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Temple F at
The temple has six columns at the front and fourteen on the flanks and represented a development of the very elongated archaic temple to a more balanced form which was becoming the norm on the Greek mainland as well, and foreshadowing the 2:1 intercolumniation ratio between the long and short sides. The colonnade contained a wider ''
Temple F at Selinus
Selinunte (; grc, Σελῑνοῦς, Selīnoûs ; la, Selīnūs , ; scn, Silinunti ) was a rich and extensive ancient Greek city on the south-western coast of Sicily in Italy. It was situated between the valleys of the Cottone and Modion ...
in Sicily
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is a Greek temple
Greek temples ( grc, ναός, naós, dwelling, semantically distinct from Latin , "temple") were structures built to house deity statues within Greek sanctuaries in ancient Greek religion. The temple interiors did not serve as meeting places, s ...
of the Doric order
The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of c ...
. It was probably dedicated to Dionysus
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Roma ...
or Athena
Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretism, syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded ...
and is one of the three temples on the East Hill. The temple's dating is very uncertain, but it probably belongs to the middle of the sixth century BC.
Description
The temple has six columns at the front and fourteen on the flanks and represented a development of the very elongated archaic temple to a more balanced form which was becoming the norm on the Greek mainland as well, and foreshadowing the 2:1 intercolumniation ratio between the long and short sides. The colonnade contained a wider ''pteron Pteron ( Gr. ''πτερον'' – ''pteron'' — ''wing'') is an architectural term used by Pliny the Elder for the peristyle of the tomb of Mausolus, which was raised on a lofty podium, and so differed from an ordinary peristyle raised only on a s ...
'' than usual in temples built in Sicily and, as a result, a rather narrow '' naos'' with an ''adyton
The adyton ( , 'innermost sanctuary, shrine', ) or (Latin) was a restricted area within the cella of a Greek or Roman temple. The ''adyton'' was frequently a small area at the farthest end of the cella from the entrance: at Delphi it measured j ...
'' at the rear and a ''pronaos
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...
'' with four columns. Except for those in the facade, the columns lack entasis
In architecture, entasis is the application of a convex curve to a surface for aesthetic purposes. Its best-known use is in certain orders of Classical columns that curve slightly as their diameter is decreased from the bottom upward. It also may ...
.
The intercolumniation of the peristasis was closed with high masonry barriers. The barriers are about half the height of the columns and were perhaps built in a second phase of construction, perhaps in order to transform the peristasis into a cultic area.Enzo Lippolis, Monica Livadiotti, Giorgio Rocco, ''Architettura greca: storia e monumenti del mondo della polis dalle origini al V secolo'', 2007, , p.835
In 1823, during excavations, two half metope
In classical architecture, a metope (μετόπη) is a rectangular architectural element that fills the space between two triglyphs in a Doric frieze, which is a decorative band of alternating triglyphs and metopes above the architrave of a bu ...
s carved in tufa were discovered, depicting Dionysus and Athena respectively. They are now kept in the Antonino Salinas Regional Archeological Museum in Palermo.
Notes