Duderstadt Gallery: Section 7 - Sanctuary of Men Askaenos

(Click on images in the large image below to view)

RITUALS AND DEDICATIONS
Numerous religious rituals and related events occurred at the sanctuary. This chair is from MB3, the multi-room building closest to the temple. It may have been used by a priest at banquets or religious rituals.
Costly dedications, such as the life-size marble statue of Cornelia Antonia, were donated by the wealthy and set up inside the temenos. Cornelia Antonia was one of the elite devotees who took part in the rites of Mên.
The small theater, or odeum, was another place where ritual festivities took place. Contests of trumpeters and gymnasts are mentioned in inscriptions found at the sanctuary.

THE SMALL TEMPLE AND BYZANTINE CHURCH
The small temple seems to have been dedicated to a goddess associated with Mên. Cybele (an Anatolian nature goddess), Artemis (a Greek goddess of the moon and hunting), Hekate (a Greek goddess of the Underworld and the dark moon), or Demeter (a Greek fertility goddess) were paired with Mên on various occasions. A small marble statuette found at the small temple may represent either Cybele or Artemis-Hekate.
By the end of the 4th century, Christianity had become the primary religion at Antioch. The temple of Mên was destroyed, and some of its limestone blocks were used to build the small church at the northeast end of Kara Kuyu.

February 18, 2006
Digital Image
Courtesy of J. Matthew Harrington