Paestum, a little Greece in Italy

After the rain began in Positano the previous day, we knew that some of our luck with beautiful weather was starting to run out. Instead of letting that stop us, we kept going with our plans to visit Paestum. This former Greek colony established south of Salerno in the time of the Roman Empire is a bit off the beaten path. Most tourists staying in or around Sorrento visit the ruins at Pompeii if they're looking for a little culture. Since we had visited Pompeii several years ago, we were tempted by the Greek ruins that, for some reason, only merited a page in one guide book and no mention at all in another.


Paestum is the classically Roman name of the Greek colony known as Poseidonia, named by the Greeks after Poseidon, the god of the sea. It appears to have been founded around the 7th century BC but no mention of the city was made until the 5th century BC. During that time, the Oscans were the native population of the "boot" part of the peninsula of Italy and appear to have evolved from the Etruscans. The Greeks who settled Poseidonia appear to have co-existed peacefully with the Oscans and Poseidonia remained in their control until the Greeks and Oscans lost a war with Rome in 273 BC. After that, the Romans took control of the city and re-named it Paestum.


The temples that were built here, however, were allowed to remain named after the Greek gods. The most majestic, and best preserved, of the three temples here is the Temple of Neptune (above). Later scholars have proven that this temple was actually dedicated to Hera, the goddess, but was mistakenly attributed to Poseidon in the 18th century. I found this out while researching for this blog posting but am not terribly surprised to point out that the plaque placed in front of the temple still lists Neptune (Poseidon) as the god in question.


The temple above was dedicated to Hera as well. 18th century archaeologists had mistakenly thought of it as a basilica and believed it to be a secular Roman building. However, this was another Greek structure built to worship Hera around 550 BC and an open-air alter was unearthed to show that worshippers could pray and give to the deity without entering the cella, or the inner chamber of the temple.


The temple of Athena is the third major temple in Paestum. Located on the far end of the park, it was built around 500 BC using element of both Ionic and early Doric styles. At one point later in its life, the temple was used as a Christian church and medieval Christian tombs were found in the floor.


The remains of the Roman Forum separate the two temples of Hera from the temple of Athena. Unlike Pompei, you can walk throughout the stones that remain of all the buildings and homes. Part of a Roman ampitheater lies aside the Forum (below). As we learned while touring the Paestum museum later, this is only the southern half of the Roman ampitheater. Back in 1930 (AD, of course), an overzealous land developed razed the northern half of the ampitheater to make room for a road. That half is now buried under road, tourist shops, and several cafes. According to local legend (and a plaque in the museum), the civil engineer responsible for this was tried, convicted, and imprisoned for "wanton destruction" of a historic monument.


The National Archaeological Museum at Paestum is filled with both Greek and Roman artifacts - it also provided a very welcome shelter for the rain that began to pour down.


There were many tomb coverings that had been unearthed through the years in remarkably good conditions. The one immediately below is from the Lucanian period (somewhere in the 300s BC) and depicts a scene of battle with style borrowings from the Greeks and Etruscans. All the tomb paintings had been found by a local artichoke farmer in the 1960s. The paint had remained in good condition for many years due to the area's former swamp setting. Even once the swamp had been filled, the presence of artichoke farms ensured that the paint stayed moist due to the long-reaching roots of the artichokes themselves.


The most famous artifact is the museum is the painting from the Tomb of the Diver. It has been cited by scholars as "the only example of Greek painting with figured scenes dating from the Orientalizing, Archaic, or Classical periods to survive in its entirety. Among the thousands of Greek tombs known from this time (roughly 700–400 BC), this is the only one to have been decorated with frescoes of human subjects."


Since getting to Paestum is a little difficult (pretty much the definition of "off the beaten path") we'd allowed ourselves too much time to return. So instead of hopping on a train immediately, we had a bit of extra time to walk around the ancient walls of the city and peer across small fences into the numerous working farms and agritourismos of the area. Exhausted by the time we returned to Sorrento, we managed to pull ourselves together and celebrate our one year of marriage (this was the 29th) with an amazing tasting menu in the historic city. Historic all around.