Today’s digital day trip from #Athens takes us off the beaten path to Rhamnous! It may not feature on every itinerary, but Rhamnous is the best preserved city in Attica. Here’s a thread on temples, topography, & a whole lot of hubris!
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#archaeology #greece #travel @ASCSAthens

But before we head north, check out these earlier threads for a bit of Athenian travel inspiration. We’ve already taken a look at the #archaeology (and beaches) of Sounion, Methana, & most recently Salamis! https://twitter.com/levinerx/status/1250063837727948802

But back to Rhamnous, one of the most remote deme sites—cities spread through Attica—from #Athens & an important border fortress, protecting Athens from Boeotia via the border region of Oropos. Rhamnous was also one of Athens’ only safe Aegean harbors & an important trade port!

Perched on a cliff opposite #Euboeia, Rhamnous is notable for two things: its spectacularly preserved urban center & the important Sanctuary of Nemesis located just outside of town. But there’s much more to see, especially the tombs lining the roads to Marathon & Oropos!

The Sanctuary of Nemesis actually comprises two temples: a smaller temple from the archaic period & a much larger peristyle temple from the Classical period. It’s unusual but these temples are positioned right next to one another, with less than 1m between them!

The smaller temple dates to the 6th century & (we’ve heard this before) was burned during the Persian War! It was rebuilt but we don’t know who was worshipped there. Our main clue is this amazing Hellenistic sculpture of Themis, now at the @namuseumathens, which was found inside!

Before talking about the large temple, an anecdote of the goddess Nemesis, here by #Dürer at @LACMA. Her main task was punishing hubris & Pausanias writes that the Persians were so sure they’d defeat the Greeks that they brought a block of Parian marble w them for their trophy...

When the Persians were defeated, the Athenians built the large temple at Rhamnous & used the Persian’s own marble as—not a victory trophy of their own—but a statue of Nemesis as a reminder to avoid hubris! This story is almost certainly apocryphal, but let’s look at the evidence!

The Temple of Nemesis at Rhamnous is very similar to the Poseidon Temple at Sounion that we looked at a few posts ago! Construction began around 460 but it wasn’t finished until 430/420. It was a ~30x13m Doric peristyle temple, and still some parts were never finished!

The aforementioned statue of hubristic fame was destroyed in the 4th CE, but enough fragments remain to say a lot about it! Varro tells us the sculptor Agorakritos—Phidias’ student—made a 4m tall masterpiece. The statue itself stood on this beautiful base with sculpture in relief

Like most Hellenistic sculpture, our best evidence for the original composition comes from Roman copies, & the frequency of copies tells us of its popularity in antiquity. These marble statuettes give us a good idea of the original—L: Prague Kinsky (NG P5520), R: Messene Nemesis

Just up the road from Sanctuary of Nemesis is the town of Rhamnous itself & if you ever want to get a feel for a small town in Classical/Hellenistic Athens, this is the place! The site is extensively excavated & carefully reconstructed to give an impression of the urban footprint

Because it was a large Athenian garrison, there is also the opportunity to see how the young soldiers who were stationed at Rhamnous spent their time. Case in point is this marble bench, which has been transformed into a game board where plenty of dice were rolled over the years!

Rhamnous is beautiful in the summer, but there’s no better time to visit than a blustery winter day, when the Aegean is in full chop, the wind is howling, & rain is sheeting! You certainly begin to see how welcome Rhamnous’ double ports would have been!

There’s much more to say about Rhamnous, but I’ll save it for another day. For now, I’ll leave you with some of the amazing high relief funerary sculpture from the site! It’s all to be found at the museum, which is unfortunately closed, but let’s hope it opens to the public soon!