DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.656#0037
33
most ancient of the three, and is supposed by some, from this
circumstance, to have been the one alluded to by Herodotus as
dedicated to Jupiter Agoreus1. It has many striking peculiari-
ties, both in plan and detail, and presents many curious varieties
in the architecture of the ancients. It is hexastijlc peripteral,
with seventeen columns on the sides, a proportion, it is believed,
not to be found in any other ancient example. At the eastern
end are two rows of columns, forming a double portico, the
inner columns being on a line with, and between the third co-
lumns of the flanks. The pronaos or vestibule, without columns
or antae, is formed by a continuation of the side walls of the
cella, which return in front, on a line with the fifth columns of
the flanks, leaving a wide opening in the centre for the entrance.
The wall dividing this vestibule from the cella is of consider-
able thickness, allowing space for four steps, which conduct ti>
the cella, within which is another chamber, the adytum, or
serving perhaps as an opisthodomns or treasury. It is worthy
of remark, that in this temple the columns of the fronts are of
a greater diameter than those of the sides, and the interco-
lumniations are wider; a mode adopted for the purpose of cor-
recting, in some measure, the great disproportion, in reference
to other temples, of six columns on the fronts to seventeen on
the flanks. The columns are of heavy proportion, with a de-
cided entasis, and have only sixteen flutings ; the entablature is
heavy, and has a very remarkable peculiarity, the mutules over
the metopes being only half the width of those over the tri-
glyphs, and containing only half the number of gutta?. The
1 Herod, lib. v. Hi. It may lie here observed (bat Herodotus only mentions the Altar,
and not tlie Temple of Jupiter \pmcus, mid it is hardly probable tliat tbc ayaoa \vm
situated trithin the Acropolis.
i
most ancient of the three, and is supposed by some, from this
circumstance, to have been the one alluded to by Herodotus as
dedicated to Jupiter Agoreus1. It has many striking peculiari-
ties, both in plan and detail, and presents many curious varieties
in the architecture of the ancients. It is hexastijlc peripteral,
with seventeen columns on the sides, a proportion, it is believed,
not to be found in any other ancient example. At the eastern
end are two rows of columns, forming a double portico, the
inner columns being on a line with, and between the third co-
lumns of the flanks. The pronaos or vestibule, without columns
or antae, is formed by a continuation of the side walls of the
cella, which return in front, on a line with the fifth columns of
the flanks, leaving a wide opening in the centre for the entrance.
The wall dividing this vestibule from the cella is of consider-
able thickness, allowing space for four steps, which conduct ti>
the cella, within which is another chamber, the adytum, or
serving perhaps as an opisthodomns or treasury. It is worthy
of remark, that in this temple the columns of the fronts are of
a greater diameter than those of the sides, and the interco-
lumniations are wider; a mode adopted for the purpose of cor-
recting, in some measure, the great disproportion, in reference
to other temples, of six columns on the fronts to seventeen on
the flanks. The columns are of heavy proportion, with a de-
cided entasis, and have only sixteen flutings ; the entablature is
heavy, and has a very remarkable peculiarity, the mutules over
the metopes being only half the width of those over the tri-
glyphs, and containing only half the number of gutta?. The
1 Herod, lib. v. Hi. It may lie here observed (bat Herodotus only mentions the Altar,
and not tlie Temple of Jupiter \pmcus, mid it is hardly probable tliat tbc ayaoa \vm
situated trithin the Acropolis.
i