Dying Warrior From the East Pediment of the Temple of Aphaia and Modern Art

Aboriginal Greek temple

Temple of Aphaia

Ναός Αφαίας (in Greek)
Temple of Aphaia from the southeast.
Shown within Greece
Location	Agia Marina, Attica, Greece
Region	Saronic Gulf
Coordinates	37°45′fifteen″N 23°32′00″E  /  37.75417°N 23.53333°Due east  / 37.75417; 23.53333 Coordinates: 37°45′15″N 23°32′00″E  /  37.75417°N 23.53333°E  / 37.75417; 23.53333
Type	Aboriginal Greek temple
Length	eighty m (260 ft)
Width	fourscore m (260 ft)
Area	640 m2 (vi,900 sq ft)
History
Founded	Circa 500 BC
Periods	Archaic Greek to Hellenistic
Satellite of	Aegina, then Athens
Site notes
Status	Erect with collapsed roof
Ownership	Public
Management	26th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities
Public access	Yep
Website	Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism

The Temple of Aphaia (Greek: Ναός Αφαίας) or Afea ^[1] is located within a sanctuary complex dedicated to the goddess Aphaia on the Greek island of Aigina, which lies in the Saronic Gulf. Formerly known as the Temple of Jupiter Panhellenius, the peachy Doric temple is at present recognized as defended to the female parent-goddess Aphaia. It was a favourite of the Neoclassical and Romantic artists such as J. M. W. Turner. Information technology stands on a c. 160 m peak on the eastern side of the island approximately 13 km e by road from the main port.^[2]

Aphaia (Greek Ἀφαία ) was a Greek goddess who was worshipped exclusively at this sanctuary. The extant temple of c. 500 BC was congenital over the remains of an earlier temple of c. 570 BC, which was destroyed by fire c. 510 BC. Elements of this older temple were buried in the infill for the larger, flat terrace of the later on temple, and are thus well preserved. Abundant traces of paint remain on many of these buried fragments. There may have been another temple in the 7th century BC, too located on the same site, simply information technology is thought to accept been much smaller and simpler in terms of both plan and execution. Significant quantities of Late Bronze Age figurines accept been discovered at the site, including proportionally large numbers of female figurines (kourotrophoi), indicating – perhaps – that cult activity at the site was continuous from the 14th century BC, suggesting a Minoan connection for the cult.^[3] The terminal temple is of an unusual program and is also pregnant for its pedimental sculptures, which are thought to illustrate the change from Archaic to Early on Classical technique. These sculptures are on display in the Glyptothek of Munich, with a number of fragments located in the museums at Aigina and on the site itself.^[4]

Exploration and archaeology [edit]

The periegetic author Pausanias briefly mentions the site in his writings of the 2nd century Advertising, but does not describe the sanctuary in detail as he does for many others.^[5] The temple was fabricated known in Western Europe by the publication of the Antiquities of Ionia (London, 1797). In 1811, the young English language builder Charles Robert Cockerell, finishing his education on his academic Grand Tour, and Businesswoman Otto Magnus von Stackelberg removed the fallen fragmentary pediment sculptures. On the recommendation of Baron Carl Haller von Hallerstein, who was too an architect and, moreover, a protégé of the art patron Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, the marbles were shipped abroad and sold the following year to the Crown Prince, presently to be King Ludwig I of Bavaria. Minor excavations of the e peribolos wall were carried out in 1894 during reconstruction of the last temple.

Systematic excavations at the site were carried out in the 20th century past the German Schoolhouse in Athens, at first nether the direction of Adolf Furtwängler. The area of the sanctuary was defined and studied during these excavations. The area under the last temple could not be excavated, however, because that would have harmed the temple. In addition, pregnant remains from the Bronze Age were detected in pockets in the rocky surface of the loma. From 1966 to 1979, an all-encompassing second German excavation under Dieter Ohly was performed, leading to the discovery in 1969 of substantial remains of the older Primitive temple in the make full of the later terrace walls. Ernst-Ludwig Schwandner and Martha Ohly were as well associated with this dig, which continued afterward the death of Dieter Ohly until 1988. Sufficient remains were recovered to allow a complete architectural reconstruction of the structure to be extrapolated; the remains of the entablature and pediment of one cease of the older temple have been reconstructed in the on-site museum.

Phases of the sanctuary [edit]

External video
smARThistory - East and West Pediments, Temple of Aphaia, Aegina[half-dozen]

The sanctuary of Aphaia was located on the top of a hill c. 160 m in acme at the northeast point of the island. The final form of the sanctuary covered an area of c. 80 by 80 m; earlier phases were less extensive and less well defined.

