Templesby Gkougkoutsi Maria

The Temple of Hephaestus

The Temple of Poseidon

LocationThe temple of

Hephaestus is situated at the north-west side of

the Agora of Athens.

HistoryThe temple was

dedicated to the ancient god Hephaestus, the patron saint of metal

working and craftsmanship. It was

destroyed by the Persians in 480 BC.

ArchitectureThe building has a pronaos, a cella housing cult images at the centre of the structure, and an opisthodomos. The alignment of the antae of the pronaos with the third flank columns of the peristyle is a design element unique middle of the 5th century BCE. There is also an inner Doric colonnade with five columns on the north and south side and three across the end (with the corner columns counting twice).(wikipedia)

ArchitectureThe decorative sculptures highlight the extent of mixture of the two styles in the construction of the temple. Both the pronaos and the opisthodomos are decorated with continuous Ionic friezes(instead of the more typical Doric triglyphs supplementing the sculptures at the pediments and the metopes. The frieze of the pronaos depicts a scene from the battle of Theseus with the Pallantides in the presence of gods while the frieze of the opisthodomos shows the battle of Centaurs and Lapiths. (wikipedia)

ArchitectureOnly 18 of the 68 metopes of

the temple of Hephaestus were sculptured,

concentrated especially on the east side of the temple;

the rest were perhaps painted. The ten metopes on

the east side depict the Labours of Heracles. The four easternmost metopes on

the long north and south sides depict the Labours of

Theseus.(wikipedia)

The Temple of Poseidon

The temple is situated in Cape Sounio, southeast

of Athens.

HistoryIt was dedicated to

Poseidon, the god of the sea. He was the second most important god after

Zeus.

HistoryThe first temple, built in the Archaic period, was

destroyed by Xerxes during the Greco-

Persian war. The temple whose ruins we see today was rebuilt by

Pericles around 440 BC.

Architecture

The design of the temple is hexastyle which means that it had a front portico

with six columns. Its architecture resembles

that of the temple of Hephaestus in the

Acropolis. It is rectangular with a collonade on all four sides. The white

marble columns are doric.