Author: G. Caratelli
Download article as .pdf: Novità sulla dedica ad Ercole del tempio dorico sull’acropoli di Cori

Despite the rich graphical and iconographic documentation produced over many centuries of surveys and excellent visits, the Doric temple, known as that of Hercules, on the acropolis of ancient Cora (modern-day Cori) still represents one of the least investigated and least known archaeological contexts of the Latin city. The dedication to Hercules itself, now conventional and generally accepted, although sometimes questioned, is actually an open archaeological issue. In fact, although this denomination appears in documentary sources as early as the mid-sixteenth century, the only argument in its support would be a doubtful epigraphic find, which occurred in the first half of the eighteenth century. In this paper, the author, based on a recent documentary survey carried out at the Central State Archive, presents two documents (one of which is signed by Rodolfo Lanciani), which remained curiously unpublished, attesting to the discovery near the temple of a bronze statuette of Hercules. This circumstance, together with a careful examination of all known archaeological documentation, finally allows us to re-establish on new and more solid bases the question of the identification of the guardian deity of the famous Doric temple.