The archaeological site of Selinunte and its geometric harmonies
The archaeological site of Selinunte is located along the "Costa del sole", on a promontory between Marsala and Agrigento, which is 100 km away. The promontory is located at an altitude of about 40 meters above sea level and is washed by the Modione river to the west and by the Gorgo Cottone to the east.
One of the most important archaeological sites in Europe, by extension and grandeur, the city of Selinunte has played a very important role in the history of ancient Greece.
The ancients made its name derive from the Greek word "Selinon", which corresponds to the Latin word "apium", the appio(1) plant, a sort of wild celery, which is present in the area.
According to Diodorus Siculus, the first inhabitants of Selinunte were the Phoenicians, who were driven out and the Megarians settled there, who built archaic altars, then destroyed during the construction of the temples.
According to Thucydides, the city was founded around 630-623 BC while others date it back to 650 BC.
The city was involved in a bloody war of conquest with the neighboring cities and, after ups and downs, fell into the hands of individual tyrants supported by the local oligarchies and ended up under the sphere of influence of the Hellenes, favoring the policy of Syracuse, to which it remained faithful ally for a long time, enjoying a period of peace between 580 and 480 BC.
The city was destroyed for the first time by the Carthaginians in 409 BC and then again in 250 BC again by the Carthaginians, commanded by Hannibal, during the first war punic.
It was in the period between the sixth and fifth centuries BC that Selinunte experienced its maximum economic-social, political and military expansion and it was in this period that the grandiose architectural works were built.
Its geographical position, favorable for trade with Africa, and its splendid territory, whose products far exceeded the local needs, made Selinunte one of the major economic centers of the Mediterranean.
The temples of Selinunte, which appeared to be the most sumptuous and imposing of Magna Graecia, had an orientation to the east, as the Greek liturgy envisaged, since the divinity had to see the rising sun, symbol of life, while in the opposite it was therealm of Hades.
The area where the temples were built belongs to the sacred quarter of the acropolis; this occupied a third of the surface of the plateau. The acropolis was divided into two sanctuaries which were separated, after 409 BC, by a large crossroad.
The stone needed to obtain the columns of these giants was extracted from the quarries located in the surrounding area. The finds that have remained in the quarries attest to the chiselling process, necessary to obtain column drums, some of which are more than 5 meters long with a diameter of 3 and 3.5 meters. The procedure involved a circular incision of about 5 centimeters in the rock; subsequently the rock was dug around the incision to the desired depth, in such a way as to engrave and detach the base of the drum with metal wedges. The lifting of the pieces took place with the use of winches, pulleys and hoists. From the testimonies that come from the past (see Vitruvius) it seems that the Greeks used cranes capable of lifting weights of 6 tons. The pieces were then loaded onto sleds and dragged to be laid on a ramp of bricks, earth and wooden sleepers (similar to that of railway tracks) which was raised as construction progressed.
The sacred area to the north, which was the largest (135 meters on the west side and 195 meters on the south), contained four temples, which were named with the letters of the alphabet "C", "D", a building called Megaron, a smaller temple baptized with the letter "B" and three sacred altars.In particular, as regards the altars of this sacred area, it is possible to identify, at about 6.50 meters from the facade of "temple B", a large square with sides of 3.70 metres; this altar faced east and was located in front of the temple doors. According to the archaeologists who have reconstructed the history of Selinunte, a primitive sanctuary, formed by archaic altars, would have been built right from the foundation of the city, therefore around 630 BC; a first temple would later be built, the remains of which were found under the paving of "temple C", built around 580 BC; the Megaron is from the same period while the "temple D" was built around 560 BC. Finally, the "temple B" was built around 280 BC.
The construction of these impressive architectural works involved the arrangement of the area, 85 meters wide, bounded by the large retaining wall to the east, in order to obtain a space for public meetings on the days of the panegyric.
It should be noted that the construction of "temple C" was determined by the characteristics of the terrain, which allowed at that point to take advantage of a clearing around which the rock sloped.
