DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4266#0079
OF THE TEMPLE OF APOLLO EPICUPJUS. II
rules of art were adhered to, with a species of superstitious veneration. We have examples of en-
gaged columns in the ruins of Agrigentum, but they are external, and no author assigns to them a
period so remote as that of the foundation of this temple.
The lateral door is another peculiarity, and can only be accounted for as perhaps affording an
easy access to the opisthodomus, in which were preserved some of the offerings, sacrificial utensils,
and statues, and thus allowing to the priests greater facility of ingress and egress, when the body of
the cella was occupied by a concourse of suppliants. The Parthenon at Athens and the Temple in
Egina afford a direct communication from the cella to the opisthodomus and posticum, but it was by
no means usual to pierce the wall of the posticum, so that the only access to the posticum was gene-
rally from the posterior portico of the peristyle. No indications were perceptible of holes to receive
a railing to inclose the pronaos or opisthodomus, a precaution adopted by the Greeks in several of their
temples.
In the posticum the angular columns are now wanting, but those remaining enabled us to
ascertain with great precision the length of the peristyle.
The blocks of stone that form the pavement remain entire, and are indicated by dotted lines.
This plan was measured by Mr. W. Jenkins, jun., and our fellow-traveller. With these gentle-
men I made the tour of the Peloponnesus, and by their active co-operation and indefatigable exer-
tions I am enabled to lay before the public the results of our united examination of the various anti-
quities of that interesting country.
PLATE III.
SOUTH ELEVATION RESTORED.
The four centre columns only of this front remain with their architrave. The shattered state
of the columns did not allow us to ascertain their entasis, and it was equally impossible to discover
whether the columns of the peristyles had an inclination inwards towards the walls of the cella.
Vitruvius says', " The bases being thus completed, we are to raise the columns on them. Those of
the pronaos and posticum are to be kept with their axes perpendicular, the angular ones excepted,
which, as well as those on the flanks right and left, are to be so placed that their interior faces
towards the cella be perpendicular. The exterior faces will diminish upwards as above mentioned.
Thus the diminution will give a pleasing effect to the temple." The axis of the columns of the
Parthenon, both on the flanks and on the fronts, as well as those of the temple in JEgina, and of
Concord at Agrigentum, have a considerable inclination inwards (a circumstance I am not aware
to have been before noticed), though not to such a degree as required by Vitruvius, and not con-
fined, as he directs, to the columns of the peristyles only.
The height of the pedimentb was acertained from one of the stones of the tympanum lying
among the ruins. We could not perceive any decisive indications to enable us to satisfy ourselves
whether the tympanum had been formerly filled with sculpture. The Greeks, in the Temples of Mi-
nerva and Theseus at Athens, and in that of .ZEgina, felt the necessity of sculpture in the pediments
to harmonize with the enrichment resulting from the combination of the capitals of the order, the
varied entablature, and the cornice of the pediment decorated with painted or sculptured ornament.
■> " Spiris perfectis et collocatis, columnar sunt medianae in actae." Lib. III. Cap. 3. The translation is from the recent and
pronao ct postico ad perpendiculum medii centri collocandse. elegant edition of Vitruvius by Mr. Gwilt.
Angulares autem, quseque e regione earum futurse sunt in lateri- b It would be interesting to examine the relative inclination of
bus icdis dextra ac sinistra, xiti partes interiores, quae ad parietes the pediment with the horizontal cornice in the various Greek
celiac spectant, ad perpendiculum latus habcant collocatum : ex- temples, and to ascertain the variation which took place in the
tcriores autem partes, uti dictum de earum contraetura, hie enim different styles and under peculiar circumstances. It is a cu-
crunt figursc compositions scdium contracture justa ratione ex- rious fact, that the sotfite of the mutule never follows the rake
of the pediment.
rules of art were adhered to, with a species of superstitious veneration. We have examples of en-
gaged columns in the ruins of Agrigentum, but they are external, and no author assigns to them a
period so remote as that of the foundation of this temple.
The lateral door is another peculiarity, and can only be accounted for as perhaps affording an
easy access to the opisthodomus, in which were preserved some of the offerings, sacrificial utensils,
and statues, and thus allowing to the priests greater facility of ingress and egress, when the body of
the cella was occupied by a concourse of suppliants. The Parthenon at Athens and the Temple in
Egina afford a direct communication from the cella to the opisthodomus and posticum, but it was by
no means usual to pierce the wall of the posticum, so that the only access to the posticum was gene-
rally from the posterior portico of the peristyle. No indications were perceptible of holes to receive
a railing to inclose the pronaos or opisthodomus, a precaution adopted by the Greeks in several of their
temples.
In the posticum the angular columns are now wanting, but those remaining enabled us to
ascertain with great precision the length of the peristyle.
The blocks of stone that form the pavement remain entire, and are indicated by dotted lines.
This plan was measured by Mr. W. Jenkins, jun., and our fellow-traveller. With these gentle-
men I made the tour of the Peloponnesus, and by their active co-operation and indefatigable exer-
tions I am enabled to lay before the public the results of our united examination of the various anti-
quities of that interesting country.
PLATE III.
SOUTH ELEVATION RESTORED.
The four centre columns only of this front remain with their architrave. The shattered state
of the columns did not allow us to ascertain their entasis, and it was equally impossible to discover
whether the columns of the peristyles had an inclination inwards towards the walls of the cella.
Vitruvius says', " The bases being thus completed, we are to raise the columns on them. Those of
the pronaos and posticum are to be kept with their axes perpendicular, the angular ones excepted,
which, as well as those on the flanks right and left, are to be so placed that their interior faces
towards the cella be perpendicular. The exterior faces will diminish upwards as above mentioned.
Thus the diminution will give a pleasing effect to the temple." The axis of the columns of the
Parthenon, both on the flanks and on the fronts, as well as those of the temple in JEgina, and of
Concord at Agrigentum, have a considerable inclination inwards (a circumstance I am not aware
to have been before noticed), though not to such a degree as required by Vitruvius, and not con-
fined, as he directs, to the columns of the peristyles only.
The height of the pedimentb was acertained from one of the stones of the tympanum lying
among the ruins. We could not perceive any decisive indications to enable us to satisfy ourselves
whether the tympanum had been formerly filled with sculpture. The Greeks, in the Temples of Mi-
nerva and Theseus at Athens, and in that of .ZEgina, felt the necessity of sculpture in the pediments
to harmonize with the enrichment resulting from the combination of the capitals of the order, the
varied entablature, and the cornice of the pediment decorated with painted or sculptured ornament.
■> " Spiris perfectis et collocatis, columnar sunt medianae in actae." Lib. III. Cap. 3. The translation is from the recent and
pronao ct postico ad perpendiculum medii centri collocandse. elegant edition of Vitruvius by Mr. Gwilt.
Angulares autem, quseque e regione earum futurse sunt in lateri- b It would be interesting to examine the relative inclination of
bus icdis dextra ac sinistra, xiti partes interiores, quae ad parietes the pediment with the horizontal cornice in the various Greek
celiac spectant, ad perpendiculum latus habcant collocatum : ex- temples, and to ascertain the variation which took place in the
tcriores autem partes, uti dictum de earum contraetura, hie enim different styles and under peculiar circumstances. It is a cu-
crunt figursc compositions scdium contracture justa ratione ex- rious fact, that the sotfite of the mutule never follows the rake
of the pediment.