SAMOS
Greece.
One of the Sporades Islands,
2.35 km from the coast of Asia Minor, to which it is
geographically and geologically linked. According to
Strabo (
14.637) the island's earliest inhabitants would
have been Carians, who called it Parthenia, but Samos
is also an Asian word. From the 3d millennium B.C. the
island was inhabited by a population of Anatolian culture, until, at the beginning of the 1st millennium, it
was occupied by Ionian colonists. It knew its maximum
splendor during the reign of Polykrates (ca. 538 B.C.),
to whom is owed a period of intensive building and a
vast territorial expansion (Hdt. 34154ff). Samos participated in turn in the Persian wars and in the wars
between Athens and Sparta, and in 365 B.C. it became
an Athenian colony. After the battle of Magnesia in
190 B.C. Samos was ceded by the Romans to Eumenes II
of Pergamon; from 129 B.C., when the reign of Pergamon fell, it became part of the Roman province in Asia. The first archaeological expedition to Samos was
undertaken in 1764. Systematic excavation was initiated
in 1910, and continues today.
The ancient city occupied the site of the modern village of Tigani, and was enclosed together with the port
by a 6th c. wall with a perimeter of 6.7 km, of square
and polygonal masonry, provided with gates and with
circular and rectangular towers. On the acropolis (Astypaleia) rose the fortified palace of Polykrates, of which
no trace remains. The port was bound by two piers
which enclosed military and commercial activities in a
single basin. A part turned back towards land in such
a way as to form a shelter for the ships, and probably
reflects in its originality Polykrates' new ideas about
naval engineering (
Hdt. 3.45; Plin.
HN 7.209). Water
from the Agiades fountain reached the port by means
of a tunnel 1 km long and 1.75 m high dug into the
mountain, an admirable work of Eupalinos of Megara.
Near the port was the Hellenistic agora, and on the
slope of the hillside are the remains of a small theater.
The Roman habitation site was to the SW, while on the
castro of Tigani the prehistoric remains are overlapped
by a Hellenistic-Roman villa where a statue of Trajan
was found, and by an Early Christian basilica. The
necropoleis were situated immediately adjacent to the
walls.
About 6 km W of the city, at the mouth of the Imbrasos river, was the Sanctuary of Hera. A very ancient
cult place, it was probably originally dedicated to a local
divinity, mother of nature, trees, and marshes. Greek
mythology said that here, near a sacred bush, occurred
the birth and matrimony of Hera. There, at the beginning of the 1st millennium, was miraculously found an
aniconic wooden image of the goddess, which was still
extant at the time of Pausanias in the 2d c. A.D. Every
year a festival celebrated the sacred marriage there of
Hera and Zeus (
ἱερὸς γάμος). One of the rites consisted
in a purificatory bath of the cult effigy, which was then
wound with foliage of the sacred lygos tree to restore
to the deity her virginity until the day of the wedding.
Subsequently she was redressed in a gown sewn every
year by the women of Samos. There followed a procession of armed men that departed from the city. Polykrates and his brothers profited from the occasion by taking possession of the entire island.
On the site of the Heraion the remains of prehistoric
settlements from eight successive periods have been
recognized. The earliest corresponds to the first Trojan
age (2500 B.C.), while the most recent is of the Late
Mycenaean and Geometric ages. These communities are
characterized by houses with a megaron plan and encircling walls. Belonging to the last phase is a Mycenaean tumulus with a diameter of 6 m and four bothroi
filled with fragments of pottery, figurines in terracotta
and alabaster, Egyptian statuettes, and Oriental objects.
