Portara on Naxos

The Portara is the entryway to an unfinished temple that was begun by the tyrant Lygdamis of Naxos in the Late Archaic period, around 530 BC. It stands 26 feet high and is located on an islet known as Palatia, which is connected to the north shore of Naxos by a man-made causeway. The islet is believed to be the place where Ariadne was abandoned by Theseus while she slept, after she helped Theseus escape the labyrinth and the Minotaur. In local lore, the Portara was thought to have been the entrance to Ariadne's palace. The islet was also traditionally believed to be the place where Dionysus, the god of wine, found the sleeping Ariadne, who would become his bride. This led to the hypothesis, now generally rejected, that the entrance belonged to a temple dedicated to Dionysus. The most recent scholarly interpretation proposes that the temple was dedicated to Apollo, because the entrance's unusual westward orientation aligns it with Delos, Apollo's birthplace.