DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13851#0192
OP THE RELIGION OP GREECE.
in fields, others in rivers or fountains ; it was customary to dedicate the
temples in places most agreeable to the temper of the deities who should
inhabit them. Hence the people hoped for fruitful seasons, and all sort
of prosperity, wherever the temples stood. Hence Libanius makes heavy
complaints against the Christians, who demolished the pagan temples,
whereby, as he imagined, the fields became unfruitful, the temples being
the very life of the fields ; and the husbandmen, whose only confidence
for themselves, their wives, their children, their corn, their cattle, their
plantations was placed in temples, were miserably disappointed of their
expectations (1). The temples in the country were generally surrounded
with groves sacred to the tutelar deity of the place, where, before the in-
vention of temples, the gods were worshipped ; but when these could
not be had, as in cities and large towns, they were built amongst, and even
adjoining to, the common houses ; only the Tanagraeans thought this in-
consistent with the reverence due to those holy mansions of the gods, and
therefore took care to have their temples founded in places free from the
noise and hurry of business ; for which (2) Pausanias commends them.
Wherever they stood, if the situation of the place would permit, it was
contrived, that the windows being open, they might receive the rays of
the rising sun (3). The frontispiece was placed towards the west, and
the altars and statues towards the other end, that so they who came to
worship, might have their faces towards them ; because it was an ancient
custom among the heathens, to worship with their faces towards the east,
of which hereafter. This is affirmed by Clemens of Alexandria (4), and
Hyginus the freed-man of Augustus Caesar (5), to have been the most an-
cient situation of temples, and that the placing the front of temples towards
the east, was only a device of later ages. Nevertheless, the way of
building temples towards the east, so as the doors being opened, should
receive the rising sun, was very ancient (6), and in later ages almost uni-
versal : " almost all the temples were then so contrived, that the entrance
and statues should look towards the east, and they who paid their devo-
tion towards the west ;" as we are expressly told by Porphyry (7).
Thus the eastern nations commonly build their temples, as appears from
the temple of the Syrian goddess in Lucian, the temple at Memphis, built
by Psammenichus king of Egypt, in Diodorus the Sicilian, that of Vulcan,
erected by another Egyptian king, in the second book of Herodotus, and,
to mention no more, the temple at Jerusalem (8). If the temples were
built by the side of a river, they were to look towards the banks of it (9) ;
if near the highway, they were to be so ordered, that travellers might
have a fair prospect of them, and pay their devotions to the god as they
passed by.
Temples were divided into two parts, the sacred and profane ; the
latter they called to egw 5ts^i^|«vt^i'ov, the other to etfw, Now this T£f'£-
|avTj?£/ov was a vessel (usually of stone or brass) filled with holy water (10),
with which all those that were admitted to the sacrifices were besprink-
led, and beyond which it was not lawful for any one that was /3e£n*os, or
profane, to pass. Some say it was placed in the entrance of the "AtWov,
(1) Libanii Orat. pro. Templis.
(2) BcEotisis.
(3/ Vitruv. lib. iv. cap. 5.
(4) Strom, viii.
(5) De agrorurn limit, cons. lib. L
(6) Dionysius Thrax.
(7) Libro de antro Nympharum.
(8) Conf. hujus Archafologiae edit. Lat. p. 199.
200.
(9) Ibidem. (10) Suidas, Phavorin.
in fields, others in rivers or fountains ; it was customary to dedicate the
temples in places most agreeable to the temper of the deities who should
inhabit them. Hence the people hoped for fruitful seasons, and all sort
of prosperity, wherever the temples stood. Hence Libanius makes heavy
complaints against the Christians, who demolished the pagan temples,
whereby, as he imagined, the fields became unfruitful, the temples being
the very life of the fields ; and the husbandmen, whose only confidence
for themselves, their wives, their children, their corn, their cattle, their
plantations was placed in temples, were miserably disappointed of their
expectations (1). The temples in the country were generally surrounded
with groves sacred to the tutelar deity of the place, where, before the in-
vention of temples, the gods were worshipped ; but when these could
not be had, as in cities and large towns, they were built amongst, and even
adjoining to, the common houses ; only the Tanagraeans thought this in-
consistent with the reverence due to those holy mansions of the gods, and
therefore took care to have their temples founded in places free from the
noise and hurry of business ; for which (2) Pausanias commends them.
Wherever they stood, if the situation of the place would permit, it was
contrived, that the windows being open, they might receive the rays of
the rising sun (3). The frontispiece was placed towards the west, and
the altars and statues towards the other end, that so they who came to
worship, might have their faces towards them ; because it was an ancient
custom among the heathens, to worship with their faces towards the east,
of which hereafter. This is affirmed by Clemens of Alexandria (4), and
Hyginus the freed-man of Augustus Caesar (5), to have been the most an-
cient situation of temples, and that the placing the front of temples towards
the east, was only a device of later ages. Nevertheless, the way of
building temples towards the east, so as the doors being opened, should
receive the rising sun, was very ancient (6), and in later ages almost uni-
versal : " almost all the temples were then so contrived, that the entrance
and statues should look towards the east, and they who paid their devo-
tion towards the west ;" as we are expressly told by Porphyry (7).
Thus the eastern nations commonly build their temples, as appears from
the temple of the Syrian goddess in Lucian, the temple at Memphis, built
by Psammenichus king of Egypt, in Diodorus the Sicilian, that of Vulcan,
erected by another Egyptian king, in the second book of Herodotus, and,
to mention no more, the temple at Jerusalem (8). If the temples were
built by the side of a river, they were to look towards the banks of it (9) ;
if near the highway, they were to be so ordered, that travellers might
have a fair prospect of them, and pay their devotions to the god as they
passed by.
Temples were divided into two parts, the sacred and profane ; the
latter they called to egw 5ts^i^|«vt^i'ov, the other to etfw, Now this T£f'£-
|avTj?£/ov was a vessel (usually of stone or brass) filled with holy water (10),
with which all those that were admitted to the sacrifices were besprink-
led, and beyond which it was not lawful for any one that was /3e£n*os, or
profane, to pass. Some say it was placed in the entrance of the "AtWov,
(1) Libanii Orat. pro. Templis.
(2) BcEotisis.
(3/ Vitruv. lib. iv. cap. 5.
(4) Strom, viii.
(5) De agrorurn limit, cons. lib. L
(6) Dionysius Thrax.
(7) Libro de antro Nympharum.
(8) Conf. hujus Archafologiae edit. Lat. p. 199.
200.
(9) Ibidem. (10) Suidas, Phavorin.