Among the most precious finds is an ivory representing
a kneeling youth from mid 7th c. B.C. The earliest architectural complex of the sanctuary dates from the 9th-8th
c. B.C. and includes a paved square with traces of ashes,
an altar, and a hekatompedon temple. It is ca. 33 x
6.50 m, divided into two aisles, with the entrance to
the E. On a socle of small limestone blocks were placed
walls of crude bricks. In the middle of the 8th c. the
temple was surrounded by a colonnade of wooden pillars that supported the roof, and on the earlier foundations were constructed the walls of the cella. A century later, following a flood, this, the earliest example of a
large peripteral temple in the Greek world, was replaced
by an analogous temple, also peripteral with a single
nave and a pronaos decorated by an incised and painted
frieze of a procession of warriors. In the cella was kept
the ancient aniconic image, which was later replaced
by a statue by Skelmis or Smilis (the sources are not
agreed on the name), whose image perhaps was reproduced on coins. Before the temple at the front was the
altar. The earliest altar, from mid 10th c., was succeeded by seven more by the end of the 7th c., each
overlying the preceding altar until a large rectangle
was formed. For this reason the altars are exceptional
with respect to the axis of the temple.
To the S of the temple and contemporary with its
7th c. addition, is a portico with two aisles, 70 m long,
and open to the E. This was built on the original bed
of the river, whose course was changed at that time.
Also nearby was the sacred pool, fed by the waters of
the Imbrasos and connected with the sea, which was
used for ritual baths of the goddess's image. Later other
pools were added. At the end of the 7th c. an enclosing
wall was built, opening to the N with a large gate, earlier considered a propylaeum. Naiskoi and votive statues,
whose bases remain in place, lined the square and the
sides of the sacred ways leading to the city and to the
port. The most conspicuous is that bearing the signature
of the sculptor Geneleos, on which there were six marble
statues datable to the middle of the 6th c. Three of
these are preserved in the museum at Vathy.
A little before the middle of the 6th c. a period of
intense building activity transformed the sanctuary. The
construction of the new Temple of Hera was entrusted
to Roikos and Theodoros, two names which tradition also
links with the invention of sculpture by the lost wax
process. It was a colossal building in poros, measuring
51 x 102 m, with a double colonnade of two rows of
8 columns each on the front, 21 on the long sides, and
10 on the back. On the interior two rows of columns, S
in the pronaos and 10 m the cella, supported the roof.
On the front the intercolumnal spaces appeared to vary
from the center to the sides. The forest of columns that
resulted have earned this temple the epithet of labyrinth.
The columns had a characteristic type of Ionic capital,
with lotus flowers around the collar, and without an
abacus. Before the temple, and on an axis with it, rose
a new altar measuring 36.57 x 16.58 m, preceded by a
flight of stairs. This was also Ionic in type, the first in
this style. In Roman times it was first restored and then
replaced by a precise copy in marble in the 1st c. In
place of the S portico Roikos constructed another structure, the so-called S building, provided with a peristyle
and a row of columns on an axis with the cella. In this
building has been recognized a Temple of Aphrodite
and Hermes, two divinities honored in the sanctuary
since the end of the Geometric period, as is known from
the sources and from numerous inscriptions. Perhaps
two other small temples were also dedicated to them.
The temple of Roikos and Theodoros was soon destroyed by fire. According to Pausanias this would have
happened at the time of the Persian conquest of the
island in 530 B.C. Its reconstruction, initiated by Polykrates, was conceived on such a grandiose scale that
it was never completed. The Ionic temple, measuring
52.40 x 108.70 m, rose on a high platform. It had a
double colonnade of 24 columns on the sides, and three
rows of columns on the ends (8 on the E and 9 on the
W). The pronaos was divided into three aisles by two
rows of 5 columns each. The columns differ in diameter
and material (poros and marble) according to the period in which they were erected. They bear a capital
characteristic of the Samos-Ionic style. The pronaos and
the cella were decorated by a frieze in poros that was
never finished. Construction continued until the Roman
epoch, when the hope of ever completing such a gigantic
work was abandoned.
