ILIDA, Greece – A team of Greek and Austrian archeologists may have located the foundations of a famous temple to the Greek god Poseidon, as announced in a Facebook post on October 7th.
“The sanctuary of Poseidon of Samikon has been discovered!” says the announcement, posted by the Austrian Archaeological Institute Athens. “For a long time, the location of the famous ancient sanctuary has been suspected in the plain below the ancient fortress of Samikon, which dominates the landscape from afar being positioned on a hilltop north of the lagoon of Kaiafa on the west coast of the Peloponnese.”
The unearthed foundations of a temple to Poseidon of Samikon [Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports]
The excavation in the area of ancient Samikon is a collaboration between the Ephorate of Antiquities of Elis, headed by Dr. Erofili Kolia, and the Athens Branch of the Austrian Archaeological Institute of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, headed by Dr. Birgitta Eder.
At the end of September, the excavation discovered the foundation of a large building, nearly ten meters wide, with thick walls of about 8/10ths of a meter. The archeologists believe the building would have been at least 28 meters long, with two interior rooms, a vestibule called a pronaos, and an innermost chamber, either an adyton or an opisthodome.
“The elgonated large building can be nothing other than an archaic temple located on the site of the sanctuary of Poseidon,” the statement said, “perhaps even dedicated to the god himself.”
An aerial view of the excavation to the temple of Poseidon of Samikon [Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports]
The temple to Poseidon was attested to in the Geography of Strabo, who lived between 64 B.C.E. and 24 C.E. The Geography was an encyclopedic description of Europe and the Mediterranean around the reign of Emperor Augustus. While there is no precise dating for the work, it contains a reference to the death of the Mauretanian king Juba II in 23 C.E., shortly before Strabo’s own death.
The temple to the Poseidon of Samikon is mentioned in the eighth book of the Geography:
Then comes the mountain of Triphylia that sees Macistia from Pisatis; then another river called Chalcis, and a spring called Cruni, and a settlement called Chalcis, and, after these, Samicum, where is the most highly revered temple of the Samian Poseidon. About the temple is a sacred precinct full of wild olive-trees. The people of Macistum used to have charge over it; and it was they, too, who used to proclaim the armistice-day called “Samian.” But all the Triphylians contribute to the maintenance of the temple.
Statue of Poseidon in the Durham Market Square, England. [Photo by E. Scott]
Poseidon, though popularly known today as a god of the sea, had many attributes in the classical Hellenic religion, including earthquakes and horses. He was the patron of many festivals in the ancient world and is mentioned in the foundational myths of the cities of Athens and Corinth. His most enduring literary role is that of Odysseus’s nemesis in Homer’s Odyssey, but Poseidon has appeared in many other works of both ancient and modern art, including his role as the father of the protagonist of the Percy Jackson series of children’s books.
The collaboration between the Ephorate of Antiquities of Elis and the Athens Branch of the Austrian Archaeological Institute will continue to excavate the area and the archaic temple to the god through 2026. The team hopes to discover the ancient Samikon harbor during this excavation.
“This discovery allows new perspectives on the political and economic importance of the amphictyony of the Triphylian cities in the 6th century B.C.,” the statement from the archeologists concludes, “for whom the sanctuary of Poseidon at Samikon formed the centre of their religious and ethnic identity.”
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