DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.791#0110
51
CHAPTER VII.
TEMPLE OF THEMIS.
The form of this temple is the simplest of those given to the sacred structures of the Greeks. A
variety of the species has already been described*: the subject of the present chapter differs from
it in having only one portico.
The situation of the building, almost in contact with the temple of Nemesis, has been noticed;
a circumstance equally difficult to be explained is the mode of its construction. The walls of the
cella are of the same kind of marble as the larger temple, but the columns and other parts of the
ornamental architecture are constructed with a soft porous stone.
The masonry of the walls is that kind termed by Vitruvius ince?ium, from the stones being
polygons with unequal sides. The joints in the exterior are made to fit with uncommon precision,
and the face was polished; the interior is rough, and the joints less carefully constructed: no
cement appears to have been used. Around the walls, below the soil, within the area of the
building, a number of iron nails were discovered; whence it would seem that they were originally
cased with wood.
A chair of white marble was placed in the portico on each side the entrance; that on the right
was dedicated to Nemesis and the other to Themis. According to the inscriptions on the top of
the backs they were severally consecrated by Sostratus, in the priestesships of Callisto and
Philostrates.
A statue six feet in height, wanting the head and arms, was found near the door-way: the style
of sculpture denoted an early period of the art. On digging below the pavement in this place
fragments of bones, and of bronze, together with spear-heads, and small lacrymal vases were
discovered. By removing some of the blocks with which the interior of the cella was encumbered
* Chapter V.
CHAPTER VII.
TEMPLE OF THEMIS.
The form of this temple is the simplest of those given to the sacred structures of the Greeks. A
variety of the species has already been described*: the subject of the present chapter differs from
it in having only one portico.
The situation of the building, almost in contact with the temple of Nemesis, has been noticed;
a circumstance equally difficult to be explained is the mode of its construction. The walls of the
cella are of the same kind of marble as the larger temple, but the columns and other parts of the
ornamental architecture are constructed with a soft porous stone.
The masonry of the walls is that kind termed by Vitruvius ince?ium, from the stones being
polygons with unequal sides. The joints in the exterior are made to fit with uncommon precision,
and the face was polished; the interior is rough, and the joints less carefully constructed: no
cement appears to have been used. Around the walls, below the soil, within the area of the
building, a number of iron nails were discovered; whence it would seem that they were originally
cased with wood.
A chair of white marble was placed in the portico on each side the entrance; that on the right
was dedicated to Nemesis and the other to Themis. According to the inscriptions on the top of
the backs they were severally consecrated by Sostratus, in the priestesships of Callisto and
Philostrates.
A statue six feet in height, wanting the head and arms, was found near the door-way: the style
of sculpture denoted an early period of the art. On digging below the pavement in this place
fragments of bones, and of bronze, together with spear-heads, and small lacrymal vases were
discovered. By removing some of the blocks with which the interior of the cella was encumbered
* Chapter V.