Stuart, James; Revett, Nicholas: The antiquities of Athens (Band 3) (London, 1827)

OF THE TEMPLE OF JUPITER OLYMPIUS.

81

i

present in great part demolished, but not so entirely as to prevent the measure of its sides (that facing
the south) from being perfectly ascertained.

We accordingly found it measure in length 680 feet 10tV inchesa from east to west, which is
considerably more than a stadium b, and renders it probable that the whole inclosure, surrounding this
area, measured four stadia, assigned by Pausanias to the peribolus of the Athenian temple of
Jupiter Olympius, and with the other particulars there recited, persuade me, that these Columns of
Hadrian are actually the remains of that templec, and of consequence that it stood south of the
Acropolis, on the northern bank of the Ilissus, near the fountain Caliirhoed.

The extreme length, from outside to outside of the buttress,
is 688 feet 6T% inches. [b.]

b Length of the peribolus including the walls 680. 10\ 5".
Breadth of ... . ditto .... 463. S\ 87.
Each of these dimensions being doubled will make the entire
circuit of the peribolus, which will be 2288 feet 8\ 74. On
Mr. Stuart's calculation of the Greek foot being equal to 12.0928
English inches, and 600 Greek feet making one stadium (equal
to 604 ft. 6' 4VV English), the whole circuit of this peribolus
will want 129 ft. 8X 86 of four stadia.

This is perhaps near enough to answer to the description of
Pausanias, and if any portico or portal projected from the peri-
bolus, which is the "case in the Stoa or Poikile, (" now called
the Pantheon of Hadrian,") it would bring the circuit still
nearer to the four stadia. In the above calculation, the length
of the peribolus is taken from the actual measures, and the
breadth is found, by supposing the space, from the flank to the
north wall, equal to that on the south side, which is most probable.

execution. It was, in fact, the largest temple ever raised in
Greece to the supreme Pagan divinity.

Stuart, who first described this temple as the Olympieum,
being little explicit regarding the history of it, we will here sub-
join some of the leading circumstances attending its construction.
It is probable that the earliest Athenian temple to Jupiter, of
which, from tradition, Pausanias has attributed the foundation
to Deucalion, was the first sanctuary raised at this spot, which, in
all probability, partook of the rudeness and absence of order cha-
racteristic of primeval architecture.

Pisistratus was the founder of the second temple, commenced
about 540 B. c.; and from the employment of four architects in
laying the foundations, it would seem to have been projected on a
scale correspondent with its subsequent extent, but according to
the style of architecture then chiefly cultivated in Greece, the order
of the structure was doubtless Doric. The works of the temple
were carried on by the sons of Pisistratus, but were discontinued
on the destruction of that family; and probably from a well found-

Mr. Stuart appears to have taken very great pains to discover cd enmity to those tyrants, an edifice undertaken by them, was
the true length of the Greek foot, from different measures of the suffered to remain a memorial of abortive enterprises: but from
temple of Minerva Parthenon, which, from its name Hecatom- the testimony of Aristotle it may be inferred that even then the
pedon, was supposed to contain a measure of one hundred feet structure (ofcwfywif) was an object of extraordinary admiration,
in some very conspicuous part/ LonS after the Pisistratidae and the factions opposed to them

As his calculations would be useless to the public, Mr. Reve- were no more, Antiochus Epiphanes refounded the temple of
ley has published only the result of his inquiries, which are as which the rums now surprise and delight us. Antiochus having
*ollows: heen a hostage at Rome, at that city probably, Cossutius the

The difference of the foot, taken > from various parts of the architect, became known to him, who was consequently employed

on this temple, of which, according to Vitruvius, he designed,
with great taste and science, the magnitude of the cella, the ar-
rangement of the columns of the dipteros, the distribution of the
architraves, and the symmetric introduction of the ornaments,
with Corinthian decorations and proportions. The temple ap-
pears to have been in a forward state when Svlla took Athens
by assault: he is recorded to have transported to Rome some of
the columns of it, for the decoration of the Temple of Capitoline
Mr. Reveley has added, Mr. Stuart not Jupiter; but it is probable that those columns belonged alone to

temple, is as follows :

