Dear Aphrodite, Please Don't Let Me Die At Sea.

We got most of Wednesday to take a break from the talks at the workshop by going on an excursion to the temple of Segesta.

This is what we learned from the tour guide on the way there:

Erice was an important religious center because of its temple, dedicated to Aphrodite/Venus. The founder of the town was (by legend) supposed to have escaped the Trojan War & fled with his followers to Erice, where he set up a temple dedicated to his 'mother', the goddess of fertility.

At this temple, girls were trained from ~6 years old as 'priestesses' who would practice ritual prostitution from ~12 years to ~24 years. Sailors on shore would make trades in town & then send a representative to buy a very expensive gift to present to the temple. They would then sleep with one of the priestesses as a ritual of worship within the temple, under the open sky, where the gods could see. They believed when they 'reached a state of ecstasy', they could offer a prayer to Venus that she might protect them while at sea. Bringing pleasure to the priestess brought pleasure to the gods, though I have serious concerns about how pleased the child prostitute could be. With enough money, priestesses could be 'rescued' for marriage.

At Segesta, we traveled up to the site of former cities on a hill a little above that on which the temple sat. The city/town's location was highly defensible, as two rivers passed before it, providing natural barriers. From the hill, you could see the bay & Erice (supposedly–or the massive bonfires Erice would build each night).

The temple of Segesta

The oldest settlements (or remains) at the site appeared to be the Byzantine tombs or the muslim town. This latter was a rare find in Sicily– the foundations of a mosque finding Mecca. When the Normans arrived & conquered the hill, I think they left the mosque alone (unusually), and instead turned their ever-destructive forces towards dismantling a lot of the greco-roman housing & stonework (including the acropolis) in the area. They appropriated the dismantled stone to build their Norman castle & accompanying donkey stables. Niiiiiice one guys.

Restoration efforts have re-used some of the stolen stone, but where the stones are small & numerous instead of large and flat, you can see what the Normans took.

Large flat stones from the acropolis

The acropolis

Further ruins of the dismantled acropolis. Smaller stones indicate Norman construction.  

The final site on the former city was a half-circle amphitheater. This half-circle shape is different from Greek amphitheaters, which enclosed more than 180˚ for better sound capture. This amphitheater once had a tall theater stage closing off the opening, but as with everything else, the Normans dismantled it. 

I'm unsure where in the timeline the Romans fall, but they allowed classic greek plays at the theater for a long time until they instituted Christianity as the official religion. At this point, they banned the plays & named the actors sinful for calling to Zeus and the Pantheon all the time, even if only as part of the play.

As an aside–the guide kept pointing out different plants in the area with special significance. Here's a couple:

Mandrake Root–used for love potions

I've forgotten what plant this is and what significance it held. 

Next: The Temple on the neighboring hill.