Greek city of
Akragas in
Sicily
Bronze 18mm (4.06 grams) struck circa 338-317 B.C.
Reference: HGC 2, 164; CNS I, pp. 206-, nos. 116-116 st 1
AKPAΓA, Laureate head of Zeus left.
Eagle flying left, tearing at hare in talons.
Akragas (Agrigentum), was a city of great wealth and importance in the 5th
Century B.C., but in 406 B.C. it was sacked by the Carthaginians, a disaster
from which it never fully recovered; finally fell to the Romans in 210 B.C.
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In the
ancient Greek
religion, Zeus was the
"Father of Gods and men" (πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν
τε)
who ruled the Olympians of
Mount Olympus
as a father ruled the family. He was the
god of sky
and
thunder
in
Greek mythology
.
His
Roman
counterpart is
Jupiter
and
Etruscan
counterpart is Tinia
.![The Jupiter de Smyrne, discovered in Smyrna in 1680[1]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c8/Jupiter_Smyrna_Louvre_Ma13.jpg/200px-Jupiter_Smyrna_Louvre_Ma13.jpg)
Zeus was the child of
Cronus
and
Rhea
,
and the youngest of his siblings. In most traditions he was married to
Hera, although, at the
oracle of Dodona
,
his consort was
Dione
:
according to the Iliad
,
he is the father of
Aphrodite
by Dione. He is known for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and
heroic offspring, including
Athena
,
Apollo
and Artemis
,
Hermes
,
Persephone
(by Demeter
),
Dionysus
,
Perseus
,
Heracles
,
Helen of Troy
,
Minos
,
and the Muses
(by Mnemosyne
);
by Hera, he is usually said to have fathered
Ares,
Hebe
and Hephaestus
.
As
Walter Burkert
points out in his book, Greek Religion, "Even the gods who are not his
natural children address him as Father, and all the gods rise in his presence."
For the Greeks, he was the
King of the Gods
,
who oversaw the universe. As
Pausanias
observed, "That Zeus is king in heaven is a saying common to all men". In
Hesiod's Theogony
Zeus assigns the various gods their roles. In the Homeric Hymns he is
referred to as the chieftain of the gods.
His symbols are the
thunderbolt
,
eagle
,
bull
,
and oak
.
In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer"
also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the
Ancient Near East
,
such as the
scepter
.
Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses: standing,
striding forward, with a thunderbolt leveled in his raised right hand, or seated
in majesty.
Agrigento (Sicilian:
Girgenti), is a city on the southern coast of
Sicily
,
Italy
, and
capital of the
province of Agrigento
. It is renowned as the site of the ancient Greek city
of Akragas (also known as Acragas (Ἀκράγας) in Greek,
Agrigentum in
Latin
and Kerkent in
Arabic
), one of the leading cities of
Magna
Graecia
during the
golden age
of
Ancient Greece
.
//
History
Agrigento was founded on a plateau overlooking the sea, with two nearby
rivers, the Hypsas
and the Akragas, and a ridge to the north offering a degree of natural
fortification. Its establishment took place around 582-580 BCE and is attributed
to
Greek
colonists
from Gela
, who
named it Akragas.
Akragas grew rapidly, becoming one of the richest and most famous of the
Greek
colonies
of Magna Graecia. It came to prominence under the sixth-century
tyrants
Phalaris
and
Theron
, and became a
democracy
after the overthrow of Theron's son
Thrasydaeus
. Although the city remained neutral in the conflict between
Athens
and
Syracuse
, its democracy was overthrown when the city was sacked by the
Carthaginians
in
406 BCE
. Akragas never fully recovered its former status, though it revived
to some extent under
Timoleon
in
the latter part of the fourth century.
The city was disputed between the
Romans
and the Carthaginians during the
First Punic War.
The Romans laid
siege to
the city
in 262 BCE and captured it after defeating a Carthaginian relief
force in
261 BCE
and sold the population into slavery. Although the Carthaginians
recaptured the city in 255 BCE the
final peace
settlement
gave Punic Sicily and with it Akragas to Rome. It suffered badly
during the
Second Punic War
(218-201 BCE) when both Rome and Carthage fought to control it. The Romans
eventually captured Akragas in 210 BCE and renamed it Agrigentum,
although it remained a largely Greek-speaking community for centuries
thereafter. It became prosperous again under Roman rule and its inhabitants
received full Roman citizenship following the death of
Julius Caesar
in
44 BCE
.
