Temples

Olympia and Paestum Temples needed to know for Classical Civilisation AS Level

?
  • Created by: Alice
  • Created on: 11-05-12 17:11

Temple of Hera

Date: 600BC 

Order: Doric

Sanctuary: Olympia

Functions: Store offerings, treasure etc

Materials: Mud brick walls, originally wooden columns on stone foundations with terracotta tiles

Layout: 16 x 6, stylobate has 2 steps, spur walls

Decoration: Terracotta acoteria - painted

(http://www.visit-ancient-greece.com/image-files/olympia-hera-plan.png)

1 of 6

1st Temple of Hera

Date: 550 - 500BC

Order: Doric

Sanctuary: Paestum

Functions: Store offerings, treasure etc

Materials: Local sandstone

Layout: 18 x 9, pronaos has 3 columns, central row of columns in naos

Refinements: Very pronounced entasis

Decoration: carved patterns on underside of echinus, metopes (may have been painted), elaborate ionic moulding

(http://www.odysseyadventures.ca/articles/greektemple/paestum_temple_plan.png)

2 of 6

2nd Temple of Hera

Date: 460BC

Order: Doric

Sanctuary: Paestum

Functions: Store offerings, treasure etc house decorations

Materials: Local stone covered in stucco

Layout: 16 x 4, stairs (indicates more than one floor), 2 tier columns

Refinements: More subtler curvature of column profiles

Decoration: Frieze is complete with triglyph and metopes

3 of 6

Temple of Athena

Date: 500BC

Order: Doric

Sanctuary: Paestum

Functions: Store offerings, treasure etc

Materials: Local stone (sandstne and limestone) covered in stucco

Layout: 13 x 6, 6 ionic columns to form deeper porch, enlarged porch

Decoration: Painted terracotta on entablature, floral decoration, relief moulding

(http://www.greatbuildings.com/gbc/drawings/athena_plan.150.jpg)

4 of 6

Temple of Zeus

Date: 468 - 460BC

Order: Doric

Sanctuary: Olympia

Functions: Chryselephantine Zeus later addition

Materials: Limestone, imported marble for rood and sculptures

Layout: 13 x 6, 2 rows of 2 tier columns, largest doric temple in mainland greece at time of construction

Refinements: More subtle curvature of column profiles

Decoration: Both pediments decorated with stories (east - chariot race between Pelops and Oinomaos, west - battle between Lapiths and the Centaurs), external metopes plain but 12 above pronaos and opithodomos show Labours of Herakles

(http://www.visit-ancient-greece.com/image-files/olympia-zeus-plan.png)

5 of 6

The Parthenon

Date: 447 - 438BC

Order: Doric

Sanctuary: Acropolis

Functions: House to statue of Athene and store treasure

Materials: Local stone and pentelic marble

Layout: 17 x 8, narrow to provide space for central rooms, 6 doric columns to form a wide shallow porch, 2 rows of 2 tier columns, entry to 4th room adyton to store treasure

Refinements: Thinner, more elegant columns, with greater inward lean at corners on stylobate which is slightly curved to rise in centres of each side

Decoration: Both pediments decorated with local stories with twice as many figures as at Olympia Zeus, all 92 metopes carved with 4 stories probably representing triumph of Greek civilisation over Persian barbarism, Ionic frieze running full length of inside of peristyle showing Panathenaic procession

Mixing Doric with other orders: Ionice frieze and 4 ionic columns in adyton

(http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/Images/109images/greek_archaic_classical/parthenon/pre_parthenon_plan.jpg)

6 of 6

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar Classical Civilization resources:

See all Classical Civilization resources »