Temples C and D located at the top of the acropolis were to be consecrated to "poliades" divinities, that is, protectors of the primitive polis; someone attributes "temple C" to Hercules and "temple D" to Jupiter, but Apollo and Athena are also mentioned.
In particular, "temple C" was rectangular in shape and rose on a base of 4 steps forming a stone frame for the external colonnade; a stairway of 8 steps completed the architectural steps. The upper layer of the basement, formed by large monolithic stone blocks between 3.81 and 3.99 meters long and between 2.03 and 2.08 meters wide, was 71.07 meters long and 26.62 meters wide. The whole building was in tuffaceous calcarenite. Seals and cretulas in clay have been found among its ruins which attest to its function as the official archive of the city; moreover, metopes have been found which depict mythological scenes such as the chariot of the sun, Perseus killing the Medusa, Heracles winner of the Cercopes transported, tied to a pole, upside down.
The "temple D" which, due to the characteristics presented, attested to a progress in construction techniques, in its base was 55.96 meters long and 23.64 meters wide, with a belt, always in the base, in which there were steps of 30 cm thick to allow the crowd to access the temple.
Near "temple D" the remains of a rectangular building 17.83 meters long by 5.31 meters wide were found. This building, classified as a "megaron", had an east orientation and was a sacred building. It was later used as an ammunition depot.
About 12 meters from the south-east corner of "temple C" a small building was found, called "temple B" (or temple of Empedocles), but which in reality was a particular building not comparable to a real temple like the previous.
The sacred area to the south was dedicated to a group of unknown deities, worshiped in the two temples which were indicated respectively with the letters "A" and "O". These temples were built at least a century later than those in the sacred area to the north and are considered "twin" temples, due to their strict alignment, and resembling in plan and size. These two temples would have been attributed by historians to the two mythological figures of Castor and Pollux. Legend has it that the two loved each other dearly and having Zeus granted immortality to Pollux, he was begged by him to grant it to his brother as well.
The "temple A" was built around 470 BC, in a rectangular shape, on a base of 4 steps and measured 40.23 meters long by 16.23 meters wide.
The "temple O" measured 40.50 meters long by 16.50 meters wide.
"Temple A" was held to be the model upon which "Temple E" on the east hill was built. His system of construction was very regular, based on blocks of equal height, with the vertical joints of the upper steps falling into the middle of the blocks below.
The archaeologists also found the remains, about 34 meters to the east along the axis of "temple A", of a very particular building, in the shape of a T, 13.10 wide and 5.60 meters deep. In the immediate vicinity of the southern sacred enclosure are the remains of another large sacred altar, in rectangular shape.Its size was between 22 and 25 meters long by 7 meters wide.
On the east hill, however, the temples indicated with the letters "E", "F", "G" were found. Scholars have not been able to understand whether the use of this plateau for the worship of the gods dates back to the origin of the city or whether it began later. Some assumed that in this area there were indigenous sanctuaries or sanctuaries attributable to the Phoenicians, in any case prior to the arrival of the Dorians.
The construction of the temples on the east hill took place over about a century between 560 and 470 BC.
Some inscriptions that have been found attest that the "temple G" was consecrated to Zeus and the "temple E" to Hera, "temple F" is presumed to be consecrated to Athena.
The "temple E", reassembled by archaeologists, had the same style as temples A and O; its dimensions were 67.82 meters long by 25.32 meters wide and stood on a base with 3 steps, in layers of regular stone. Built with mathematical precision, it had columns 10.11 meters high with the capital, formed by 6 blocks, 20 grooves and a reduction in diameter of 0.51 meters (equal to the ancient cubit). This temple was considered by scholars as a perfected copy of "temple A".
The "temple F" where the doors were real (a similar mechanism is also found in the large Olimpico of Agrigento) It is assumed that this wall had the purpose of guaranteeing the secrecy of the sacred ceremonies relating to the mystery cults and of the processions that took place in the peristyle galleries and archaeologists they noted that this closing wall resembles the side corridors of Egyptian temples. From this temple come two metopes (which are now in the Palermo museum), datable to around 530 BC, in which two episodes of gigantomachy are depicted (Dionysus fighting a kneeling giant and Athena knocking down the dying giant Enceladus).
