temples of hephaestus and poseidon by gkougkoutsi maria
TRANSCRIPT
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.