LAGINA
Turkey.
Site, in Caria, of the famous
temple of Hecate. Near Turgut (formerly Leyne), 15
km NW of Yatağan. Lagina was a village in the territory of Stratonikeia, but the name is not used in the
inscriptions, and the village appears to have been called
Hierakome. The cult is not attested before the period of
Rhodian domination in 189-167 B.C., but was no doubt
much older. The sanctuary was joined to Stratonikeia by
a sacred way, of which virtually nothing is now to be
seen. Numerous festivals were celebrated at the site, notably the annual Hekatesia, to which a quadrennial Hekatesia-Romaia was added after the Mithridatic war, also
the annual Bearing of the Key, and the Birthday Festival.
Personnel included the priest (a priestess not before the
3d c. A.D.), the Key Bearer (a young girl), the neokoros,
the president of the mysteries, and the eunuchs.
In 88 B.C. Stratonikeia resisted Mithridates but was
taken by force; it was rewarded by Sulla with an alliance
of friendship with Rome and confirmation of the inviolability of the sanctuary at Lagina; this was inscribed on
the temple itself. In 40 B.C. Labienus revenged himself
for his failure to take Stratonikeia by sacking the temples, including that of Hekate; the damage was repaired
with the help of Augustus, as is acknowledged in an
inscription on the lintel of the propylon.
The temple lies at present in a flat heap heavily overgrown, but its plan is clear and many of the architectural features remain. It was pseudodipteral, in the Corinthian order, with a peristyle of 11 columns by 8; the
pronaos and cella were of almost equal dimensions, and
there was no opisthodomos. The building faced E. Elements still in position include the steps on the E front,
the antae of the pronaos, some of the orthostats of the
cella wall, three column bases at the rear, and part of
the paving of the peristyle. Much of the frieze and numerous inscriptions were removed by 19th c. excavators.
The frieze covered all four sides of the building, with
scenes representing the birth of Zeus, a battle of gods and
giants, and a scene of reconciliation between Greeks and
Amazons; Hekate features in all of these. On the S side
was a series of figures which seem to have represented
Carian cities and deities. Estimates of the date vary from
ca. 125 B.C. to the end of the 1st c.
The precinct surrounding the temple was ca. 150 by
135 m. It was enclosed by a stoa in the Doric order,
the S side of which was raised on a flight of 11 steps,
with a staircase at the W end; but little of this can now
be made out. At the E end of the S stoa was a propylon;
the gate still stands, with jambs and inscribed lintel complete.
The inscriptions indicate that there was much else in
the precinct: “three stoas in the sacred house” (presumably living quarters for the clergy), a provision market,
and a sacred grove of trees maintained by the eunuchs.
One inscription forbids flocks to be pastured in the sanctuary.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
C. T. Newton,
Halicarnassus . . . II
(1863) 554; Hamdi Bey & J. Chamonard,
CRAI 19
(1891) 272, 290; (1892) 147, 304; id.,
BCH 19 (1895)
235ff; G. Mendel,
Catalogue des sculptures grecques,
romaines et byzantines (Istanbul Museum) I (1912)
428ff; A. Laumonier,
Cultes Indigènes en Carie (1958)
344-425; G. E. Bean,
Turkey beyond the Maeander
(1971) 94-98.
G. E. BEAN