The "temple G", built around 480 BC was, together with the Olimpico of Agrigento, the greatest colossus of Hellenic architecture. It was 113.34 meters long and 54.05 meters wide and had 8 front columns and 17 side columns. The internal architecture of the temple was designed to allow the entry of two thousand people, so it was built for the great panegyrics.
In a westerly direction, about 800 meters, on the right bank of the Selinus, there was the sanctuary attributed to the earthly and infernal divinities (Demeter and Hecate). Demeter's sacred precinct had the shape of a quadrilateral, 50 meters wide and 40 meters deep.
Inside there was a courtyard that enclosed a small archaic altar for sacrifices and in the southeast corner there was a canal where perhaps the sacrificial blood of the victims was offered to the gods. Inside it was also possible to find another archaic altar, 16.30 long and 3.15 meters wide, facing east, which recalled the ancient altars of the Mycenaean era.
It should be noted that the monumental altars of Magna Grecia were usually located in front of the temple, had access from the west faces and the priest officiated the rite, facing east, with his back to the temple doors which, when opened, allowed the divinity to contemplate the sacrifice that was made in his honor. This altar, in particular, faced south, towards the sea; this has led archaeologists to suppose that it was consecrated to Poseidon.
The reconstruction of the temple architecture of Selinunte, carried out by archaeologists with patient work lasting many years, has allowed us to understand what was the degree of geometric precision and the progress obtained by the builders of the temples who carried out these works in such a distant era.
It should be added that even the site of Selinunte, like all ancient archaeological sites, presents enigmas that are not easy to understand. In fact, it is possible to note that if the large sacred altar to the south had, as stated by the official studies, an original length of 22 meters and a width of 7 meters, then the ratio between the two measurements would be equal to 22/7 @ 3,142857143…, that is a very approximate measure of p, the constant ratio between the circumference and the diameter of the circle, which was officially discovered by Archimedes in the III century BC while he was carrying out studies on polygons.
We know that Archimedes by decomposing a polygon came to a very approximate calculation of the π, demonstrating that the constant ratio between circumference and diameter was between 3+10/71 and 3+10/70. Therefore, if the discovery of p dates back to Archimedes, how could the ancient builders of Selinunte know this mathematical constant and insert it in the measurements of the sacred altar, three centuries before Archimedes?
We do not pretend to find at all costs inexplicable enigmas everywhere, but we must not ignore the importance that the consideration of particular knowledge attributable to ancient peoples can have, to understand the effective evolution of scientific knowledge in the history of human civilization.
It has already been pointed out in many quarters that great works, built in an even more remote past, such as the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops), in the Giza plain, can include the value of π in the ratio between the perimeter at the base and the 'height of the same being, according to scholars, the original measurements of 921.459 meters by 146.729 meters in height (therefore the ratio would be equal to 2π). Nothing excludes that this constant ratio was already known by the Egyptians about two thousand years earlier, for which it could even more be known by the ancient builders of the plain of Selinunte.
The presence of a symbolic meaning attributable to numbers and geometric harmonies, which can be found in ancient sacred architectures, is one of the ways in which the mysterious thinking of archaic Greece manifested itself, of which Pythagoreanism was one of the greatest expressions.
This mode of expression of ancient thought was applied in an almost universal way by Greek mathematicians and architects, for which (we will talk about it in more detail if there will be occasion) they came to apply some constants that recur in nature, such as the so-called golden section, to the structures of the temples, gardens and pantheons of their cities, creating those geometric harmonies which represented the ideal of beauty and aesthetic perfection, typical of Greek thought. From this point of view, even Selinunte, although belonging to an older era, falls within the sites where it is possible to find this type of mathematical harmonies.
Even the construction techniques of the temples, improved over time, attest to the excellent degree of technological and architectural development achieved by these ancient builders, who have left us testimony, with these important finds, of their world and their cults.
