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| Gela, Acropolis. Photo by Bruce M. White |
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Gela
Located on the southern coast of Sicily, Gela was settled about 692 BC by a joint expedition of Greeks from the islands of Rhodes and Crete. Named after the Gela River, the site of the city was probably selected for its large and fertile plain, where wheat grew abundantly and grassy fields nourished fine horses. Such resources allowed Gela to become wealthy, and in the 6th century BC, the city began to build impressive temples embellished with distinctive painted terracotta sculpture and revetments, exemplified by the treasury at the sanctuary of Olympia in mainland Greece.
The tumultuous political history of the city-state involved the reigns of the tyrants Kleandros, Hippocrates and Gelon, who, although at times ruthless, were also patrons of the arts. A culturally prominent region, Gela was the birthplace of Apollodoros a comic playwright of the 4th-century BC, and the Athenian tragic dramatist Aeschylus spent the last years of his life in the Greek colony, where he died in 456 BC. He may have worked on his great trilogy, the Oresteia, as well as other plays, while living in Gela.
This section includes some of the finest examples of painted terracotta sculpture from the Regional Archaeological Museum of Gela. Of special significance are the three recently discovered altars shown as a group in the exhibition.
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