Circular altar used by Ancient Greeks for sacrifices to Earth, Underworld and fertility goddesses Demeter and her daughter, Persephone: Sanctuary of the Chthonic Deities in ruined Graeco-Roman city of Akragas or Agrigentum, Valle dei Templi or Valley of the Temples, Agrigento, Sicily, Italy.
Agrigento, Sicily, Italy: circular altar at which animals were sacrificed by the Ancient Greek citizens of Akragas to the Earth, Underworld and fertility goddesses, Demeter and Persephone. It stood before a temple dedicated to them in a complex of sacred buildings close to a main gate in the city walls. The sacred area in the Valle dei Templi or Valley of the Temples is now known as the Sanctuary of the Chthonic Deities. It was the city’s hub for worship of the goddess Demeter and her daughter, Persephone, the joint focus in Ancient Greek mythology and religion for fervent fertility and agrarian cults. The Sanctuary lies close to Gate V in southern walls built to defend the city founded by Greek colonists around 580 BC. Three broad terraces support the remains of several temples, shrines and altars, as well as the triangular Terrace of the Divinities, which bore statues of the gods. This altar stood before a Doric temple, built in the late 400s BC, but destroyed when Carthage sacked Akragas in 406 BC. The temple, partly reconstructed in the mid-1800s, was probably jointly dedicated to Demeter and Persephone. Akragas, trading via a thriving port, rapidly became a prosperous leading city of Magna Graecia (Greater Greece) before it was sacked by the Carthaginians. It never regained its former status and it changed hands several times during the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage. Rome finally triumphed, renamed it Agrigentum and allowed its people to become Roman citizens. When the Western Roman Empire fell, Agrigentum was ruled in turn by Vandals, Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Saracens and Normans. Akragas covered a vast area, much of it not yet excavated. Its seven monumental Doric temples are among the largest and best-preserved ancient Greek buildings outside of Greece itself. The entire city remains are now protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Size: 4256px × 2832px
Location: Valley of the Temples, Agrigento, Sicily, Italy.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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