GREECE PELOPONNESE ARGOLIS ARGOS NYMPHAION

The Nymphaion (A, B in the plan below left) was a monumental fountain donated to the town of Argos by emperor Hadrian. It was built in the 2nd quarter of the 2nd century AD to gather and distribute water carried by an aqueduct. Part of this vaulted building was hewn out of the rock while the rest was built with brick and rubble. Initially, its façade was built to recall a roman shrine with a stone Ionic collonade supporting a wooden architrave. Later, probably after the ruin of Argos in AD 267 by the Heruli, the fountain was restored and the collonade replaced by a wall.

The Kriterion (C in the plan) was an open air construction from the 6th to the 3rdcentury BC. Its terrace (35 x 21 m) was reached by a central staircase. The presence of inscribed votive reliefs of the "Epitelides", divinities linked with justice, led to the suggestion that this monument might have been a tribunal, maybe the oldest in Argos.

Above left: Ancient water reservoir (?) south of the Kriterion-Nymphaion. - Above right: Niches in the Nymphaion, probably for votive offerings.

Below: Further South and just next to the middle rows of the theatre (but not accessible from there) is a stone slab with the relief of a horseman, described and drawn by many early visitors. The figured scene within a rectangular frame is carved in a low relief on the limestone rock. On the right side, a horseman holds a round shield of the argive type and rides to the left. A conical footed krater is figured there and a snake with its head rising up to the lip of the vase. - The relief, probably from the end of the 4th or beginning of the 3rd century BC, belongs to the type of "heroic reliefs" with chtonian character. This is underlined by the snake coming out from under the earth, the underworld, to taste the offerings made to the Hero-Horseman.