Ancient Temple of Athena

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The triple body from one of the pediments connected to the ancient Temple of Athena

The Ancient Temple of Athena was there until it was destroyed by the Persians in 480 BC. The cult building for Athena Polias, the city goddess of Athens on the Acropolis . Centrally located on the Acropolis, it rose on the remains of a Mycenaean palace complex. In addition to the foundations, numerous structural elements of the Doric order were found, which are associated with the temple and its various phases of construction.

Finding

The foundations were made of different materials and laid using different techniques. While the walls supporting parts and the inner structure consisted of the bluish Acropolis limestone, the foundations of the surrounding ring hall were made of Poros limestone. The structural members assigned to the temple as well as the architectural jewelry were not made uniformly from one building material: In addition to those made of Poros, there were numerous parts made of Parian marble.

Due to the different materials and work techniques to be observed, the building history of the temple was and is controversial. Wilhelm Dörpfeld divided the foundation into two construction phases: The core building must be significantly older than the surrounding ring hall. He assumed that initially around 570 BC The core structure was built in the form of a double-sided temple (or perhaps an amphiprostylus ), to which he assigned a number of older structural elements - the so-called "H architecture". In the Peisistratidic period, between 529 and 520 BC Chr., This building was surrounded by a ring hall to which he assigned a number of younger structural members.

"H architecture"

The "H architecture" is in the 1st half of the 6th century BC. Dated. Because of the size this building are assigned: eaves and sloping sima of Parian marble, columns capitals and Geison depicting flying birds from Poros limestone. The allocation of the following architectural sculptures is considered to be very likely due to the size and timing of the building: metopes made of Parian marble, the Poros gable with groups of lions fighting, in the left gusset of the east side Triton and Heracles , in the right gusset the “three-body”.

Dörpfeld's connection of this "H-architecture" with the core building of the foundation had to be ruled out later. Because the number of parts that have been preserved from the marble roof edge of the gable ends is so large that the building to which they belong must have been wider than the naos of the ancient Temple of Athena. It is therefore assumed that a hexastyle ring hall was already used for the construction of the "H architecture", to which a group of the aforementioned column capitals with their compact, wide-spreading Echinus can be assigned. There is some evidence that the "H-Architecture" belongs to an early predecessor of the Parthenon and not to the foundation of the Old Athena Temple. The question of where the "H architecture" once stood has not yet been conclusively clarified.

Ancient Temple of Athena

Foundations of the Ancient Temple of Athena (around 1909)
Stone plan of the foundations (Erechtheion in black)

The Old Athena Temple as an independently addressed architecture was built in the last quarter of the 6th century BC. The assigned building sculpture, which was probably made at the end of the construction period, was dated to around 510/500 BC. Dated. It is located on the entire Dörpfeld foundation.

The following are assigned to this building: entablature and sima made of Parian marble, Poros capitals with a steeper Echinus, two marble gables, marble frieze with procession, marble gargoyles of the four temple corners in the form of lion and ram heads. The gable groups, detached from the relief ground for the first time, represented a gigantomachy in the east and a lion fighting group with a bull in the west. Remains of Athena, Zeus and falling opponents have been preserved from the gigantomachy .

The following reconstruction was developed from the foundations and the assigned components for the construction: The temple was 21.30 × 43.15 meters in size and facing east. He had a ring hall of 6 × 12 columns . The column spacing was 4.04 meters on the front and 3.84 meters on the long sides; the column axes at the corners must have been narrowed by 0.31 meters each. The stylobate was slightly curved; Whether a consistently implemented curvature can be proven in this way remains uncertain. The outside of the core structure, known as the Naos , probably had the shape of a double-sided temple or perhaps an amphiprostyl , but this is less likely given the time. Two columns each stood between short antenna walls at the pronaos and opisthodom . The interior was - unusual for a Greek ring hall temple - divided into several rooms. In the east was a very short, almost square cella , which was divided into three naves by means of columns, presumably three columns each. To the west was a second, broad rectangular cella. In between there were two adjacent rooms.

History of the temple after the Persian invasion

The temple, which housed the old cult image of Athena Polias made of olive wood, which according to legend fell from the sky, was built in 480 BC. Destroyed by the Persians. It is controversial whether a temporary restoration of at least parts of the building took place. Herodotus mentions a megaron open to the west on the Acropolis, in which one would like to recognize the opisthodom of the temple, which is still in use and possibly mentioned in an inscription. According to Xenophon there was a fire in 406/405 BC The Old Athena Temple from, but this statement could also have related to the Erechtheion , which had taken over the function of the Old Athena Temple and contained the cult image of Athena Polias. From the 4th century BC There are no further mentions that could be related to the temple and Pausanias is completely unknown to it.

