Hellenistic sanctuaries

Sanctuaries were typically the locus where social identities at different levels were negotiated by the communities to which they were common. The shrine of the local Karian god Sinuri, some 15 km southeast of Mylasa, is an excellent example of this. The sanctuary dates from the Archaic period and by the late Classical period was the center of the local Pelekos syngeneia (kinship group); syngeneiai were frequent in Karia and were the base unit of communal identity. This particular community must have had strong ties to the Hekatomnids, the satraps of Karia, since this was one of only three sanctuaries in Karia which was monumentalized by the dynasty. At some time between the Late Classical and Hellenistic periods an unusual transition took place when the Pelekos syngeneia was supplanted by the Pormounou syngeneia, which was clearly subordinate to the polis of Mylasa.
The sanctuary of Sinuri was discovered in the 1930’s by Louis Robert and was excavated shortly thereafter. The nearly 80-plus inscriptions that came to light during the excavations show how strongly this local community had embraced the ‘epigraphic habit’, lacing the walls of their shrine with their decrees and especially with the lease contracts of land, scattered across the territory of Mylasa, which they acquired for the god. They also made architectural modifications of their own to the shrine, which had already been transformed by the Hekatomnids. Although the sanctuary was later destroyed by the construction of a basilica, inscriptions and the traces that are left nonetheless allow for a provisional reconstruction of what the sanctuary meant to the Pormounou, both economically and socially as they used it to come to terms with their own communal identity under the aegis of the Hellenistic polis.

When we think of public space we generally interpret it as urban space. This paper examines the role of remote, or 'extra-urban' sanctuaries in Hellenistic Asia Minor as public spaces far removed from the city. Through their festivals and processions these sanctuaries obviously had a very public role, albeit for a very specified public. Taking the Karian city of Mylasa and the related sanctuaries of Labraunda and Sinuri as a case study, this paper examines how these sanctuaries came to shape civic identity, not only through their festivals, but also through their architectural space and the placement of monuments and inscriptions.

Greek religious ritual revolved around the performance of sacrifice, and thus the sacrificial altar was the most important cultic structure in the sanctuary. 1 The sacrificial ritual was a transitory experience for both the participants and the audience, an experience in which their identity within society and in relation to the gods was reconstructed and reinforced through the shared experience of the slaughter and consumption of a domestic animal. In East Greece 2 during the Hellenistic period, this temporal ritual was concretized by the construction of permanent, monumental built altars which were architectonic in form and lavish in sculptural decoration. Three of these built altars, located at Magnesia, Priene, and Kos, represent a specific historical moment, during the late third and early second century BCE, in which we can recreate the performance of the sacrificial ritual through the preserved archaeological remains of the apparatus on and around which the sacrifice occurred. A close reading of these altars results in new questions concerning the central cultic ritual and its physical reenactment, as performed in a narrow chronological and geographical context, questions which suggest that religious ritual may have contained more fluidity than previously thought. 3 In addition, the archaeological evidence indicates that the movements of the audience were carefully controlled throughout the ritual, creating a series of 1

"Major sanctuaries often begin as natural shrines in places of intuitive value, regardless of their proximity to urban centers or settlements. It was their location in the landscape that empowered them, drawing the surrounding communities to them and eventually attracting the attention of rulers who turned them into prestigious spaces. Two such sanctuaries in Asia Minor are those of Zeus at Labraunda in the Late Classical period, and Meter at Mamurt Kale in the Hellenistic period. Chronology and region aside, these sanctuaries have several things in common: both occupy commanding positions in the landscape; both were located at frontiers, far from densely populated areas; and both were radically transformed by their respective rulers – Labraunda was monumentalized by Maussollos, satrap of Karia, and Mamurt Kale by Philetairos, founder of the Attalid dynasty at Pergamon.
Intertwining ruler ideology with these regional cults was intended to create a new focus for the wider community, and this would have had several repercussions. In an effort to better interpret these transformations, this paper analyzes the impact of landscape, architecture, and ritual space at these sanctuaries and draws on theories from cognitive science, ritual studies, and game theory to understand the mechanisms that were at work."

In the region of East Greece during the Hellenistic period, we witness the broad emergence of a luxurious type of built stone altar - monumental in scale, architectonic in form, and lavish in sculptural decoration.  While the formal typology and political significance of these altars have been the subject of inquiry, their function as the site of the central cultic ritual - the sacrifice - repays investigation.  In this paper, I examine the ways in which the position, design, and ornamentation of the built altar shaped the experience of the spectator during the performance of the sacrifice, using as examples the altars of Asklepios at Kos, Artemis Leukophryene at Magnesia, and Athena Polias at Priene.

Each altar's position, architectural form, and sculptural decoration were carefully planned to heighten the experience of the ritual.  Marble pavements in front of the altars demarcated the space in which the audience stood.  The architectural form of the altar promoted a tension between inclusion and exclusion.  The height of the podium, the narrow entrance into the interior, and the colonnade surrounding the inner space created a boundary that separated the rituals observed by all from those reserved for a privileged few in the inner sanctum of the altar.  Free-standing or high-relief sculptures of the gods adorned the exterior facades of all three altars.  By means of these sculptures, the gods became permanent witnesses to the sacrificial ritual, accompanying the mortal audience assembled on the surrounding pavement.

Through the manipulation of physical movements, lines of visibility, and the perception of scale, the built altars of Hellenistic East Greece exploited the threshold between mortal and divine, thus amplifying the emotional impact on the spectator.