didoofcarthage:Temple of Athena (traditionally Ceres) at Paestum Paestum was part of the region of s
didoofcarthage:Temple of Athena (traditionally Ceres) at Paestum Paestum was part of the region of southern Italy known as Magna Graecia, “Great Greece.” It was founded as Poseidonia by Greek settlers around the year 600 B.C. Poseidonia became a Roman colony in 273 B.C. and took the name Paestum. The major Greek temples at Paestum were constructed more than 200 years before the city became a Roman colony. The so-called Temple of Ceres was built c. 500 B.C. It had exterior Doric columns and interior Ionic columns. The Temple of Ceres was one of the first buildings to incorporate both Doric and Ionic elements, a change that anticipated architectural developments in Attica fifty years later. Eighteenth-century adventurers named the temple after the Roman goddess of agriculture, Ceres, but later archaeological discoveries linked the temple instead with the goddess Athena. A deposit of terracotta figurines, dating from the late sixth and early fifth centuries, was found near the site. These figurines depict Athena with her customary helmet, shield, and aegis. A fragment of pottery from the Roman period bearing the inscription MENERVA, the Roman counterpart of Athena, has also been discovered. -- source link