List of Ancient Greek temples
This list of ancient Greek temples covers temples built by the Hellenic people from the 6th century BC until the 2nd century AD on mainland Greece and in Hellenic towns in the Aegean Islands, Asia Minor, Sicily and Italy, wherever there were Greek colonies, and the establishment of Greek culture. Ancient Greek architecture was of very regular form, the construction being post and lintel.
There are three clearly defined styles: the Doric order, found throughout Greece, Sicily and Italy; the Ionic order, from Asia Minor, with examples in Greece; and the more ornate Corinthian order, used initially only for interiors, becoming more widely used during the Hellenistic period from the 1st century BC onwards and used extensively by Roman architects.
Each ancient Greek temple was dedicated to a specific god within the pantheon and was used in part as a storehouse for votive offerings. Unlike a church, the interior space was not used as a meeting place, but held trophies and a large cult statue of the deity.
Overview
Most ancient Greek temples were rectangular, and were approximately twice as long as they were wide, with some notable exceptions such as the enormous Temple of Olympian Zeus, Athens with a length of nearly 2 1/2 times its width. A number of surviving temple-like structures are circular, and are referred to as tholos.The smallest temples are less than in length, or in the case of the circular tholos, in diameter. The great majority of temples are between in length. A small group of Doric temples, including the Parthenon, are between in length. The largest temples, mainly Ionic and Corinthian, but including the Doric Temple of the Olympian Zeus, Agrigento, were between 90–120 metres in length.
Terminology
The temple rises from a stepped base which elevates the structure above the ground on which it stands. Early examples, such as the Temple of Zeus, Olympia, have two steps but the majority, like the Parthenon, have three, with the exceptional example of the Temple of Apollo, Didyma, having six. The core of the building is a masonry-built naos within which is a cella, a windowless room originally housing the statue of the god. The cella generally has a porch before it, and perhaps a second chamber serving as a treasury or repository for trophies and gifts. The chambers were lit by a single large doorway, fitted with a wrought iron grill. Some rooms appear to have been illuminated by skylights.On the stylobate, often completely surrounding the naos, stand rows of columns. Each temple is defined as being of a particular type, with two terms: one describing the number of columns across the entrance front using Greek numeral prefixes, and the other describing their distribution.
- Distyle in antis describes a small temple with two columns at the front, which are set between the projecting walls of the pronaos or porch, like the Temple of Nemesis at Rhamnus.
- Amphiprostyle tetrastyle describes a small temple that has columns at both ends which stand clear of the naos. Tetrastyle indicates that there are four columns, like those of the Temple on the Ilissus in Athens.
- Peripteral hexastyle describes a temple with a single row of peripheral columns around the naos, with six columns across the front, like the Theseion in Athens.
- Peripteral octastyle describes a temple with a single row of columns around the naos, with eight columns across the front, like the Parthenon, Athens.
- Dipteral decastyle describes the huge temple of Apollo at Didyma, with the naos surrounded by a double row of columns, with ten columns across the entrance front.
- The Temple of the Olympian Zeus, Agrigento, is termed pseudo-periteral heptastyle, because its encircling colonnade has "pseudo" columns that are attached to the walls of the naos. Heptastyle means that it has seven columns across the entrance front.
The list
Sorting behaviour :- Towns' alphabetical order
- Towns by region - Greece, Turkey, Italy
- By the deity’s name
- By date
- By area size
- By temple style
| Ancient place name | Modern place name Coordinates | Temple | Date | Dimens. | Notes | Images |
| Corinth | Temple of Isthmia | c. 690 - 650 BC | The date of the Archaic temple's construction establishes when monumental architecture began in Greece, as well as when the transition from Iron Age architecture to Doric occurred. This was also the point at which the Greek temple became a defined form. | |||
| Corcyra | c. 610 BC | |||||
| Corcyra | c. 580 BC | Doric "peripteral pseudodipteral" temple, which may be the earliest known to incorporate all the major elements of the Doric order. It is the earliest known Doric temple to have been built entirely in stone. | ||||
| Corcyra | Kardaki Temple | c. 510 BC | ||||
| Olympia | c. 590 BC | Doric peripteral hexastyle building with 16 columns at each side, being long for its breadth in the Archaic style of this date. The building was originally of wood and clay brick construction on a stone base, with the wooden external columns and internal hypostyle columns being replaced with stone piecemeal, so columns are greatly varied. | ||||
| Corinth | c. 540 BC | Doric peripteral hexastyle temple with 15 columns at each side with two inner chambers on a crepidoma of 3 steps. It was like the Temple of Hera at Olympia, but built entirely of stone. The columns were monolithic with seven of the original 38 surviving. The broad capitals were carved as separate pieces and coated with marble stucco. | ||||
| Delphi | c. 510 BC | Doric temple on the side of Mount Parnassus, had its legendary origins with the mythical hero architects Trophonius and Agamedes. This, the third temple on the site, is by Spintharus, Xenodoros and Agathon. with sculpture by Praias and Androsthenes, retained a hexastyle form with 15 columns at the sides from an earlier building, and was constructed of porous limestone. Little of the temple remains beyond its foundations. | ||||
| Aegina | c. 490 BC | Doric temple which commands a high point on the east side of the island of Aegina, from Athens. It has a peripteral hexastyle plan with 12 columns along each side, showing the development towards temples that were shorter for their width. The interior has a hypostyle in two stages. The Doric Order demonstrates great refinement throughout. Ceramic roof ornaments and pedimental sculpture showing the battle before Troy have survived. No metopes have been found, and it is thought that they were of wood. | ||||
| Olympia | c. 460 BC | Doric, architect: Libon of Elis. A refined peripteral hexastyle temple with 13 columns along each side, in the Classical manner. It had pedimental sculpture of "outstanding magnificence". The local limestone was covered with stucco, while the sculpture, tiles and gutters were marble with bronze acroteria. From 448 BC it housed a colossal chryselephantine statue of Zeus 12 metres high by Pheidias. | ||||
| Athens | 449 BC | approx. | A small Ionic temple, architect: Callicrates, beside the Ilissus River which ran through Athens. It was amphi-prostyle tetrastyle. It differed from the small temples and treasuries by builders from Asia Minor in having a frieze around the entablature. | |||
| Athens | 449 BC - 444 BC | ft |