Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore on Acrocorinth


The Sanctuary of Demeter and Kore on Acrocorinth was a temple in Ancient Corinth, dedicated to the goddesses Demeter and Kore
The sanctuary was situated on the Acrocorinth, where several other sanctuaries where placed, notably the Temple of Aphrodite on Acrocorinth. The sanctuary first consisted of a sacred area, which in the archaic period included a small temple. The first more elabourate temple was erected in the 4th-century BC.
In 146 BC, the city of Ancient Corinth was destroyed, and the temple fell in to ruins. When Roman Corinth was founded in 44 f.Kr, the sanctuary was reestablished. In the 1st century, three small Ionic temples were built.
Pausanias described the temples of the sanctuary:
The sanctuary was closed in the 4th-century during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire. Archeological remains indicate that the temple was attacked by Christian iconoclasts. In a Roman well situated in the sacred area, three heads of statues has been found, identified as a large head belonging to the cult statue of the goddess Demeter, and two smaller heads belonging to portrait sculptures of that of her two priestesses. The heads appears to have been decapitated from the statues, vandalised and thrown down the well. The dates of coins found at the site indicate that this incident occurred during the mid to late 4th-century, a period of persecution of pagans, when temples and shrines where attacked by Christians around the Roman Empire. Escavations has been made of the remains of the sanctuary. Significant archeological finds has been made.