Bronze Age stage [edit]

In its earliest phase of utilise during the Bronze Historic period, the eastern area of the hilltop was an unwalled, open-air sanctuary to a female person fertility and agricultural deity.^[3] Bronze Age figurines outnumber remains of pottery. Open vessel forms are too at an unusually loftier proportion versus closed vessels. At that place are no known settlements or burials in the vicinity, arguing against the remains being due to either usage. Large numbers of small pottery chariots and thrones and miniature vessels have been found. Although there are scattered remains dating to the Early on Statuary Age such equally 2 seal stones, remains in significant quantities begin to be deposited in the Heart Bronze Age, and the sanctuary has its peak use in the LHIIIa2 through LHIIIb periods. It is less like shooting fish in a barrel to trace the cult through the Sub-Mycenean flow and into the Geometric where cult activity is one time more reasonably certain.

Late Geometric phase [edit]

Furtwängler proposes three phases of building at the sanctuary, with the earliest of these demonstrated by an altar at the eastern end dating to c. 700 BC. Also securely known are a cistern at the northeast extremity and a construction identified as a treasury east of the propylon (entrance) of the sanctuary. The temple corresponding to these structures is proposed to be nether the later temples and thus non able to exist excavated. Furtwängler suggests that this temple is the oikos (house) referenced in a mid-7th-century BC inscription from the site every bit having been built past a priest for Aphaia; he hypothesizes that this firm of the goddess (temple) was built of stone socles topped with mudbrick upper walls and wooden entablature.^[7] The top of the colina was slightly modified to make it more level past wedging stones into the crevices of the stone.

Primitive phase (Aphaia Temple I) [edit]

Reconstructed entablature and pediment of the Temple of Aphaia I in the on-site museum.

Ohly detected a (stone socle and mudbrick upper level) peribolos wall enclosing an area of c. 40 by 45 m dating to this stage. This peribolos was not aligned to the axis of the temple. A raised and paved platform was built to connect the temple to the altar. There was a propylon (formal entrance gate) with a wooden superstructure in the southeast side of the peribolos. A 14 chiliad alpine cavalcade topped by a sphinx was at the northeast side of the sanctuary. The full study and reconstruction of the temple was done by Schwandner, who dates information technology to earlier 570 BC. In his reconstruction, the temple is prostyle-tetrastyle in plan, and has a pronaos and – significantly – an adyton at the dorsum of the cella.

As is the instance at the temples of Artemis at Brauron and Aulis (amongst others), many temples of Artemis have such back rooms, which may point a similarity of cult practise.^[8] The cella of the temple of Aphaia had the unusual feature of having 2 rows of two columns supporting another level of columns that reached the roof. The architrave of this temple was constructed in two courses, giving information technology a pinnacle of ane.19 yard versus the frieze height of 0.815 thousand; this proportion is unusual among temples of the region, simply is known from temples in Sicily. A triglyph and metope frieze is also placed along the within of the pronaos.^[9] These metopes were apparently undecorated with sculpture, and there is no prove of pedimental sculpture. This temple and much of the sanctuary was destroyed by fire around 510 BC.

Late Archaic Phase (Aphaia Temple Ii) [edit]

View east from the opisthodomos of the Temple of Aphaia 2 showing the colonnades of the cella.

Construction of a new temple commenced soon after the destruction of the older temple. The remains of the destroyed temple were removed from the site of the new temple and used to fill a c. xl by 80 m terrace within the overall sanctuary of c. 80 past fourscore g. This new temple terrace was aligned on n, due west, and south with the plan of the new temple. The temple was a hexastyle peripteral Doric order structure on a 6 by 12 column plan resting on a fifteen.5 past 30.five m platform; it had a distyle in antis cella with an opisthodomos and a pronaos.^[10] All but three of the outer columns were monolithic. There was a small, off-axis doorway betwixt the cella and the opisthodomos. In similar design merely more than monumental execution than the earlier temple, the cella of the new temple had two rows of five columns, supporting another level of columns that reached to roof. The corners of the roof were decorated with sphinx acroteria, and the primal, vegetal acroterion of each side had a pair of kore statues standing one on either side, an unusual characteristic. The antefixes were of marble, every bit were the roof tiles.

Doric frieze and horizontal geisa of the Temple of Aphaia II showing slotted triglyphs.

