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Modern Description: The most recent discovery in the area of Flerio is the sanctuary to chthonic deities discovered on the hillside beside the point where the asphalt road ends. The sanctuary, which has an interesting and unusual circular configuration of buildings, was probably frequented predominantly by the quarrymen and sculptors, since it stands in the heart of their work area. The first cultic buildings here date from the 8th century BC. In the 7th century BC a rearrangement of the site was undertaken, together with the building of a new marble temple. It was characterised by a monolithic door-frame (threshold visible) which, in design, prefigured the ‘Portara' and the entrances of other later Ionic temples. Damage to the building occurred resulting from an earth tremor in the 6th century BC, and the temple and its surrounding buildings—amongst which were a hestiatorion, or ritual dining area—were repaired.
The survival, throughout all this, of a sacred hearth for burnt offerings suggests that the divinity worshipped was chthonic—perhaps a fertility divinity, or the giants, Otus and Ephialtes, who perished on Naxos and were honoured as protectors of quarrymen. The latter—twin sons of Poseidon—are protagonists of some of the most bizarre of all Greek myths: it was they who, having declared war on the Olympian gods, ‘piled [Mt] Pelion on [Mt] Ossa' on top of Mount Olympus, and threatened to make the sea dry by filling it with mountains. They bound Ares in chains and put him in a cauldron, and declared their lusts—Otus for the virgin Artemis, Ephialtes for queen Hera. When finally killed on Naxos by a ruse excogitated by Artemis, they went to Hades, were bound to pillars with snakes, and tormented by a ceaselessly screeching owl.
Wikidata ID: Q15965053

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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