FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF SALT

20-24 August 2015, Iasi, Romania

The Sacred Salt Spring of Erechtheion,

or How the Aegean Sea Got to Flow
High on the Top of Athens' Acropolis

Ph.D. Magda Mircea

 ERECHTHEION (SOUTH-WEST VIEW; PORCH OF THE CARYATIDS)

 Present condition
MAP OF ATHENS WITH THE ANCIENT HARBOURS PIRAEUS &PHALERON
 ANCIENT GREEK NARRATIVES
 HERODOTUS (5th century B.C.; c. 484–425 B.C.)
VIII.55.2-5: Ἔστι ἐν τῇ ἀκροπόλι ταύτῃ Ἐρεχθέος […] νηός͵ ἐν τῷ ἐλαίη τε καὶ θάλασσα ἔνι.
(“There is on this Acropolis a temple of Erechtheus […] and in it are an olive-tree and a sea)

 PAUSANIAS (2nd century A.D., c.110-180 A.D.)

1.26.5.8-15: ὕδωρ ἐστὶν ἔνδον θαλάσσιον ἐν φρέατι. τοῦτο μὲν θαῦμα οὐ μέγα· καὶ γὰρ ὅσοι μεσόγαιαν
οἰκοῦσιν͵ ἄλλοις τε ἔστι καὶ Καρσὶν Ἀφροδισιεῦσιν· ἀλλὰ τόδε τὸ φρέαρ ἐς συγ γραφὴν παρέχεται κυμάτων
ἦχον ἐπὶ νότῳ πνεύσαντι. καὶ τριαίνης ἐστὶν ἐν τῇ πέτρᾳ σχῆμα· ταῦτα δὲ λέγεται Ποσειδῶνι μαρτύρια ἐς
τὴν ἀμφισβήτησιν τῆς χώρας φανῆναι.
(“And in the interior there is sea-water in a well. But this is no great marvel, for it is found in other inland
regions as well, as for example Aphrodisias in Caria. However, the well on the Akropolis is remarkable for
the noise of waves it produces when the south wind blows, and on the rock is the imprint of a trident. These
phenomena are said to have appeared as evidence in support of Poseidon’s claim to the land”)

VIII.10.4.1-4 (About the Temple of Poseidon Hippeios in Mantineea): θαλάσσης δὲ ἀναφαίνεσθαι κῦμα ἐν
τῷ ἱερῷ λόγος ἐστὶν ἀρχαῖος· ἐοικότα δὲ καὶ Ἀθηναῖοι λέγουσιν ἐς τὸ κῦμα τὸ ἐν ἀκροπόλει καὶ Καρῶν οἱ
Μύλασα ἔχοντες ἐς τοῦ θεοῦ τὸ ἱερόν͵ ὃν φωνῇ τῇ ἐπιχωρίᾳ καλοῦσιν Ὀσογῶα. Ἀθηναίοις μὲν δὴ σταδίους
μάλιστα εἴκοσιν ἀφέστηκε τῆς πόλεως ἡ πρὸς Φαληρῷ θάλασσα͵ ὡσαύ τως δὲ καὶ Μυλασεῦσιν ἐπίνειον
σταδίους ὀγδοήκοντα ἀπέχον ἐστὶν ἀπὸ τῆς πόλεως· Μαντινεῦσι δὲ ἐκ μακρο τάτων τε ἡ θάλασσα ἄνεισι
καὶ ἐκφανέστατα δὴ κατὰ τοῦ θεοῦ γνώμην.
(“There is an old legend that a wave of sea-water rises up in the sanctuary. A like story is told by the
Athenians about the wave on the Acropolis, and by the Carians living in Mylasa about the sanctuary of the
god called in the native tongue Osogoa. But the sea at Phalerum is about twenty stades distant from Athens,
and the port of Mylasa is eighty stades from the city. But at Mantineia the sea rises after a very long
distance, and quite plainly through the divine will.”)

 PSEUDO-APOLLODORUS (1st or 2nd century A.D.)

