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Modern Description: Beyond Megalochóri, the road turns east and heads for the south coast at Períssa. To the left-hand side of the road, level with the village boundary sign of Emboreió, is the curious chapel of Aghios Nikolaos Marmaritis (key held in the adjacent house), which is in effect an exceptionally well preserved marble shrine or temple of the 3rd century BC, dedicated, according to an inscription still in situ, to the goddess Basíleia. This is an unusual place to find such a building; its size suggests that it may have functioned also as a family tomb. The beautifully cut and laid, silver-grey limestone slabs of the walls have been partially cemented and re-pointed, but otherwise the building is a whole, ancient structure, complete with its marble roof supported by the original monolithic stone beams. The dimensions are diminutive (4.20m by 3.60m), with a dignified door frame in the south wall, and a small aedicule or niche on the inside of the north wall, framed by carved Ionic pilasters and a Doric entablature and pediment. The dedicatory inscription is engraved below. Basíleia is a curious divinity, whose cult is associated with that of Cybele, the Phrygian mother goddess: she was the daughter of Uranus and Titaia, she married Hyperion (her brother), and was mother to Selene and Helios. Her cult became popular in the Hellenistic period which was characterised by a restless search for new and ambiguous divinities, many of foreign origin.
Wikidata ID: Q12872181

Info: McGilchrist's Greek Islands

(From McGilchrist’s Greek Islands, © Nigel McGilchrist 2010, excerpted with his gracious permission. Click for the books)

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