The entrance to the Sanctuary
Hall C is chiefly devoted to the monuments of the entrance complex on the Eastern Hill, which for at least half a millennium served as the threshold leading to the heart of the sanctuary. Having made their way from the city, prospective initiates gathered here to prepare themselves for the rites of initiation that took place in the sacred structures sequestered on the valley floor to the west. The entrance complex also served as a final place for the newly initiated to come together and take stock of their experiences before returning to the outside world.
Sacred Way
Pilgrims were led from the ancient city to the heart of the Sanctuary of the Great Gods along the Sacred Way, which provided excellent opportunities for votive and commemorative display, as several rock cuttings for monuments and stelai attest.
The Theatral Circle
The Theatral Circle was constructed at the end of the 5th or the beginning of the 4th century BC. In its original configuration, the orchestral space was surrounded by at least four tiers of concentric limestone steps, which were suitable for a standing audience. The cylindrical, molded block exhibited in this hall has been identified as a sacrificial altar that would have originally been placed at the center of the Theatral Circle. The location of the latter was also connected with the delivery of the praefatio sacrorum, a preliminary to the rites which followed in the central valley of the Sanctuary of the Great Gods. Finally, the purificatory Korybantic rite of thronosis (“enthronement”) may have been performed in this space. The lamps found in the destruction debris confirm the suggestion that the mysteries took place at night. The Samothracian conical bowls found in extraordinary quantity in this area were perhaps connected with libations.
Monument Platforms and Stepped Retaining Wall
The Eastern Hill was an important locus for sculptural dedications within the Sanctuary of the Great Gods. On the southwestern perimeter of the Theatral Circle, two arcs framing the complex extended from the Dedication of Philip III and Alexander IV to the stepped ramp of the Propylon of Ptolemy II.
The first arc, the Monument Platforms (317 BC–3rd cent. BC) was composed of six platforms, which served primarily as the bases for life-sized bronze statues. In the late Hellenistic period (ca. 175–100 BC), a new outer grandstand was added, the Stepped Retaining Wall, which added grandstands for as many as 220 more spectators and participants in the rituals performed in the Theatral Circle; it also carried sculptural dedications. The precious little surviving of the statues, chiefly eyelid plates, and the dozens of the individual bases and blocks from orthostate monuments attest to the remarkable display of statues that once augmented this area.
The Dedication of Philip III and Alexander IV
At the time of its construction, this marble hexastyle prostyle Doric building would have been the first major building to come into view as pilgrims entered the Sanctuary. A dedicatory inscription on the architrave of the facade commemorated the donation of this building, during the period 323–317 BC, by Alexander the Great’s successors: his half-brother, Philip III Arrhidaios, and his posthumous infant son, Alexander IV.
The building was composed of two different types of marble, worked by two different sets of masons, an Attic and a Thasian. The facade was constructed entirely of Pentelic marble from Attica. The krepis, back, and side walls were constructed of Thasian marble.
In terms of function, the Dedication seems to have served chiefly as a pavilion or as a covered staging area for the rites; equipment could be temporarily housed here, while some participants in the events taking place in the Theatral Circle perhaps made use of the sheltered location. However, the building may have served as a propylon before the construction (285–281 BC) of the Propylon of Ptolemy II. The Dedication draws on Attic materials, Athenian architectural forms, and Peloponnesian style; crossing them with Thasian materials and talent, the building embodies the hybrid vitality of the Macedonian architectural school.
The partial reconstruction of the Pentelic marble facade of the Dedication of Philip III and Alexander IV includes, from the bottom up, the southeast corner capital, two architrave blocks, two blocks of the frieze, two horizontal geison blocks, and a tympanum block. The two architrave blocks bear the first two words ΒΑΣΙΛΕ|ΙΣΦΙΛΙΠΠΟΣ | of the dedicatory inscription, which restored in full reads: ΒΑΣΙΛΕ|ΙΣΦΙΛΙΠΠΟΣ|Α̣Λ̣[ΕΞΑΝ]Δ̣[Ρ]|Ο[ΣΘΕΟΙΣΜΕΓ]|Α[ΛΟΙΣ], Kings Philip and Alexander to the Great Gods. The two blocks of the frieze consist of a metope on the left and a triglyph on the right.
The Ionic Porch
To the western side of the Dedication of Philip III and Alexander IV, the Ionic Porch was added in the late 3rd or first half of the 2nd century BC, facing north onto the Sacred Way. Its facade was either tetrastyle prostyle or distyle in antis. The Ionic Porch was constructed mostly of Thasian marble, while the capitals of the Ionic columns were of marble from Proconnesus. The coffered ceiling of the structure incorporated at least two different sizes of coffer blocks and lids with a variety of floral motifs sculpted in relief. The Ionic Porch might have functioned as a naïskos (shrine), a place for the display of sculptural dedications, or a viewing platform. However, if the Dedication of Philip III and Alexander IV was a propylon to the sanctuary before the construction (285-281 BC) of the Propylon of Ptolemy II, and an inner propylon afterwards, then we should consider the construction of the Ionic Porch as an effort to monumentalize the access to the Sacred Way and the inner sanctuary.
The Rotunda of Arsinoe II
The Rotunda of Arsinoe II was a place for gathering; its internal space of 179 m² could accommodate at least one hundred persons on the occasion of a collective ceremony, which included libation and sacrifice. However, there is no material evidence for the confirmation of this hypothesis within the building, apart from the fact that sacrifices were performed outside its entrance. Similarly, no proof has been found of a system of ventilation and it seems that the Rotunda was lighted solely from the door. Another hypothesis connects the Rotunda with the solemn gathering of the theoroi, the sacred envoys from cities of Macedonia, Thrace, Asia Minor, and the islands of the Aegean. Recently, the Rotunda of Arsinoe II has been considered the building where the preliminary myesis at Samothrace took place, in the form of the Korybantic ritual of thronosis (“enthronement”) described by Plato.
The Propylon of Ptolemy II
The monumental Propylon of Ptolemy II, built (285–281 BC) on the steeply descending eastern bank of the eastern ravine of the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, bridged the torrent and directed visitors into the Sanctuary. Inscriptions on the architrave of both east and west facades of the building proclaim, “King Ptolemy (ΙΙ, Philadelphos) son of Ptolemy and Berenike the Saviors, to the Great Gods.”
The Propylon of Ptolemy II is distinguished by an oblique, barrel-vaulted tunnel that traverses the limestone substructure in order to span the bed of the seasonal torrent. The building, above the substructure, was of Thasian marble and it had two pedimented hexastyle porches on either side of a double door-wall penetrated by a narrow passage. On the east side, the porch is constructed in the Ionic Order, while on the west side it is Corinthian. The Corinthian order, up until this time, was reserved chiefly for interiors. Here, Corinthian columns are employed monumentally on the western facade, signaling to visitors that they were now inside the sanctuary. The column capitals were of marble from Proconnesus. Over the architrave, the building was adorned by a frieze carved with alternating bucranes and rosettes topped by dentils, a cornice, and a sima with lion’s-head waterspouts. The architect of the Propylon, who is believed to have also designed the Rotunda of Arsinoe ΙΙ, may have selected the North Propylaia at Epidauros as his model.
