音频游览 Temple Y

The temple Y had to be the smallest of all the other important monuments of Selinunte. However, from a decorative point of view it had to be very rich!
In fact we do not know much about this building, which perhaps was part of the hill area of “Manuzza”.
We know, however, that it was one of the oldest, built perhaps nearly 2600 years ago, around 570 B.C. and decorated by some carved metopes, defined "Small metopes", which have been recognized similar in style and workmanship by archaeologists, so they were attributed to one building.
"How come we do not know anything about this temple Y? Because the metopes, like other architectural elements, were not found in the place where the temple was built, but they had been taken away, to be reused as building stones of the fortifications of North Gate.

Four small metopes are attributed to the temple Y:

-the rape of Europe

-the winged Sphinx

-the Delphic Triad

-Heracles fighting the bull

To these four metopes, discovered by Antonio Salinas at the end of the last century, two more, found by Vincenzo Tusa in 1968, were added and considered stylistically very similar to the others.

The first depicts a chariot front with two characters on the wagon, perhaps Demeter and Kore, and two rampant horses on the edges; the second depicts Demeter, Kore and Hecate.

In this section we will tell you about the myths that tell us about these sculptures!

This text has been translated by Anna Gullo with the collaboration of Angela Gisone. The narrator is Silvia Palmeri: class V C from the Primary School "Lombardo Radice".