Aphaea Temple
The Temple of Athena Aphaea (Click the image for a full screen view) The Temple of Athena Aphaea ...Come here, where the Sanctuary of the Temple has a garden with beautiful apple trees, and sleep proceeds from leaves that twinkle in the light... Here blooms the meadow... in multicolor, with flowers of spring, and the wind brings sweet fragrance... That is how Sappho describes the Sanctuary of the Temple in one of her odes that she devoted to Aphrodite. It is somewhat like that we must imagine the environment of the Temple of Athena Aphaea. Built in a forest high on the mountain, the Temple had in the interior of its Sanctuary rich plantings of trees and groups of fruit bearing trees, flowers and green lawns. It was the kind of environment that should provoke all the feelings of compunction and absolute religion in the pilgrim. Pausanias has also left some information about Aphaea,...