Dates ranging from 510 to 470 BC have been proposed for this temple. Bankel, who published the complete written report of the remains, compares the design features of the structure with 3 structures that were well-nigh contemporaries:

• The Athenian Treasury at Delphi
• The Doric Temple in the Marmaria expanse of Delphi
• The temple of Artemis at Delion on Paros

Bankel says the temple of Aphaia is more than adult than the earlier phase of this structure, giving it a date of around 500 BC. The metopes of this temple, which were not establish, were slotted into the triglyph blocks and attached to backer blocks with swallowtail clamps. If they were wooden, their lack of preservation is to be expected. If they were stone, and then they may have been removed for the ancient antiquities market while the structure was all the same continuing.^[xi] The chantry was redone for this phase as well.

If still in apply by the 4th-century, the temple would accept been closed during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire.

Pedimental sculptures [edit]

Sculpture of a warrior from the e pediment of the Temple of Aphaia II.

The marbles from the Late Archaic temple of Aphaia, comprising the sculptural groups of the east and west pediments of the temple, are on display in the Glyptothek of Munich, where they were restored by the Danish neoclassic sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. These works exerted a formative influence on the local grapheme of Neoclassicism in Munich, as exhibited in the compages of Leo von Klenze. Each pediment centered on the figure of Athena, with groups of combatants, fallen warriors, and artillery filling the decreasing angles of the pediments. The theme shared by the pediments was the greatness of Aigina as shown past the exploits of its local heroes in the two Trojan wars, i led by Heracles against Laomedon and a second led past Agamemnon confronting Priam. Co-ordinate to the standard myths, Zeus raped the nymph Aigina, who bore the starting time king of the isle, Aiakos. This male monarch had the sons Telamon (father of the Homeric hero Ajax) and Peleus (male parent of the Homeric hero Achilles). The sculptures preserve extensive traces of a complex paint scheme, and are crucial for the study of painting on aboriginal sculpture. The marbles are finished even on the back surfaces of the figures, despite the fact that these faced the pediment and were thus not visible.

Sculpture of a warrior from the west pediment of the Temple of Aphaia II.

Ohly had contended that in that location were four total pedimental groups (2 complete sets of pediments for the east and w sides of the temple); Bankel uses the architectural remains of the temple to debate that there were only three pedimental groups; after in his life, Ohly came to believe that there were simply 2, which was shown persuasively by Eschbach.^[12] There were shallow cuttings and many dowels used to secure the plinths of the sculptures of the west pediment (the back of the temple). The due east pediment used deep cuttings and fewer dowels to secure the plinths of the statues. There were likewise a number of geison blocks that had shallow cuttings and many dowels like the due west pediment, but that did not fit there. Bankel argues that sculptures were attack both the east and the west pediments with these shallow cuttings, only that the sculptures of the east pediment were removed (along with the geison blocks cutting to receive them) and replaced with a different sculptural grouping. This replacement appears to accept been carried out before the raking geisa were installed on the due east pediment, since the corner geisa were not cutting downwards to bring together to the raking geisa: i.e. the 1st phase of the east pediment was replaced with the second phase before that end of the temple was completed. As the eastern facade of the temple (the front) was the most important visually, it is not surprising that the builders would cull to focus additional efforts on it.

Eastern pediment [edit]

Colourful reconstruction of the Eastern pediment

Aphaia east pediments in the Glyptothek as information technology is now

The starting time Trojan war, not the one described by Homer only the war of Heracles against the rex of Troy Laomedon is the theme, with Telamon figuring prominently as he fights alongside Heracles against rex Laomedon. This pediment is thought to be later than the due west pediment and to show a number of features appropriate to the Classical period: the statues evidence a dynamic posture particularly in the example of Athena, chiastic composition, and intricate filling of the infinite using the legs of fallen combatants to fill the difficult decreasing angles of the pediment. Function of the eastern pediment was destroyed during the Persian Wars, possibly past a thunderbolt. The statues that survived were prepare in the sanctuary enclosure, and those that were destroyed, were buried co-ordinate to the ancient custom. The former composition was replaced past a new ane with a scene of a battle, again with Athena at the centre.^[13]

Western pediment [edit]

The Western pediment in the Glyptothek every bit it is now

The second Trojan war – the ane described by Homer – is the theme, with Ajax (son of Telamon) figuring prominently. The style of these sculptures is that of the Archaic period. The composition deals with the decreasing angles of the pediment by filling the space using a shield and a helmet.

