The magnificent Doric temples of ancient Akragas lining the ridge of the Valle dei Templi at Agrigento are some of the most admired sights in Sicily. There is no shortage of studies on the architecture of these temples (and the equally impressive ones at Selinunte, a little further to the west), with detailed accounts of corner contraction or size and density of the columns. However, the temples and their altars were first and foremost elements of a sacred landscape in which they constituted a space for the performance of religious rituals. Therefore, it is most welcome to see the appearance of a publication (with both the words ‘Akragas’ and ‘sanctuaries’ in its title) that looks beyond the temples and treats the material culture of Greek religion in a broad and stimulating way – not only at Akragas but at several ancient sites in Sicily.
This book is the result of a conference organised in Agrigento and Palermo in 2016 as a collaboration between the universities of Augsburg and Palermo – both of which carry out excavations of sanctuaries at Agrigento. The book comprises a note and introduction by the editors, nineteen contributions (each with its own list of references) and an index. The contributions vary in length and contents, but all discuss sanctuaries based on archaeological results. In what follows, I sketch the contents of each contribution in brief and a few in more detail.
The book opens with J. Wallensten's contribution on human interaction with the gods through the offering of sculptures and the habit of giving humans divine names. This is the only contribution not explicitly dealing with Sicily, but rather with the sanctuary of Poseidon at Kalaureia on the Greek island of Poros. It provides a stimulating read and highlights important aspects of Greek religion in general, which helps set the scene for the book.
The two following papers, I. Patera's on identifying Demeter Thesmophoros and her cult in Sicily and A. Pautasso's on votive terracotta figurines from Sicilian sanctuaries, are studies on more over-arching questions related to Greek religion. Pautasso sheds new light on the iconography of terracotta kanephoroi based on the offerings made by female dedicants.
M.C. Parello gives a very useful overview of the history of research at Akragas/Agrigentum, from the Grand Tour travellers until the present. This article serves as a starting point for the main part of the book, which is devoted to Akragas. The contribution by de Cesare and Portale focuses on the sanctuary of the Olympian Zeus beyond the monumental temple and sheds light on the cults practised in the smaller structures to the south of the temple in the fifth century bc, including the festival of the Theoxenia, held in honour of the Dioscuri (and described in Pindar's Olympian 3).
F. Ducati revisits P. Marconi's 1927–1930 excavations of a small sanctuary of the chthonic deities near the Casa Filippazzo at Akragas. M. Longo re-examines the sanctuary to the east of Gate V, in the westernmost part of the hill of the temples, between the larger sanctuary of the chthonic deities and the Olympieion. A. Rheeder presents a revision of E. De Miro's 1965 typology of the terracotta roofs of Akragas. In order to prove her point, Rheeder demonstrates that a group of terracotta roof fragments previously published as belonging to different buildings in fact belong to a single roof of an unknown building.
C. Genovese takes a broader view of the so-called ‘Upper Sanctuary of Demeter’ at Akragas, near the church of San Biagio, based on a thorough analysis of the archaeological evidence, primarily votive terracottas, lamps and miniature vessels. A. Serra presents a detailed study of the offering of bronze objects in the sanctuaries at Akragas, focusing on the bronzes from the small shrine near the Olympieion.
Sojc's contribution on the excavations of the extra-urban sanctuary of S. Anna makes for an interesting read on how to interpret depositions of sacrificial material (objects as well as animal bones), offering new interpretations based on both the 1960s excavations at the sanctuary and the recent excavations conducted by the University of Augsburg directed by Sojc. The following study by R. Miccichè is also on the sanctuary at S. Anna, focusing on the animal bones, which are almost exclusively (94%) pig bones. It offers interesting insights into the interpretation of such offerings in the cult of Demeter, compared to what is known from textual sources on the Thesmophoria, and includes an experimental study of the time it takes for a piglet carcass to decompose in a cave.
M. Albertocchi revisits the sanctuary of Bitalemi in Gela, first excavated in 1901 by P. Orsi and then again in the 1960s by P. Orlandini. She presents hypotheses on how the ritual practices at the sanctuary were organised in the Archaic period and raises important points on the simple structures erected at the sanctuary to shelter the worshippers, drawing on E. Lippolis's insightful thoughts on such structures (‘Lo scavo dei santuari di Saturo (Taranto)’, Meixis [2012], pp. 65–88).
