The Heraion at Foce del Sele (English "Heraion at the mouth of the River Sele") is an archaeological site consisting of an Ancient Greek sanctuary complex dedicated to the goddess Hera in what was Magna Graecia. When built, the complex was located at the mouth of the Sele, approximately north of the Greek city of Poseidonia that was famous for its three standing Greek temples. Due to the deposition of alluvial sediment by the river, the site now is approximately from the modern coast.
The site is in the modern Italian commune of Capaccio-Paestum, some south of Naples.
Construction at the complex is dated from the sixth to at least the third centuries BC. The sanctuary included a Greek temple and other buildings. It was located in the countryside rather than in an urban development and may have included buildings to accommodate pilgrims.
During the Middle Ages most of the stones were scavanged for use elsewhere as building materials or for other purposes. At one point, the best surviving pieces, including approximately 70 sixth-century metope reliefs, were excavated and moved to a museum at Paestum and very little was left at the original site other than the lowest courses of the buildings.
A modern "museo narrante" has been built at the site with video displays to explain and project reconstructions of the site.
Ancient references
Although the existence of the sanctuary is reported by ancient historical sources, for a long time its location was not corroborated by other evidence. Differing ancient references made the rediscovery of the remains difficult. Strabo, attributed the foundation of the complex to Jason during the expedition of the Argonauts and he described the location of the Sanctuary of Argive Hera at the northern border of Lucania, on the left bank of the river Sele, about fifty stades from the city of Paestum. Pliny the Elder, however, described the location of the sanctuary as being on the opposite bank of the river. The path of the river changed with time as well. Finally, the site was discovered and confirmed the ancient reports of its existence.
History
The ancient sanctuary was founded at the beginning of the sixth century BC by the Greek colony at Paestum who originally were from further south at Sybaris. They dedicated the sanctuary to Argive Hera, the Greek goddess of women and marriage, as well as of navigation. At that time, the Sele River represented a boundary between Greek and Etruscan areas of influence.
Initially cult activities must have been performed in the open, in a sacred area equipped with an altar and bounded by porticos for hosting pilgrims. At the end of the sixth century, a grand temple was built, which probably was octastyle (with a facade of eight columns) and peripteral. At the same time, two other buildings were built some distance in front of the temple.
After the takeover of Paestum and the area by the local Lucanian people at the end of the fifth century BC, the sanctuary reached its highest cultural peak, with the reuse of more ancient materials for the construction of new buildings: a new portico and then a meeting house. At a certain distance, a square building was built, in which many loom weights have been found. Based upon the known cultural traditions of the time and these, it is theorised that in this building during each year, women about to be married would weave a new peplos dress that was offered to the cult statue of the goddess at an annual procession. Among the artefacts found at the sanctuary is a marble statue of Hera, seated on a throne with a pomegranate in her hand.
In 273 BC, the area was absorbed by the Roman Republic, who turned Paestum into a colonia. The weaving building was destroyed and a wall was built around the sacred area. The sanctuary survived in a slow decline until the second century AD. The area silted up and eventually memory of the site was lost beyond the local area.
The cult of Hera survived through all of these changes in a Christianised form as the Madonna del Granato (Madonna of the Pomegranate), whose cult in the vicinity of the sanctuary recalls the depiction of Hera with the pomegranate.
The sanctuary was brought to light by the excavations of the archaeologists Umberto Zanotti Bianco and Paola Zancani Montuoro between 1934 and 1940.