the 3rd century, were imperial property leased to contractors.
The site is one of great natural strength and remarkable
beauty, though quite unlike that of other Greek cities in
Sicily. The northern portion of it consists of a lofty ridge
with two summits, the westernmost of which is occupied by
the modern town (985 ft.), while the easternmost, which is
slightly higher, bears the name of Rock of Athena, owing to its
identification in modern days with the acropolis of Acragas as
described by Polybius, who places upon it the temple of Zeus
Atabyrius (the erection of which was attributed to the half
mythical Phalaris) and that of Athena.1 It must be confessed
that the available space (about 70 X 20 yds.) on the eastern
summit (where there are some remains of ancient buildings) is
so small that there would be only room for a single temple,
which must have been occupied by the two deities jointly,
if the new theory is correct (see Notizie degli scavi,
1902, 387 and reff.). In the modern town, on the other hand,
the remains of one temple are to be seen in the church of S.
Maria dei Greci, while the other is generally supposed to have
occupied the site of the cathedral, though no traces of it are
visible. But whichever of these two summits was the acropolis
proper2 it is certain that both were included in the circuit
of the city walls. On the north both summits are defended
by cliffs; on the south the ground slopes away somewhat
abruptly from the eastern summit towards the plateau on which
the town stood, while the western summit is separated from
this plateau by a valley traversed by a branch of the Hypsas
[mod. drago], the deep ravine of which forms the western
boundary and defence of the city. On the east of the city is
the valley of the Acragas [Fiume S. Biagio], from which the
city took its name and which, though shallower than that of
the Hypsas, still affords a sufficient obstacle to attack,
and the two unite a little way to the south of the town; at
the mouth was the ancient harbour, small and now abandoned.
The most famous remains of the ancient city are the temples,
the most important of which form a row along the low cliffs
at the south end of the city. All are built in the Doric
style, of the local porous stone, which is of a warm red
brown colour, full of fossil shells and easily corroded
when exposed to the air. It should be noted that their
traditional names, with the exception of that of Zeus and
that of Asclepius, have no foundation in fact, while the
attribution of the temple in antis, into the cella of
which the church of S. Biagio has been built, is uncertain.3
They are described in R. Koldewey and O. Puchstein, Die
griechishen Tempel in Unteritalien und Sicilien (Berlin, 1890),
138-184. Of all these temples the oldest is probably that
of Heracles, while the best preserved are those of Hera and
Concordia, which are very similar in dimensions; the latter,
indeed, lacks nothing but its roof, owing its preservation
to its conversion into the cathedral in 597 by Gregory II.,
bishop of Girgenti. Both temples belong to the best period
of the Doric style and are among the finest in existence.
In front of the former, as in front of those of Heracles and
Zeus, stood a huge altar for burnt offerings, as long as the
facade of the temple itself. The cella of the temple of
Heracles underwent considerable modifications in Roman times,
and the discovery in it of a statue of Asclepius seems to
show that the cult of this deity superseded the original one.
In the colossal temple of Zeus the huge Atlantes (figures
of Atlas), 25 ft. in height, are noticeable. They seem to
have stood in the intercolumniations half-way up the outside
wall and to have supported the epistyle. The collapse both
of this temple and of that of Heracles must be attributed
to an earthquake; many fallen blocks of the former were
removed in 1756 for the construction of the harbour of Porto
Empedocle. The four columns erected on the site of the temple
of Castor and Pollux are a modern (and incorrect) restoration
in which portions of two buildings have been used. Of that of
Hephaestus only two columns remain, while of that of Asclepius,
a mile to the south of the town, an anta and two pillars are
preserved. It was in the latter temple that the statue of
the god by Myron stood; it had probably been carried off to
Carthage, was given to the temple by P. Scipio Africanus from
the spoils of that city and aroused the cupidity of Verres.
The other remains within the city walls are of surprisingly
small importance; near the picturesque church of S. Nicolo
is the so-called Oratory of Phalaris, a shrine of the 2nd
century B.C., 27 1/4 ft. long (including the porch) by 23 1/3
ft. wide; and not far off on the east is a large private house
with white tesselated pavements, probably pre-Roman in origin
but slightly altered in the Roman period (R. P. Jones and
E. A. Gardner in JOURNAL OF HELLENIC STUDIES, xxvi., 1906,
207). Foundations of other buildings are to be seen in other
parts of the site, but of little interest. The huge fishpond,
spoken of by Diodorus as being 7 stadia in circumference (xi.
25), is to be seen at the south-west corner of the city; it is
an enormous excavation in the rock with drains in its sides, at
the bottom of which there is now a flourishing orange garden.
Demeter Hera Con-
(Acragas?) Lacinia. cordia. Heracles. Zeus.
Length excluding
steps4 90? 125 129 1/4 220 361
Breadth 40 1/2 55 1/2 55 1/2 83 173 1/2
Length of cella .. 93 96 1/4 156 332
Breadth of cella .. 32 1/2 31 1/2 45 3/4 144 1/4
Height of columns
with capital .. 21 22 33 62 1/2?