In the 2d c. A.D. two modest little temples rose beside
the altar. An Ionic peripteral temple and other minor
buildings belong to the age of Polykrates. Among the
marvels of the Heraion Strabo (
14.1-14) mentions an
art gallery with works of Timantes, Parrhasios, and Apelles, and three statues by Miron representing Zeus, Athena,
and Herakles, whose bases have been found. The Zeus
statue was probably transported to the Campidoglio
in Rome by Augustus. Besides the two little temples
near the altar, other remains from the Roman epoch
include other temples; naiskoi; votive offerings; an exedra; private houses, some with two stories from the 2d
c. A.D.; an honorific monument of the family of Cicero;
baths; a new network of canals; and a wide paved road
toward the city from the 3d c. A.D. In 260 the sanctuary
suffered violent destruction by the Herulians. Towards
the end of the 5th c. there rose a basilica measuring
18 x 30 m, with three naves, testifying to a considerable
Christian community.
The material from the early explorations of the city
and especially from the Heraion, which includes monumental sculpture, ceramics, and objects in bronze, wood,
and ivory are preserved in various museums of the world,
including those in Berlin, Paris, and Athens. Finds from
more recent excavation are in the local museum at Vathy.
These have permitted a reconstruction of the stylistic
features of the Samos school, and give an idea of the
ample communication network during the archaic period, linking the island to the great Mediterranean and Anatolian centers of Cyprus, Egypt, Assyria, Syria, and others. With the decline of political power at the end
of the 7th c., the artistic activity of Samos also declined,
and the importation of foreign goods ceased. Pythagoras,
the last of the great sculptors originally from Samos,
recorded by the sources, and active around the beginning of the 5th c., emigrated to Reggio in Magna Graecia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
T. Wiegand in
Abh. Berl. Akad. (1911)
V; M. Schede in
AthMitt 44 (1919) 1-46; in
Abh. Berl.
Akad. (1929) III; L. Bürchner in
RE II (1920) 2162-2218; K. Lehmann-Hartleben,
Die antiken Hafenanlagen
des Mittelmeers (1923) 32, 55-57, 120, 280; G. Klaffenbach in
AthMitt 51 (1926) 26-40; A. M. Schneider in
AthMitt 44 (1929) 96-141; W. Technau in
AthMitt 44
(1929) 6-64; W. Wrede in
AthMitt 44 (1929) 65-95;
60-61 (1935-36) 112-24; C. Weickert,
Typen der archaischen Architektur in Griecheland und Kleinasien (1929); E. Buschor in
AthMitt 55 (1930) 1-99; Busehor et al. in
AthMitt 48 (1933); in
Arch. Anz. 52 (1937)
203-22; in
AthMitt 68 (1953 [1956]); in
AthMitt 74
(1959); Buschor,
Neue Deutsche Ausgrabungen in Mittelmeergebiet und in vorderen Orient (1959) 197-224;
W. Buttler in
AthMitt 60-61 (1935-36) 184-200; E.
Johannes in
AthMitt 62 (1937) 13-37; D. Ohly in
AthMitt 65 (1940) 57-103; R. L. Scranton,
Greek
Walls (1941) 159-71; R. D. Barnett in
JHS 68 (1948)
1-25; U. Jantzen,
Griechische Greifenkessel (1955); id.
in
Arch.Anz. (1966) 164-65; O. Reuther,
Der Heratempel von Samos (1957); A. Laumonier,
Les cultes indigenes en Carie (1958) 695-709; W. Kastenbein in
Arch. Anz. (1960) 178-98; P. Herrmann in
AthMitt 75
(1960) 68-183; H. Berve et al., Griechische Tempel
und Heiligtümer (1961); V. Milojcic,
Samos (1961) I;
E. Homann-Wedeking in
Arch. Anz. (1965) 428-46;
(1966) 158-64; H. Walter,
Das griechische Heiligtum:
Heraion von Samos (1965); G. Kopcke in
Arch.Anz.
(1966) 165-70; B. Freyer-Schauenburg,
Elfenbeine aus
dem Sam. Heraion (1966); G. Schmidt,
Samos (1968)
VII; R. Tolle,
Die antike Stadt Samos (1969).
L. VLAD BORRELLI
