DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29898#0289
Bk. III. Ch. II.
DORIC TEMPLES.
253
remainecl were pulled down or rebuilt. Tlie consequence is, that
nearly all the great temples now found in Greece were built in the
forty or fifty years which succeeded the defeat of the Persians at
Salamis and PlatEea.
One of the oldest temples of this class is that best known as the
Theseion or Temple of Theseus at Athens, now recognised as the
Temple of Hephaistos mentioned in the “Attica” of Pausanias. By
an analysis of the architectural character of the Temple Dr. Dorpfield
contends that it is posterior to the Parthenon and not anterior, as is
generally supposed.
Of all the great temples, the best and most celebrated is the Par-
thenon, the only octastyle Doric Temple in Greece, and in its own class
undoubtedly the most beautiful building in the world. It is true it
has neither the dimensions nor the wondrous expression of power and
eternity inherent in Egyptian temples, nor has it the variety and
poetry of the Gothic Cathedral; but for intellectual beauty, for perfec-
tion of proportion, for beauty of detail, and for the exquisite perception
of the highest and most recondite principles of art ever applied to
architecture, it stands utterly and entirely alone and unrivalled—the
glory of Greece and a reproach to the rest of the world.
Next in size and in beauty to this was the great hexastyle temple of
Jupiter at Olympia, finished two years later than the Parthenon. Its
dimensions were nearly the same, but having only six pillars in front
instead of eight, as in the Parthenon, the proportions were different,
this temple being 95 ft. by 230, the Parthenon 101 ft. by 227.
The excavations at Olympia, undertaken at the cost of the German
Government in 1876, not only laid bare the site of the Temple of
Jupiter, of which the lower frusta of half the column, the lower
portions of the walls of cella and nearly the whole of the pave-
ment was found in situ ; but led to the recovery of a great portion of
the sculptures which decorated the metopes and filled the pediments,
so that it is not only possible to restore the complete design of
the temple itself but to obtain a distinct idea of its sculptural
decoration. The foundations of other Doric temples were found; of
the Temple of Hera, which seems originally to have been a wooden
structure, the wood being gradually replaced by stone when from its
decay it required renewal.1 * 3 This temple was coeval if not more ancient
than that of Zeus; the interior of the cella would seem to have been
subdivided into bays or niches inside, similar to those of the Temple at
1 This refers only to the columns ancl
antaj; the lower portion of the walls,
3 feet 6 inches high, were in stone ; above
this clay hricks were employed in building
the walls, and it was to the disintegra-
tion of these that we owe the preservation
of the Hermes of Praxiteles, which was
found embedded in a thick layer of clay.
At first it was thought that this clay
liad been washed down from the neigh-
bouring slopes of the hill of Kronos.
DORIC TEMPLES.
253
remainecl were pulled down or rebuilt. Tlie consequence is, that
nearly all the great temples now found in Greece were built in the
forty or fifty years which succeeded the defeat of the Persians at
Salamis and PlatEea.
One of the oldest temples of this class is that best known as the
Theseion or Temple of Theseus at Athens, now recognised as the
Temple of Hephaistos mentioned in the “Attica” of Pausanias. By
an analysis of the architectural character of the Temple Dr. Dorpfield
contends that it is posterior to the Parthenon and not anterior, as is
generally supposed.
Of all the great temples, the best and most celebrated is the Par-
thenon, the only octastyle Doric Temple in Greece, and in its own class
undoubtedly the most beautiful building in the world. It is true it
has neither the dimensions nor the wondrous expression of power and
eternity inherent in Egyptian temples, nor has it the variety and
poetry of the Gothic Cathedral; but for intellectual beauty, for perfec-
tion of proportion, for beauty of detail, and for the exquisite perception
of the highest and most recondite principles of art ever applied to
architecture, it stands utterly and entirely alone and unrivalled—the
glory of Greece and a reproach to the rest of the world.
Next in size and in beauty to this was the great hexastyle temple of
Jupiter at Olympia, finished two years later than the Parthenon. Its
dimensions were nearly the same, but having only six pillars in front
instead of eight, as in the Parthenon, the proportions were different,
this temple being 95 ft. by 230, the Parthenon 101 ft. by 227.
The excavations at Olympia, undertaken at the cost of the German
Government in 1876, not only laid bare the site of the Temple of
Jupiter, of which the lower frusta of half the column, the lower
portions of the walls of cella and nearly the whole of the pave-
ment was found in situ ; but led to the recovery of a great portion of
the sculptures which decorated the metopes and filled the pediments,
so that it is not only possible to restore the complete design of
the temple itself but to obtain a distinct idea of its sculptural
decoration. The foundations of other Doric temples were found; of
the Temple of Hera, which seems originally to have been a wooden
structure, the wood being gradually replaced by stone when from its
decay it required renewal.1 * 3 This temple was coeval if not more ancient
than that of Zeus; the interior of the cella would seem to have been
subdivided into bays or niches inside, similar to those of the Temple at
1 This refers only to the columns ancl
antaj; the lower portion of the walls,
3 feet 6 inches high, were in stone ; above
this clay hricks were employed in building
the walls, and it was to the disintegra-
tion of these that we owe the preservation
of the Hermes of Praxiteles, which was
found embedded in a thick layer of clay.
At first it was thought that this clay
liad been washed down from the neigh-
bouring slopes of the hill of Kronos.