Archaeology Magazine - September 1962 - 48

as well, the Dorians turned the Mycenaean palace into
a temple of Hera. And about five miles northeast of
Argos the Dorians established the oldest and most
revered sanctuary of Hera in Greece- here also, no
doubt, upon the site of an earlier Mycenaean palace.
The Corinthia, too, had a sanctuary of Hera at
Perachora, likewise established in the Geometric
period. In this connection we recall Thucydides' statement that the Dorians, in their incursion into the
Peloponnesus, first established themselves on the hill
Solygeion and from there fought the Corinthians in
the city. This passage corroborates our hypothesis that
the temple was established in this place at the time of
the Dorian invasion and dedicated to the Dorians'
favorite goddess. Furthermore, the site of the temple
fits the epithet of the goddess, "Akraia" (of the
rocks).
We have mentioned that five Mycenaean chamber
tombs were found close to the temple, and there are
probably others in the vicinity. From this we gather
that a considerable Mycenaean center existed here.
But the settlement probably goes back to a still earlier
period, at least to the beginning of Middle Helladi^
times. This we may conclude from the fact that the
Middle Helladic people and the inhabitants of Greece
ift Mycenaean times were of the same race, namely
Achaeans. And where Mycenaean centers are found,
they are usually continuations of earlier settlements,
particularly where the remáins, as here, belong to the
early years of the Mycenaean era. Furthermore, the
obsidian and the prehistoric pestle built into the
eschara testify to the existence of an earlier settlement.
The orientation of the temple, with its entrance on
the west, is the opposite of that customary for Greek
temples. Furthermore, in the Middle Helladic period
The most common shapes of the vases found in the a common house type was the megaron terminating
temple deposit are of types suitable to the worship in an apse and containing a hearth in the main room.
of a female deity. They are small omphalic phialai In addition, the central portion of the south founda(shallow dishes), sometimes decorated in imitation tion the only part of the building preserved from
of pomegranates, kalathiskoi (baskets) and pyxides the original structure- shows a type of wall construc(boxes with lids). These and some of the terracotta tion characteristic of prehistoric buildings. We may
votive objects, such as poppy capsules, are charac- thus conjecture that the Geometric temple was built
teristic of the worship of Hera. Many of the figurines on the site of a Middle Helladic building which had
too are similar to those found in sanctuaries of Hera been a place of worship belonging to the king's court.
in the Corinthia and the Argolid. From all these indi- As in other places mentioned above, this structure was
cations we may conjecture that the temple was dedi- later converted into a place of public worship in honor
of a chthonic deity similar to the one worshiped there
cated to the goddess Hera.
We have no literary references to the worship of before, namely Hera.
Hera at this place; and Pausanias, the excavator's
Only a slight accumulation of earth covered the
usual source of information, did not visit Solygeia on temple remains, and thus no evidence is left by which
his journey through the Corinthia. But we know that these conjectures can be verified. Analogies with other
Hera, the most revered goddess of the Dorian world, buildings showing the same peculiarities, for example
was worshiped in the Dorian centers, the Corinthia the temple at Thermon in Aetolia, must serve as the
and the Argolid. At Tiryns, and perhaps at Mycenae only support for this hypothesis.

continued
Solygeia
piece of obsidian and a square tile on which the outline of a pitcher has been incised. A prehistoric
stone pestle, probably from some early building, was
built into the west wall. Outside the southwest corner
we found a large, crumpled sheet of iron. Nearby
were slight traces of a pyre. From this evidence it is
clear that the structure was an altar or an eschara
(altar with a hearth). Its discovery confirms the religious nature of the building and indicates its early
date, for only in the very earliest Greek temples was
the altar inside the building (see Martin Nilsson,
Archaic Greek Temples with Fireplaces in Their Interior, Opuscula Selecta II [1952] 704 if.).
The objects found in the excavations cover a span
of time from the end of the Geometric period to the
beginning of the fifth century B.c. Since no later
pottery was found we must assume that the temple
was abandoned shortly after 500. Sometime in the
course of the sixth century it underwent a thorough
rebuilding. We do not know the reasons for these
changes, since no literary evidence comes to our aid.
But if we bear in mind the mud-brick construction
of the temple and the prevalence of earthquakes in
the Corinthia, we may plausibly conjecture that both
the reconstruction in the sixth century and the final
abandonment of the site at the beginning of the fifth
came as a result of earthquakes and accidental fires. It
is interesting to note in this connection that the
Archaic temple of Poseidon in the neighboring sanctuary of Isthmia was also destroyed by fire early in
the fifth century (see Oscar Broneer, Hesperia 28
[1959] 300).

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Archaeology Magazine - September 1962

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