GREECE EPIRUS IOANNINA DODONA

Hundreds of years the cult in Dodona was practiced in the open air with bronze tripod cauldrons surrounding the sacred oak tree before towards the end of the 5th century BC a first, small temple was erected. This was then gradually enlarged in at least four architectural phases until the 2nd century BC. The photographs above show the temple of Zeus Naios in its latest form.

More buildings were added during the reign of Pyrrhus in the 3rd century BC. Roman troops devastated the sanctuary in 167 BC, but its final end came with Christianity: in AD 392 the sacred oak tree was unrooted. Today, there grows an oak tree again in the temenos of Zeus but it is not the original one.

Below: The New Temple of Dione with a wall dividing cella from adyton lies next to that of Zeus. In Dodona, Dione was revered as Zeus' wife. She was the daughter of Okeanos (or Uranos), mother of Niobe, and according to Homeros of Aphrodite for whom a small temple was erected on the western side of Zeus' temenos.

Above left: The Old temple of Dione, poorly preserved. - Above right: Part of the Early Christian Basilica. - Below: The Doric column capital perhaps belonged to the temple of Herakles.