The Heraion of Argos is an ancient temple in Argos, Greece. It was part of the greatest sanctuary in the Argolid, dedicated to Hera, whose epithet "Argive Hera" : "The three towns I love best are Argos, Sparta and Mycenae of the broad streets". The memory was preserved at Argos of an archaic, aniconic pillar representation of the Great Goddess. The site, which might mark the introduction of the cult of Hera in mainland Greece, lies northeast of Argos between the archaeological sites of Mycenae and Midea, two important Mycenaean cities. The traveller Pausanias, visiting the site in the 2nd century CE, referred to the area as Prosymna.
History
The temenos occupies three artificially terraced levels on a site above the plain with a commanding view. Most of the remains at the site date from the 7th to the 5th centuries B.C. The Old Temple, destroyed by fire in 423 BCE, and an open-air altar stood on the uppermost terrace. Following the fire, the New Temple was rebuilt on the middle terrace; the architect was Eupolemos of Argos, according to Pausanias. Pausanias, who visited the site in the second century CE, describes the sculptures it contained at that time, including the cult statue, the famous ivory and gold-plated bronze sculpture of Hera by Polykleitos. Pausanias wrote: The temple contained numerous votive objects, some of them famous: There were other structures, one of which was the earliest example of a building with an open peristyle court, surrounded by columned stoas. The lowest level supports the remains of a stoa. Ancient retaining walls support the flat terraces. Close to the Heraion is a Mycenaean cemetery, apparently a site of an ancestor cult in the Geometric period, which was excavated by Carl Blegen. In Roman times a baths and a palaestra were added near the site. Pausanias stated that there was a brook beside the road called the Water of Freedom that priestesses would use for purification and sacrifice rituals. At the Heraion, Agamemnon was chosen to lead the Argives against Troy, according to a legend recorded by Dictys of Crete. Walls and earliest finds at the site date to the Geometric period, during which the Iliad was composed. A Helladic settlement preceded the sanctuary's development. If the temple was still in use by the 4th-century, it would have been closed during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire, when laws against non-Christian religions and their sanctuaries where enacted by the Christian emperors. Hera was worshipped as the protector of Argos, the goddess of marriage, and as a goddess of childbirth. Two figurines indicating Hera as a protector of children have been found and one pregnancy figurine has been found. Research has also indicated that there were numerous baths at the sanctuary, which may have served as a healing centre for women.
Excavations
The British officer Thomas Gordon was the first to identify the site in 1831, and in 1836 he conducted some desultory excavations. Heinrich Schliemann briefly investigated the site in 1874. Modern archaeology at the Heraion began under the auspices of the Archaeological Institute of America, its first campaign of excavation in Greece, and the direction of Charles Waldstein. Among Waldstein's discoveries were a bundle of iron roasting spits and a solid iron bar of the same weight and length; significant to the history of weight and measurement standards and mentioned in the Etymologies of Heracleides of Pontus as having been deposited here. During excavations, it was found that the structure was made mostly out of various types of limestone locally found in the area. Some marble was imported for the roof structure. White stucco covered the limestone which made it resemble full marble structures.