After the
fall of the Roman Empire
, the city passed into the hands of the
Ostrogothic Kingdom
of Italy and then the
Byzantine Empire
. During this period the inhabitants of Agrigentum largely
abandoned the lower parts of the city and moved to the former
acropolis
,
at the top of the hill. The reasons for this move are unclear but were probably
related to the destructive coastal raids of the
Saracens
,
Berbers
and other peoples around this time. In 828 CE the Saracens captured
the diminished remnant of the city. They pronounced its name as Kerkent
in Arabic; it was thus
Sicilianized
as "Girgenti". It retained this name until 1927, when
Benito Mussolini
's government reintroduced an
Italianized
version of the Latin name.
Agrigento was captured by the
Normans
under
Count Roger I
in 1087, who established a Latin bishopric there. The population declined during
much of the medieval period but revived somewhat after the 18th century. In
1860, the inhabitants enthusiastically supported
Giuseppe
Garibaldi
in
his conquest of southern Italy
(in the course of the
Unification of Italy
). The city suffered a number of destructive bombing
raids during
World
War II
.
Economy
Agrigento is a major tourist centre due to its extraordinarily rich
archaeological legacy. It also serves as an agricultural centre for the
surrounding region.
Sulphur
and potash
have been mined locally since Roman times and are exported from the
nearby harbour of
Porto Empedocle
(named after the philosopher
Empedocles
who lived in ancient Akragas). However, it is one of the poorest towns in Italy
on a per capita income basis and has a long-standing problem with
organised crime
, particularly involving the
Mafia
and the
smuggling of
illegal drugs
.
Main
sights
Main article:
Valle dei Templi
Ancient Akragas covers a huge area — much of which is still unexcavated today
— but is exemplified by the famous Valle dei Templi ("Valley of the
Temples", a misnomer, as it is a ridge, rather than a valley). This comprises a
large sacred area on the south side of the ancient city where seven monumental
Greek temples in the
Doric style
were constructed during the 6th and 5th centuries BCE. Now
excavated and partially restored, they constitute some of the largest and
best-preserved ancient Greek buildings outside of Greece itself. They are listed
as a
World
Heritage Site
.
The best-preserved of the temples are two very similar buildings
traditionally attributed to the goddesses
Juno
Lacinia
and
Concordia
(though archaeologists believe this attribution to be incorrect).
The latter temple is remarkably intact, due to its having been
converted into a Christian church
in 597 CE. Both were constructed to a
peripteral
hexastyle
design. The area around the
Temple of Concordia
was later re-used by early Christians as a
catacomb
, with tombs hewn out of the rocky cliffs and outcrops.
The Temple of Concordia.
The other temples are much more fragmentary, having been toppled by
earthquakes
long ago and quarried for their stones. The largest by far is the
Temple of Olympian Zeus
, built to commemorate the
Battle of Himera in 480 BCE
: it is believed to have been the largest
Doric
temple
ever built. Although it was apparently used, it appears never to have
been completed; construction was abandoned after the Carthaginian invasion of
406 BCE. The remains of the temple were extensively quarried in the eighteenth
century to build the jetties of
Porto Empedocle
.
Temples dedicated to
Hephaestus
,
Heracles
and Asclepius
were also constructed in the
sacred area
,
which includes a sanctuary of
Demeter
and
Persephone
(formerly known as the Temple of
Castor
and
Pollux
); the marks of the fires set by the Carthaginians in 406 BCE can
still be seen on the sanctuary's stones.
Many other Hellenistic and Roman sites can be found in and around the town.
These include a pre-Hellenic cave sanctuary near a Temple of Demeter, over which
the Church of San Biagio was built. A late Hellenistic funerary monument
erroneously labelled the "Tomb of Theron" is situated just outside the sacred
area, and a first-century CE
heroon
(heroic shrine) adjoins the 13th century Church of San Nicola a short distance
to the north. A sizeable area of the Greco-Roman city has also been excavated,
and several classical
necropoleis
and quarries are still extant.
Much of present-day Agrigento is modern but it still retains a number of
medieval and Baroque
buildings. These include the fourteenth century cathedral and the
thirteenth century Church of Santa Maria dei Greci ("Our Lady of the Greeks"),
again standing on the site of an ancient Greek temple (hence the name). The town
also has a notable archaeological museum displaying finds from the ancient city.
Famous
inhabitants
- Empedocles
, the Greek pre-Socratic philosopher, was a citizen of ancient
Agrigentum
-
Luigi
Pirandello
, dramatist and
Nobel prize
winner for literature. Born at Contrada Kaos near Agrigento.
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