Temple of Aphaia: Aegina's Hilltop Temple of a Vanishing Goddess

The Story of the Temple of Aphaia

On a hilltop in the northeast of Aegina, surrounded by pine trees and looking out across the Saronic Gulf toward Athens, stands one of the most beautiful temples in Greece. Its honey colored columns rise against the sky, and on a clear day the view reaches all the way to the Acropolis. The temple was dedicated to Aphaia, a goddess who was worshipped almost nowhere else, and whose name and story set her apart from the great Olympians.

The travel writer Pausanias tells her story. Aphaia was originally Britomartis, a nymph of Crete and a companion of Artemis. To escape the pursuit of King Minos, she leapt into the sea and was caught in the nets of fishermen, who brought her to Aegina. There she disappeared into the woods, and the islanders worshipped her as Aphaia, a name often linked with the Greek word for vanished or unseen. Her sanctuary on the hill was sacred for centuries before the temple was built.

The temple you see today was built around 500 BC, replacing an earlier one destroyed by fire. It is a Doric temple with 6 columns across each end and 12 along each side, made of local limestone that was originally covered with stucco and painted. Many of its columns still stand, including an upper row of smaller columns inside the main chamber, which gives a clear idea of how a Greek temple interior was organized.

The temple's pediments were filled with marble figures from the Trojan Wars, and their subject reflected local pride. The Aeginetans claimed descent from the hero Aeacus, whose sons and grandsons included Telamon, Peleus, Ajax and Achilles. Both pediments showed battles at Troy, with Athena standing calmly in the center. The figures of the east pediment, carved a little later than those of the west, show a striking change toward the more natural style of classical art, and the dying warriors are among the most moving sculptures of the time.

For a long time the temple was thought to belong to Zeus or to Athena. In 1811 a group of European scholars excavated the site and uncovered the pediment sculptures, which were sold to Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria. They were restored by the Danish sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen and are today the pride of the Glyptothek museum in Munich. Only in 1901, when the German archaeologist Adolf Furtwängler found an inscription naming Aphaia, was the true owner of the temple confirmed.

The temple is often mentioned as part of a so called sacred triangle with the Parthenon in Athens and the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion. It is a modern idea rather than an ancient one, but the three temples can indeed see each other across the water, and standing at Aphaia on a clear day you can easily make out the coast of Attica.

Today the Temple of Aphaia is the most popular sight on Aegina, a short ferry ride from Piraeus. It is about 12 kilometers from Aegina town, near the village and beach of Agia Marina. Walk around the temple to admire its well preserved columns, visit the small site museum, which displays fragments of the sculptures and a reconstruction of the painted decoration, and enjoy the views across the gulf, especially beautiful in the late afternoon light.