DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61301#0186
STUDIES IN GREEK ART.
156
west, about 650-600 B.C., as we have seen, and dedicated
most probably to the hero Herakles. These Selinus
temples are, one and all, of the Doric mode, simple
and solid. Round every Doric temple, above the
pillars, there runs a frieze or band composed of alternate
members, a square space, and three groovings ; these
combine alternately round the whole temple. The “three
groovings” arecalled by their simple Greek name triglyphs,
the spaces between, metopes, which means simply “space
between.” Their position is best understood by looking
at any model of a Doric temple, such as the model of the
Parthenon in the Elgin room of the British Museum.
Probably in very olden days, when temples were made
of wood, the metopes were left open, and were literally
“ spaces between,” and the triglyphs were the ends of
beams supporting the roof, but this is not certain. In
later times the metopes were filled in, and frequently
decorated with sculptured groups. How skilfully, in the
best period of art, the artist made use of these square
spaces we may see in the metopes of the Parthenon.
Our sculptures from Selinus are all metope sculptures,
and in the Museum at Palermo they are carefully placed
between alternate triglyphs. Not all the metopes were
sculptured ; indeed it was probably only where a city
was very rich that it could afford such expenditure of
labour as this would involve.
Of this earliest temple we have three metopes pre-
156
west, about 650-600 B.C., as we have seen, and dedicated
most probably to the hero Herakles. These Selinus
temples are, one and all, of the Doric mode, simple
and solid. Round every Doric temple, above the
pillars, there runs a frieze or band composed of alternate
members, a square space, and three groovings ; these
combine alternately round the whole temple. The “three
groovings” arecalled by their simple Greek name triglyphs,
the spaces between, metopes, which means simply “space
between.” Their position is best understood by looking
at any model of a Doric temple, such as the model of the
Parthenon in the Elgin room of the British Museum.
Probably in very olden days, when temples were made
of wood, the metopes were left open, and were literally
“ spaces between,” and the triglyphs were the ends of
beams supporting the roof, but this is not certain. In
later times the metopes were filled in, and frequently
decorated with sculptured groups. How skilfully, in the
best period of art, the artist made use of these square
spaces we may see in the metopes of the Parthenon.
Our sculptures from Selinus are all metope sculptures,
and in the Museum at Palermo they are carefully placed
between alternate triglyphs. Not all the metopes were
sculptured ; indeed it was probably only where a city
was very rich that it could afford such expenditure of
labour as this would involve.
Of this earliest temple we have three metopes pre-