III, 14,1: Ποσειδῶν […] πλήξας τῇ τριαίνῃ κατὰ μέσην τὴν ἀκρόπολιν ἀπέφηνε θάλασσαν͵ ἣν νῦν
Ἐρεχθηίδα καλοῦσι.
(“Poseidon […] with a blow of his trident on the middle of the acropolis produced a sea which they now call
Erechtheis.”)
 WEST SIDE OF ERECHTHEION

Underneath the pavement of the westernmost chamber of the present Erechtheion is a

large cistern hewn in the rock.
(Harrison, 1906, p.56-57; Dörpfeld, Wilhelm; Schleif, Hans [Ill.]: Erechtheion, Berlin, 1942 Seite
Tafel_01)
GROUND PLAN OF ERECHTHEION
 GROUND PLAN OF ERECHTHEION

(Dörpfeld, Wilhelm; Schleif, Hans [Ill.]: Erechtheion, Berlin, 1942 Seite Tafel_01)
EXTERIOR VIEW, DOOR WITHIN NORTH PORCH, BEFORE RESTORATION

(@Collection Conway Library, Courtauld Institute of Art)

 THE „SEA OF ERECHTHEUS“ AND THE SACRED OLIVE TREE OF ATHENS
(drawing by Dörpfeld, Wilhelm; Schleif, Hans [Ill.]: ErechtheionBerlin, 1942 Seite Tafel_16)
KARST is a landscape formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks
including limestone, dolomite and gypsum. It is characterized by
sinkholes, caves, and underground drainage systems.
Rainwater or snowmelt is drained into sinkholes whence it flows
underground through fissures and caves to reappear as karstic springs.
 Higgins, M. & Higgins, R. 1976. A Geological Companion to Greece and the
Aegean. London, Gerald Duckwort & Co Ltd.
“The Acropolis of Athens is formed by a layer of blue-grey limestone, which is very hard but water-
permeable. This rests on a layer of schist-sandstone marl, softer than the limestone but water-
impermeable. This arrangement leads to the ready formation of artesian springs, as well as sheltered
caves at the hill's feet, which was also a factor that attracted human habitation on and around the
rock from early on.“
.

This structure of the Acropolis’ hill supports the hypothesis that the sacred salt spring of
Erechtheion was very likely a brackish or saline KARSTIC spring, with a variable salinity depending
on the season
 CONCLUSIONS

The conclusions support the validity of ancient sources regarding the occurrence of a sea-water
spring on the top of Acropolis in Athens, inside the Erechteion, within the cella dedicated to Poseidon-
Erechtheus, on the westernmost compartiment of the building.

The intrusion of seawater into the coastal karst limestone aquifers is a regular phenomenon
common to the frequent landscape of Greece. The mechanism of sea-water intrusion into the coastal
limestone area and into calcareous aquifers has been already extensively studied, not only for the
Greece, but also for Crete, Turkey, Spain and Israel’s Mediterranean Cost. The sacred salt spring of
Erechtheion must have had indeed, as ancient Greeks suggested, a hydraulic communication with the
Aegean Sea and a fresh-water--sea-water dynamic according to“the law of communicating vessels”: a
physical law which states that the fluid level of connected vessels aims to be equal.

 The sacred salt spring of Erechtheion was very likely a brackish or saline karstic spring, depending
on the season. Technically, brackish water contains between 0.5 and 30 grams of salt per litre. It is
actually characteristic of many brackish surface waters to have a variable salinity over space and/or
time. Supposedly in the summer the salinity of the sacred spring of Erechtheion was higher, while in
the fall-winter or after a heavy rainfall was lower.

Flow from the other brackish springs of Acropolis (like Clepsydra) was probably stronger in antiquity.
This may reflect climatic change, but is more strongly controlled by modifications to the geography of
the hill. In the past the presence of plants, soil and loose materials on top of the bedrock would have
retarded run-off so that the water could have time to be adsorbed. Recently, infiltration has been all but
eliminated by sealing all the open cracks and fissures on the hill with cement. This has been done to
reduce the rate of erosion, now enhanced by acid rain.
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