Three contributions deal with sanctuaries at Selinus, those by F. Spatafora, C. Greco and C. Marconi. New results from recent excavations at the sanctuaries of Demeter Malophoros and Zeus Meilichios are presented along with new interpretations of the earlier excavations. In particular Spatafora's rilettura of V. Tusa's 1969–1970 excavation of the sanctuary of Zeus Meilichios opens up interesting questions about the relationship between the two sanctuaries, which are located close to each other, but were so very different in terms of religious practice. Greco's new excavations shed much welcome light on the sanctuaries, including a clarification of the stratigraphy. Marconi's investigations of Temple R in the main urban sanctuary of Selinus has yielded a wealth of information on this early building (early sixth century bc) identified as a temple of Demeter and Kore. His focus is on the archaic and classical periods of the temple, but he also touches upon the possibility that Temple B, constructed around 300 bc and previously investigated by Marconi and his team, was the Hellenistic successor to Temple R.
The book ends with three contributions covering two more Sicilian sites: Himera (by E. Mango and M. Boglione respectively) and Akrai (by D. Leggio). Mango's investigation of two sanctuaries on the Piano del Tamburino, the elevated plain to the west of Piano di Imera, leads to an interesting discussion of an old question, namely the size of ancient Himera and whether or not the Piano del Tamburino lay within the urban area of the polis. If it did, the city would have been one of the largest Greek colonies in Sicily. This question remains to be solved, but given the location of the sanctuaries, one can hope that future research at the site could clarify the matter. At Akrai the finds in the large cult building excavated on the acropolis mark the end of the sanctuary, documenting the last religious ceremony performed when the sanctuary was closed.
Even a book with a subtitle as broad in scope as the one under examination cannot cover every relevant sanctuary in Greek Sicily. However, given that so many of the contributions discuss archaic and classical finds from sanctuaries of Demeter and Persephone, one would have expected some references to the finds unearthed at Francavilla di Sicilia in 1979. There a sanctuary where Demeter and Persephone (among other deities) were worshipped was excavated, yielding the famous terracotta pinakes of a type known from Lokroi Epizephirioi, indicating religious and political connections between the Calabrian coast and the hinterland of Sicilian Naxos (on the pinakes see U. Spigo in BdA 111 and 113 [2000]).
Inconsistent usage of ancient and modern names can be a little frustrating. Since Akragas is used in the title, one expects the ancient Greek name of this and other ancient sites discussed in the book to be used, rather than the modern Italian names – at least in the articles written in English. However, in the introduction the editors indiscriminately refer to both Akragas and Agrigento. Selinus is consistently called by its modern name Selinunte, whereas Himera and Akrai are called by their ancient names.
The majority of the contributions are in English, several are in Italian, and one is in French. The book is neither edited nor written by native English speakers, and that may explain ‘musea’ (p. 3) for museums and ‘Selinunt’ for Selinunte (p. 5) and the like. Such errors do not cause any misunderstandings, but throughout the book there is a lack of English language editing, noticeable even to a non-native speaker such as the undersigned. This is something that affects the overall impression of many of the contributions written in English.
It may be difficult for editors to decide which acronyms need explaining and which can be assumed to be common knowledge for their audiences. For example, I am quite happy with IG (Inscriptiones Graecae) and SEG (Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum) not being explained, but what about LIMC (Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae) in the article by Patera (note 49)? LGPN (Lexicon of Greek Personal Names) is referred to on a number of occasions by Wallensten, but the full name of this database is only given late in the article (in notes 54 and 63) and is omitted from the otherwise useful list of abbreviations.
The articles are well illustrated, but given the strong focus on Akragas, a large general plan of the site would have been useful. The index is peculiar to say the least and far from complete. To give but one of many examples: Himera is listed as occurring twice in the book, on p. 364 and p. 400. Those instances are correct, but the frequent mentions of Himera in Mango's article on her excavations at this site are not listed. As it is, the index is unreliable, and this is a pity, as a trustworthy index would have been helpful and – given the title of the publication – facilitated the dialogue between the individual studies.
These criticisms aside, the book is a very welcome addition to the literature on Greek Sicily with a wealth of new data and interpretations. It will be of great value to anyone with an interest in Greek religion and ancient Sicily, particularly those studying the cult of Demeter and Persephone, votive terracottas and ritual practices.
