Pausanias, an ancient Greek traveler, describes the temple as one of the most remarkable temple in the Greek world. Its design was a reflection of the best trends of the fourth century architecture. The quality of the designs was very apparent in the columns with its rich and interesting details. (Norman, 1984, p. 172). The temple had Ionic columns and its external order was Doric, some of the columns were also of Corinthian origins (Gardner, 1906, p. 169). Several statues that depicts hunters, soldiers, gods and goddesses also filled the interior of the temple (Gardner, 1906, p. 171).

 

Inside the temple was the cult image of Athena Alea. It was made out of ivory and was one of the few statues that wasn’t destroyed by the fire in 395 BC. The statue itself was said to have been taken to Rome by Augustus during his reign. A small bronze statuette that was excavated was said to have been a model after the cult statue. Its presence suggests that Athena Alea may have been depicted as a standing, fully armed, war goddess. Another statue was of Athena Hippia, no one knows for certain what the statue looks like, the only information available was from Pausanias’ account of the statue. Records have shown that the statue was called ‘Hippia’ because Athena drove the chariot and horses during the battle of gods and giants. And due to the origin of its name it is assumed that the statue also depicts a war goddess (Norman, 1986, p. 425-426)

 

Other than being an epithet of the Goddess Athena, the temple was also considered to be a famous place of refuge. Herodotus and Pausanias wrote accounts of famous figures taking refuge in the temple. According to Pausanias, “Athena Alea’s sanctuary at Tegea was revered by the whole of the Peloponnese and afforded the surest protection to all who took refuge in it.” (Norman, 1986, p. 427).

 

In June 2009 archaeologists started planning on more excavations in the urban center of Tegea in order to further understand the early urbanization of the area.