• Length of the upper step in the front of the temple

gives for one foot..........12.1390

• Prom outside to outside of the angular columns . 12.095
J *™m centre to centre of the front columns . . . 12.09280

rom the Roman foot by my measure (Mr. Stuart's)

of the Obelisk of Sesostris......12.11551

°- Length of the architrave.........12.06250

This last measure _

supped tnd "°tiCe °f k' aS the hlSe™™ Monsieur Le Roy has
m'ght probablf rn S°me r6aS°n wh^ the len£th of the architrave
deducting twice "riT " hnmhei feet The measure is found by
architrave and that'6 flfference bctween the extremity of the
columns "fromthe 1 ° ?* bottom of the shaft of the angular
to no other inaccuracy? P°ken ofinNo- 2-": this will be liable
in the architrave not w • "*Wknty (which is not probable)
angular column as hp^Tf "lg so filr ueyond the centre of one

o The Earl of Alffi^J- J"* M

of a dipteral temple with eolum ^ thatj " Th

more than six feet and

the interior of the temple.

So magnificent an offering to the Olympian divinity was not
long suffered to remain at that age in a state of dilapidation and
abandonment. Suetonius says, that the kings in alliance with Au-
gustus, had resolved at their common expense to complete the
temple, and dedicate it to the Genius of that emperor. " Reo-es
amici atque socii, et singuli in suo quisque regno, Ciesarias urbes
condiderunt; et cuncti simul JEdem Jovis Olympii Athenis an-
tiquitus inchoatam perficere communi sumptu destinaverunt, Ge-
nioque ejus dedicare." At length however Hadrian, one of the
«una« composed of the purest marble most talented of the emperors, appropriated to himself the renown
height, cannot be described in\ '" dlaniet«, and sixty feet in of terminating and dedicating m person a temple, which had been

y .terms commensurate with the nearly 700 years in progress, which many sovereigns had vied i
^e orinin^l » rP,

trie ruins now

le remains

sensations excited by the view of tl, •----------- .......... --.-*-• , , , . . .- °---------- -v,

existing of this temple do not con, °neiIla1-" The ruins now attempting to complete, and on which is said to have been ex-
structure, which from the known dim™ * ""J* rart of the entire Pended 7'°88 ^1^" t,
of antinnitv *™l,Pn nf Iw w......,.nensions' of the great terrmles The state in which Ps

I great temples

or antiquity spoken of by Vitruvius nr^ ° -........r™ , , -i j i , ■

Diana at Ephesus,) to have surpassed alf^ (?XCePtiuS that of its splendour is thus described by him:-

nj><

Pausanias saw this temple at the acme of
escribed by him :-

6 U TO hffo MlM TOV Al05 TOT 'OXvfJ.7r',0Vt 'ALiau

nitude and magnificence, and in completeness0^1",8 b°th in ma^ W * • *

w t and Perfection of 0a<r*m "» « »»» *"Bt,«, xa, to ay^cc 9E'a? »|l0, oi ,«

o^iaiof

V[/.a.tu)i

Societv6 th 6 SUbJOi" the le"Sth and Wid'h °f *e larSest *empl,
7> «he magnitude of several of them has been **»„«.. ..

several of them has been Xw^SLS?0^ *** ta C0Dfonni,y *** GreCia" *' f''°m "* reSearCheS ** °" f°0t by the Dilettanti

1ENGTH IN FEET.

The Temple of Diana at Ephesns, aceordine to Pliny . • *®
TererapleofJup1ter0lympiusatAth^torlny_ . . 354
The Heraum at Samos . , 3ii >

The Temple of Apollo Didyrn^usnejji.,:,,.' ''.'.' 303.G
The Temple of Ceres at Eleusis . . 217

Plin. Nat. H

Tei"PleofJupit'eratAg]
VOL. in.

The Great Temple at Selinus

3G7
358

in Vol. IV.

Uned. Ant. of Attica, C. IV. PI. I,

WIDTH IN FEET.
820

171
166
164.5

178

165
172

Selinuntine

Sculpt

"res, Pi. I.

Description of
[ed.]