Location information

Kommeni Spilia (Cut Cave)

Kourno

  This site in the peninsula of Maina, 18 km to the N of Cape Tainaron and 570 m above sea level, can be reached by a two and a half hour climb on foot from the small port of Nymphi. It is not mentioned by any ancient author, and its name in antiquity is unknown. The ancient establishment is 500 m from a plentiful spring near which a convent stands, in the place called Ta Kionia (The Columns). It has never been systematically explored. The principal buildings recognizable are two Doric shrines. The first, peristylar, with a proportion of seven columns to six, measures ca. 8.4 x 9.2 m on the stylobate. The second, with two columns in antis, measures some 7 x 5 m. The roofs bore a round acroterium. No inscription or sculpture allows us to guess to whom these shrines were dedicated. Some of the architectural fragments, above all the capitals, are said to have been taken to Kythera in the 19th c. To the S of these shrines was doubtless a third sanctuary. A cliff relief shows three figures, of which two are still distinct: in the center, a woman holding a cornucopia (Rome?) and to the left a standing warrior. All around are the remains of several ancient buildings. Everything appears to date from the Imperial period.

C. Le Roy, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.

• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Per...