RECONSTRUCTING SPARTA · PAUS. 3.17.1–3.18.1
The Acropolis and the Bronze House of Athena
ANCIENT TESTIMONY · PAUSANIAS 3.17.1–3.18.1Pausanias says the Spartans had no conspicuous citadel; the highest of the city’s hills was called the acropolis (3.17.1). On it stood the sanctuary of Athena “City-protecting” and “of the Bronze House” (Chalkioikos); temple and image were made of bronze by the Spartan Gitiadas, with reliefs of the labours of Herakles and other myths (3.17.2–3). He also mentions a sanctuary of the Muses and a temple of Aphrodite Areia nearby, and two statues of Pausanias the regent by the altar (3.17.5–7).
EXCAVATED EVIDENCEBritish School at Athens excavations on the acropolis in 1924–25 recovered substantial parts of a more than life-size marble statue of a helmeted warrior, the so-called “Leonidas” (Annual of the British School at Athens, “Excavations at Sparta, 1924–25: The Acropolis. The Finds”). The statue is now in the Archaeological Museum of Sparta (inv. 3365).
CONJECTUREThe exact form and size of the Bronze House are not known. Any reconstruction of bronze-clad walls is conjectural.
RECONSTRUCTION TO COME