Falkener, Edward: Ephesus and the temple of Diana (London, 1862)

THE CELEBRATED TEMPLE. 271

generally hypasthral, to denote that though the
statue was placed within the temple, the deity could
not be contained within Avails, but had its habitation
in the heavens. I then showed the existence of
the hypgethron by extracts from a number of an-
cient writers, and argued from the matter-of-fact
descriptions by Vitruvius, and by quotations and
anecdotes from other authors, and from actual
examples in the temples of Bassaa and ^Egina,
fragments of which were discovered by Professor
Cockerell, that this opening must have been a
central and horizontal opening in the ridge of the
roof. This opening being in the centre of the roof,
would constitute the cella of temples having this
arrangement hypgethral, under heaven; the cella
itself being called the hypasthron, while the hole in
the roof, from Itst\, an opening, being, as we find
in the case of the temple at Eleusis, called opaion.
This word oaraTov has two significations given to it
by Stephanus and other lexicographers,—" Foramen
per quod fumus ex furno aut camino exit," and
some temples, we knoAV, had altars inside for burn-
ing victims, and therefore would require such an
opening for the emission of the smoke,—and " fora-
men ollas." This latter signification is peculiarly
appropriate to the hypaathral opening of temples,
which being in the centre of the roof, would resem-
ble the position of the mouth of a vase, which is
evidently at its summit. But, independently of
these descriptions and of actual remains, I endea-