KOURNO
Lakonia, Greece.
This site in the
peninsula of Maina, 18 km to the N of Cape Tainaron
and 570 m above sea level, can be reached by a two
and a half hour climb on foot from the small port of
Nymphi. It is not mentioned by any ancient author, and
its name in antiquity is unknown. The ancient establishment is 500 m from a plentiful spring near which a convent stands, in the place called Ta Kionia (The Columns).
It has never been systematically explored. The principal
buildings recognizable are two Doric shrines. The first,
peristylar, with a proportion of seven columns to six,
measures ca. 8.4 x 9.2 m on the stylobate. The second,
with two columns in antis, measures some 7 x 5 m. The
roofs bore a round acroterium. No inscription or sculpture allows us to guess to whom these shrines were dedicated. Some of the architectural fragments, above all the
capitals, are said to have been taken to Kythera in the
19th c. To the S of these shrines was doubtless a third
sanctuary. A cliff relief shows three figures, of which
two are still distinct: in the center, a woman holding a
cornucopia (Rome?) and to the left a standing warrior.
All around are the remains of several ancient buildings.
Everything appears to date from the Imperial period.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. Puillon-Boblaye,
Recherches géographiques . . . (1835) 89; Ph. Le Bas,
Voyage archéologique (1847-68),
Arch. Pélop. 2, pls. 1-11; A. M.
Woodward & E. S. Forster,
BSA 13 (1906-7) 253-55.
C. LE ROY