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

272 TEMPLE OP DIANA.

voured to show, from the nature of the thing, that
the hypgethral opening had a sacred signification;
denoting that the deity, though present to the wor-
shippers at the time of sacrifice, was an inhabitant
of the heavens, and was able to communicate with
its temple through this opening, and that for this
purpose the opening must necessarily have been in
the centre of the roof. It was through this opening
that Apollo was said to leap down into his temple
at Delos; through this opening that a female, per-
sonating the moon, descended to the sleeping Endy-
mion, as described by Lucian in his life of the false
prophet Alexander ; and through this opening that
they threw down stones upon Antiochus Epiphanes
and his soldiers in the temple of Manea in Syria.
The hyptethron of the Greek temple, and the atrium,
(ai'#p<oi/,) of the Roman house, being each provided
with an opaion in the centre of the roof, took their
names respectively from this same fact. Finally, in
answer to the objections brought forward against
such an opening by reason of the admission of rain,
&c, I adduced passages discovered by Professor
Boetticher, by which that learned writer on architec-
ture proves that the opening was occasionally closed
with doors, and that even in fine weather it was pro-
tected by awnings.1

In reference to the awning of this particular temple,

1 An answer to this essay has been since put forward by-
Mr. Fergusson in a lecture before the Eoyal Institute of British
Architects, on the 18th of Novembei', 18C1, and published by them