Page - 79 - in The Power of Urban Water - Studies in premodern urbanism

5 Fountains andBasins inGreekSanctuaries 79 Fig. 8: Thasos, entranceareaof the sanctuary of Poseidon. Fig. 9:Epidauros, Templeof Artemis. and in front of the temple of Athena in Stymphalos.58 The fact that these basinswere indeed used for ritual cleansing isdocumentedbyaseriesof sacred laws59which formulatedistinctive rulesofpurity for the temple.Ofparticular interest is the inscriptionontheTempleofAsclepius inEpidauros,60which canbedirectly associatedwith thebasin found there. Water thereforenotonly served theconstitutionof sacredspace ingeneral, butalsohelped to identify areaswithin the sanctuaryasparticularlyworthyofprotectionand thus to structure the inner space.61 Although there are somevery elaborateperirrhanteriawith figurativedesigns fromArchaic times, inClassical andHellenistic times simplebowlsonhigh feet areusually tobeexpected.62 Between themanifold votive offerings that filled the paths andplaces of the sanctuaries, they willhardlyhavehadasignificanteffectas individualmonuments.Theverifiablebasins in front of the two temples in Epidauros, for example, were densely surrounded by other, oftenmuch larger votive bases.63 In Lousoi, in fact (Fig. 7), therewas amonument directly in front of the perirrhanterionand thusobscuring the view. Only ina fewexceptional caseswasamoreelaboratedesignand thusanexplicit emphasis on thesebasinsachieved.Forexample,very rarely fountain figureswereusedaswaterdispens- ers. Such a figure is, for instance, verifiable in front of the temple of Asclepius in Epidauros, which replacedor supplemented theoldbasin at the ramp.64 Similar to what has already been stated for the fountains, basins and perirrhanteriawere also regularly placed at the decisive intersections of the sanctuary’s area, but possessed only in exceptional cases an emblematicmonumentalitywhichhelped to emphasise and constitute spaces. 58Williams 2001, 79n. 14; Schaus 2014, 17. 24 figs. 2, 8. 2, 25. 2, 27. In addition, there arebasins inantechambers of somemystery cults, for example for theKabiroi: Kerschner 1996, 113. 59 E.g. LSAM12, 1–4; LSAM51, 1–4; LSS91, 1–3; LSS 108, 4–7. 60 This inscriptionhasonlybeen recordedbyPorph. abst. 2, 19: […] ἐν γοῦνἘπιδαύρῳπροεγέγραπτο, ἁγνὸν χρὴ ναοῖο θυώδεος ἐντὸς ἰόντα ἔμμεναι· ἁγνεία δ’ ἐστὶφρονεῖν ὅσια.Therewas an inscription at Epidauros: puremust onebe to enter the incense-fragrant temple, andpurity is thinkingholy thoughts (translationbyClark 2000). 61 Hippoc.Morb. Sacr. 4, 55–60, aswell, uses the terms temenos and hieron to distinguish different areas of the sanctuary. 62 Pimpl 1997, 28–34. 41–46. 106–110. 63 Animpressionof this canbeconveyedby the imaginative illustrations inDefrasse–Lechat 1895, figs. onp. 53. 164; pl. 12, even if hedidnot draw thebasin itself. 64 Kavvadias 1905,passim,especially46–48 fig. 3pl.Β',1–2, c;Kerschner 1996,95f.;Pimpl 1997, 111–116withonly four examples.