Ancient Selinus: A buried temple, myths and metopes, and a happy return

The site and the foundations of the early temple Y at Selinus, from about 550 BC, have not yet been found, so the shape and dimensions of its plan remain unknown; but the various parts of the elevation (columns, epistyle, roof terracottas, pediment) are adequately documented through reused material in later fortifications, so that a reconstruction of the entire temple front, and an analysis of the surprisingly refined proportional system, can be proposed provided that it had the normal six columns in the front. Six of the ten metopes which would have decorated the frieze of such a front have been found, and preserved fragments of four more allow a tentative proposal for the arrangement of the frieze, which apparently included six and four metopes with two different framing systems, but identical dimensions. One metope with three female deities, shown in a meeting with flower buds in their hands, has received different interpretations; it probably shows Persephone returning to her mother Demeter, with Hekate assisting as a witness behind them. The scene can be connected with Persephone’s return as described in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, but seems also to include elements from a Sicilian version of the myth where Persephone’s return was more closely connected with the annual cyclus of vegetation and fertility.