Diameter of
columns at
bottom .. 4 1/2 4 1/2 6 1/2 14
Original number
of columns .. 34 34 38 38
Class In antis. Perip- Perip- Perip- Pseudo
teros teros teros Peripteros
hexa- hexa- hexa- hexa-
stylos. stylos. stylos. stylos.
Approximate date 450 B.C. 480-440 440-420 500 B.C. 450 B.C.
B.C. B.C.
Unnamed
Castor near Castor
and and Hephae-
Pollux. Pollux. scus. Asclepius. Athena.
Length excluding
steps (1) .. .. .. .. ..
Breadth .. 67 1/4 57 1/2 30 1/2 45
Length of cella 91 .. .. .. ..
Breadth of cella 33 .. .. .. ..
Height of columns
with capital 19 1/2 .. .. .. ..
Diameter of
columns at
bottom 4 .. 5 3 1/3 4 2/3
Original number
of columns 34 .. .. .. ..
Class Perip- .. Perip- Prostylos Perip-
teros teros pseudo teros
hexa- hexa- perip-
stylos. stylos. teros.
Approximate date 338-210. .. after 338 before 210 488-472
B.C. B.C. B.C. B.C. B.C.
The line of the city walls can be distinctly traced for
most of the circuit, but the actual remains of them are
inconsiderable. On the east and west the ravines already
mentioned afforded, in the main, a sufficient protection,
so that a massive wall was unnecessary, while near the
south-eastern angle a breastwork was formed by the excavation
of the natural rock,5 which in later times was honeycombed with
tombs. E. A. Freeman attributes the southern portion of the
walls to Theron (Hist. of Sic. ii. 224), but the question
depends upon the date of the temple of Heracles; and if
Koldewey and Puchstein are right in dating it so early as 500
B.C., it is probable that the wall was in existence by that
time. Close to this temple on the west is the site of the
gate known in later times as the porta aurea, through
which the modern road passes, so that no traces now remain.
Tombs of the Greek period have mainly been found on the west of
the town, outside the probable line of the walls, between the
Hypsas and a small tributary, the latter having been spanned by
a bridge, now called Ponite dei Morti, of which one massive
pier, 45 ft. in width, still exists. Just outside the south
wall is a Roman necropolis, with massive tombs in masonry, and
a Christian catacomb, and a little farther south a tomb in two
stories, a mixture of Doric and Ionic architecture, belonging
probably to the 2nd century B.C., though groundlessly called
the Tomb of Theron. A village of the Byzantine period has
been explored at Balatizzo, immediately to the south of the
modern town (Notizie degli scavi, 1900, 511-520). The walls
of the dwellings are entirely cut out of the natural rock.
See J. Schubring, Historische Topographie von Akragas
(Leipzig, 1570); R. Koldewey and O. Puchstein, op. cit.; C.
Hulsen in Pauly-Wissowa, Encyclopadie, i. 1187. (T. As.)
1 E. A. Freeman, History of Sicily (Oxford, 1891), i. 438,
accepts the name ``Rock of Athena'' and yet puts the acropolis on
the site of the modern town, arguing further that the cathedral
hill was an acropolis within an acropolis (II. and XVII.).
2 Some writers place Kamikos, the city of the mythical Sican
Kokalos, on the site of Acragas or its acropolis; but it appears
to have lain to the north-west, possibly at Caltabellotta, 10m.
north-east of Sciacca. We hear of it even in the Punic Wars as a
fortified post of Acragas (E. A. Freeman, Hist. of Sic. i. 495).
3 The attribution to Demeter is supported by the discovery
of votive terra-cottas, representing Demeter and Kore
in the neighbourhood, while the conjecture that it was
dedicated to the river-god Acragas rests on its position
above the river, in the valley of which, indeed, a
statue which may represent the deity has been discovered.
4 Dimensions in English feet.
5 Polybius ix. 27 keitai to teixos epi petras akrotomon kai
perirrogos e men autofnous e de xeiropoieton.
AGRIMONY (from the Lat. agrimonia, a transformation of
argemone, a word of unknown etymology), a slender perennial
herb (botanical name, agrimonia eupatoria, natural order
Rosaceae), 1 1/2 to 3 ft. high, growing in hedge-banks, copses and
borders of fields. The leafy stem ends in spikes of small yellow
flowers. The flower-stalk becomes recurved in the fruiting
stage, and the fruit bears a number of hooks which enable it
to cling to rough objects, such as the coat of an animal, thus
ensuring distribution of the seed. The plant is common in
Britain and widely spread through the north temperate region.
The underground woody stem is astringent and yields a yellow dye.
The name has been unsystematically given to several
other plants; for instance: bastard, Dutch, hemp or
water agrimony (eupatorium cannabinum); noble or
three-leaved agrimony (anemone hellalica); water agrimony
(bideus); and wild agrimony (potentilla anserina.)
AGRIONIA, an ancient Greek festival, which was celebrated
annually at Orchomenus in Boeotia and elsewhere, in honour
of Dionysus Agrionius, by women and priests at night. The
women, after playfully pretending for some time to search for
