Tempio dei Dioscuri (Tempio I) - Agrigento

The Temple of the Dioscuri or Temple of Castor and Pollux is certainly one of the symbols of the Valley of the Temples, together with that of Concordia.

However, its current appearance is actually a reconstruction carried out between 1836 and 1852 . Elements of buildings from different eras were used for this. The dedication to the Dioscuri , that is to say to Castor and Pollux who were the sons of Zeus in Greek mythology, is an assumption . It was attributed based on a work by the Greek writer Pindar, in which he tells about some festivities in honor of the Dioscuri that took place in ancient Agrigento. The Temple of the Dioscuri is one of many examples in the Valley of the Temples of Agrigento of conventional attribution of a cult to a shrine. In fact, there is no source showing that there was a temple in this area dedicated to the Dioscuri, that is, to the sons of Zeus Castor and Pollux.

The capitals and frieze belong to the original temple, while the geison dates from a restoration of the temple in the Hellenistic period. In fact, it is likely that the temple was burned by the Carthaginians in 406 BC. Originally the temple was hexastyle, that is, with six columns on the short side, while there were thirteen on the long side. Inside there were the pronaos, i.e. an entrance hall, the naos (or cell), i.e. the area where the statue of the deity was kept, and a rear compartment called the opisthodome.

Willem Vandenameele