KRIMISA
(Cirò) Calabria, Italy.
According
to tradition the site was founded by Philoktetes. An indigenous Iron Age settlement is represented by two
small grottos containing skeletons, pottery, and small
bronzes. In the early archaic period a temple dedicated
to Apollo Alius on the Punta d'Alicia was constructed.
The pronaos was omitted; instead the cella began with
two columns in antis and had four interior columns along
the central axis. Four columns or posts (2 x 2) stood
in the adyton. The terracotta revetments on the raking
cornices carried antefixes and two superimposed architrave taenias with staggered regulae and guttae. Towards
the end of the 5th c. B.C. or the beginning of the 4th,
a peristyle (8 x 19) was added on a slightly higher level,
leaving the cella lower. Most of the architectural terracottas from the site belong to this last phase and show
Tarentine influence. Among the finds is an acrolithic
seated Apollo playing a lyre. Conjectures as to the date
range from the mid 5th c. B.C. into the Hadrianic period,
with an early date generally preferred. This and the
other objects are in the National Museum of Reggio
Calabria.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lycoph.
Alex. 913; P. Orsi, “Templum
Apollinis Alaei ad Crimisa promontorium,”
AttiMGrecia
(1932) 7-182; J. Bérard,
Bibliographie topographique des
principales cités grecques de l'Italie méridionale et de la
Sicile dans l'antiquité (1941) 48;
EAA 2 (1959) 693-94;
G. Foti, “La ricerca archeologica,”
Almanacco calabrese
(1963) 33-42; C. Turano, “L'Acrolito di Cirò,”
Klearchos 6 (1964) 61-72.
J. P. SMALL
