DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.656#0033
Plate I.) is celebrated as ranking among the largest of the sa-
cred structures of antiquity, and is supposed, perhaps from that
circumstance, to have been dedicated to Jupiter Olympius. In
point of extent it nearly equals the great temple at Agrigentum,
sacred to the same divinity: in the arrangement of its plan, in
execution, and materials, it is infinitely superior1. It is octa-
style pseudo-dipteral2, with seventeen columns on the sides, and
there is every reason to suppose it to have been hypfethral.
The pronaos is formed by a portico of four columns in front,
with a projection of two, behind which are antas which have a pe-
culiar description of enriched capital. Three entrances conduct
' The following arc the relative dimensions of (licit temples :
Temple at Agiigcn(um. Temple at Sclinus.
Extreme length.........359 8................3G7 6
Do. breadth........173 11................160 11
The dimensions bring taken on the upper step.
Lower diameter of semi-columns .12 9 Lower diameter of columns .
- . C3 9 ................
Height of do. calculated from j
the remaining fragments . .J
It should be observed, that the- exterior of the great temple at Agrigentum had semi-
columns only, wliieli were attached to the walls of the eclia, thus leaving no external peri-
style, and the courses of their sliafts were formed by a nucleus or core, and several radiating
blocks. The columns of tiie great temple at Sclinus, on the contrary, Here all insulated,
and the courses of their shafts were formed by single blocks.
1 This temple has hitherto Wen supposed (o have formed an example of the diptcros,
but after a most minute and careful examination of the ruins, we ascertained most satisfac-
torily that the plan was psridh-d^ilrtal. Colonel Leake in his iiileivsting work, (he "Jour-
nal of a Tour in Asia Minor", remarks, that Vitruvius has informed us (hat Hermogencs
of Alahanda, the architect of the temple at Magnesia, was the inventor both of the pseudo-
diptcros and custylos, but, in regard to the former, his merit does not seem to have been
very great, as the Temple of Jupiter Olympius at Sclinus was constructed on the principles
of the pscuilo-dipt cms, long before the time of Hcrmogenes.
11
cred structures of antiquity, and is supposed, perhaps from that
circumstance, to have been dedicated to Jupiter Olympius. In
point of extent it nearly equals the great temple at Agrigentum,
sacred to the same divinity: in the arrangement of its plan, in
execution, and materials, it is infinitely superior1. It is octa-
style pseudo-dipteral2, with seventeen columns on the sides, and
there is every reason to suppose it to have been hypfethral.
The pronaos is formed by a portico of four columns in front,
with a projection of two, behind which are antas which have a pe-
culiar description of enriched capital. Three entrances conduct
' The following arc the relative dimensions of (licit temples :
Temple at Agiigcn(um. Temple at Sclinus.
Extreme length.........359 8................3G7 6
Do. breadth........173 11................160 11
The dimensions bring taken on the upper step.
Lower diameter of semi-columns .12 9 Lower diameter of columns .
- . C3 9 ................
Height of do. calculated from j
the remaining fragments . .J
It should be observed, that the- exterior of the great temple at Agrigentum had semi-
columns only, wliieli were attached to the walls of the eclia, thus leaving no external peri-
style, and the courses of their sliafts were formed by a nucleus or core, and several radiating
blocks. The columns of tiie great temple at Sclinus, on the contrary, Here all insulated,
and the courses of their shafts were formed by single blocks.
1 This temple has hitherto Wen supposed (o have formed an example of the diptcros,
but after a most minute and careful examination of the ruins, we ascertained most satisfac-
torily that the plan was psridh-d^ilrtal. Colonel Leake in his iiileivsting work, (he "Jour-
nal of a Tour in Asia Minor", remarks, that Vitruvius has informed us (hat Hermogencs
of Alahanda, the architect of the temple at Magnesia, was the inventor both of the pseudo-
diptcros and custylos, but, in regard to the former, his merit does not seem to have been
very great, as the Temple of Jupiter Olympius at Sclinus was constructed on the principles
of the pscuilo-dipt cms, long before the time of Hcrmogenes.
11