matter of hard fighting for each defensive line (typically along a river running down from the central Apennines to the coast). The Germans would then fall back to their next hardened defensive line.
Today the beach near Paestum is a holiday spot. You see the restaurants and cafes as you approach from Paestum.
Where Next In Italy?
🚧 = under construction
In the late 1990s into the early 2000s I worked on a project to
scan cuneiform tablets
to archive and share 3-D data sets,
providing enhanced visualization to assist reading them.
I worked on the project with Gordon Young,
who was Purdue University's only professor
of archaeology.
Gordon was really smart,
he could read both Akkadian and Sumerian,
and at least some of other ancient languages
written in the cuneiform script.
He told me to go to Italy,
"The further south, the better."
Gordon was right.
Yes, you will very likely arrive in Rome,
but Italy has domestic flights and a fantastic train system
that runs overnight sleepers all the way to
Palermo and Siracusa, near the western and southern corners
of Sicily.
So, these pages are grouped into a south-first order,
as they should be.