literature

  • Wilhelm Dörpfeld : The old Athena temple on the Acropolis of Athens . In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Athens Department . Vol. 10, 1885, pp. 275-277. Digitized
  • Wilhelm Dörpfeld: The old Athena temple on the Acropolis . In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Athens Department . Vol. 11, 1886, pp. 337-351. Digitized
  • Wilhelm Dörpfeld: The old Athena temple on the Acropolis II. III . In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Athens Department . Vol. 12, 1887, 25-61. Pp. 190–211 digitized version , digitized version
  • Wilhelm Dörpfeld: The Hekatompedon in Athens . In: Yearbook of the German Archaeological Institute . Vol. 34, 1919, pp. 1-40.
  • William Bell Dinsmoor : The Hekatompedon on the Athenian Acropolis . In: American Journal of Archeology . Vol. 51, 1947, pp. 109-151
  • Immo Beyer: The dating of the large relief gable of the old Athena temple of the Acropolis . In: Archäologischer Anzeiger . 1977, pp. 44-74.
  • Manfred Oppermann : From the image of Medusa to the birth of athena. On the myth of the Greek temple gable . Leipzig 1990, pp. 22-45.
  • William AP Childs: The Date of the Old Temple of Athena on the Athenian Acropolis . In: William DE Coulson et al. a. (Ed.): The Archeology of Athens and Attica under the Democracy. Proceedings of an International Conference celebrating 2500 years since the birth of democracy in Greece, held at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, December 4-6, 1992 . Oxford 1994, pp. 1-6.
  • Manolis Korres : The Temple of Athena on the Acropolis . In: Wolfram Hoepfner (Ed.): Cult and cult buildings on the Acropolis. International symposium from July 7th to 9th, 1995 in Berlin . Berlin 1997, pp. 218-243.
  • Gloria Ferrari: The Ancient Temple on the Acropolis at Athens . In: American Journal of Archeology . Vol. 106, 2002, pp. 11-35.
  • Konstantin Kissas: Archaic architecture of the Athens Acropolis. Roof tiles - metopes - geisa - acroter bases . Archäologische Forschungen Vol. 24, Reichert Verlag, Wiesbaden 2008. - Review Aenne Ohnesorg , in: Göttinger Forum für Altertumswwissenschaft 13 (2010), pp. 1151–1164 online
  • Katja Winger: "Like the lioness with a shaggy mane." Studies on the ancient lion image , Saarbrücken 2013, ISBN 978-3-639-48844-9 , pp. 41–44.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wilhelm Dörpfeld: The old Athena temple on the Acropolis . In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Athens Department . Vol. 11, 1886, pp. 337-51; Wilhelm Dörpfeld: The old Athena temple on the Acropolis II . In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Athens Department . Vol. 12, 1887, pp. 25-61. 190-211; Wilhelm Dörpfeld: The Hekatompedon in Athens . In: Yearbook of the German Archaeological Institute . Vol. 34, 1919, pp. 1-40.
  2. ^ Rejecting: Manolis Korres: The Athena Temple on the Acropolis . In: Wolfram Hoepfner (Ed.): Cult and cult buildings on the Acropolis. International symposium from July 7th to 9th, 1995 in Berlin . Berlin 1997, pp. 218–243 following: William B. Dinsmoor: The Hekatompedon on the Athenian Acropolis . In: American Journal of Archeology . Vol. 51, 1947, pp. 109-151.
  3. ^ Walter Herwig Schuchhardt: The Sima of the old Athena temple of the Acropolis , In: Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologische Institut, Athenische Department 60/61, 1935/36, p. 63.
  4. ↑ Manolis Korres: The Athena Temple on the Acropolis . In: Wolfram Hoepfner (Ed.): Cult and cult buildings on the Acropolis. International symposium from July 7th to 9th, 1995 in Berlin . Berlin 1997, pp. 218-243.
  5. ^ Aenne Ohnesorg, in: Göttinger Forum für Altertumswwissenschaft 13, 2010, p. 1163.
  6. ^ William AP Childs: The Date of the Old Temple of Athena on the Athenian Acropolis . In: William DE Coulson et al. a. (Ed.): The Archeology of Athens and Attica under the Democracy. Proceedings of an International Conference celebrating 2500 years since the birth of democracy in Greece, held at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, December 4-6, 1992 . Oxford 1994, pp. 1-6; as early as 550 BC BC: Manolis Korres: The Athena temple on the Acropolis . In: Wolfram Hoepfner (Ed.): Cult and cult buildings on the Acropolis. International symposium from July 7th to 9th, 1995 in Berlin . Berlin 1997, pp. 218-243.
  7. ↑ Herodotus 5:77.
  8. ^ Inscriptiones Graecae I² 91/92.
  9. ↑ Xenophon, Hellenika 1, 6, 1.