See also [edit]

• Greek temple
• List of Aboriginal Greek temples
• Ancient Greek architecture

References [edit]

1. ^ The name Afea appears on all the local signs, Afea being the name of a Cretan woman of unsurpassed beauty. Subsequently escaping an unwelcome marriage on Crete, she was rescued by a fisherman from Aegina. In payment for this he also proposed an unwelcome marriage. So Afea headed out of Aghia Marina towards the mountain top where she vanished at the current site of the temple, where information technology is said that the fisherman established a shrine assertive Afea to have been taken by the gods.
2. ^ The chief port and the main city are named Aigina, after the island. The Temple of Aphaia is nine.6 km east of this city. The sanctuary is also 29.five km southwest of the Acropolis of Athens, which is visible across the gulf on a clear day.
3. ^ ^{a b} Pilafidis-Williams argues that the character and relative proportions of the finds leads to the conclusion that the deity worshipped was a female person fertility/agricultural goddess.
4. ^ The important Bronze Age archaeological site of Kolona is northwest of Aigina (the primary city) along the coast, and a museum is located at this site. The museum at Aigina was the starting time establishment of its kind in Greece, but most of the drove (other than a collection of bas relief panels from Delos) was transferred to Athens in 1834 (EB), where information technology tin exist seen in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. The museum on the site contains a restoration of the Early on Archaic temple entablature and pediment, also as copies of elements of the pedimental sculpture of the Late Archaic temple set into restored sections of the pediment.
5. ^ Description of Greece 2.thirty.3

   On Aigina as ane goes toward the mountain of Pan-Greek Zeus, the sanctuary of Aphaia comes up, for whom Pindar composed an ode at the behest of the Aeginetans. The Cretans say (the myths almost her are native to Crete) that Euboulos was the son of Karmanor, who purified Apollo of the killing of the Python, and they say that Britomaris was the girl of Zeus and Karme (the daughter of this Euboulos). She enjoyed races and hunts and was specially dear to Artemis. While fleeing from Minos, who lusted after her, she cast herself into nets bandage for a catch of fish. Artemis made her a goddess, and not just the Cretans but likewise the Aeginetans reverence her. The Aeginetans say that Britomaris showed herself to them on their island. Her epithet amid the Aeginetans is Aphaia, and it is Diktynna on Crete.

6. ^ "East and Westward Pediments, Temple of Aphaia, Aegina". smARThistory at Khan Academy. Retrieved December 17, 2012.
7. ^ Ohly disputes that there is sufficient evidence for this oikos structure.
8. ^ Hollinshead disputes that there is sufficient evidence for the presence of an adyton in this temple, and she questions whether similarity of form among temples of Artemis must indicate similarity of cult practice. This feature was not retained in the late Archaic temple, and then its centrality to the cult exercise is open up to question.
9. ^ Schwandner wants this placement to abnegate the thought that triglyphs are meant to stand for the ends of wooden beams.
10. ^ The use of the 6 by 12 plan of the Late Archaic menses soon gave way to the Classical period preference for the proportions of the half dozen by 13 programme and similar.
11. ^ Bankel notes that c. lxxx% of the triglyph blocks were damaged in a mode consistent with intentional breakage to remove the metopes.
12. ^ N. Eschbach, Die archaische Form in nacharchaischer Zeit: Untersuchungen zu Phänomenen der archaistischen Plastik des five. und iv. Jhs. v. Chr." Unpublished Habilitationschrift, University of Giessen.
13. ^ Leaflet "The Sanctuary of Aphaia on Aegina", Greek Ministry of Civilisation, Archaeological Receipts Fund, Athens 1998.

Sources [edit]

• Bankel, Hansgeorg. 1993. Der spätarchaische Tempel der Aphaia auf Aegina. Denkmäler antiker Architektur 19. Berlin; New York: W. de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110128086.
• Cartledge, Paul, Ed., 2002. The Cambridge Illustrated History of Ancient Greece, Cambridge Academy Press, p. 273.
• Cook, R. One thousand. 1974. The Dating of the Aegina Pediments. Journal of Hellenic Studies, 94 pp. 171. doi:ten.2307/630432
• Diebold, William J. 1995. "The Politics of Derestoration: The Aegina Pediments and the German language Confrontation with the Past." Art Journal, 54, no2 pp. 60–66.
• Furtwängler, Adolf, Ernst R. Fiechter and Hermann Thiersch. 1906. Aegina, das Heiligthum der Aphaia. München: Verlag der K. B. Akademie der wissenschaften in Kommission des G. Franz'schen Verlags (J. Roth).
• Furtwängler, Adolf. 1906. Die Aegineten der Glyptothek König Ludwigs I, nach den Resultaten der neuen Bayerischen Ausgrabung. München: Glyptothek: in Kommission bei A. Buchholz.
• Glancey, Jonathan, Architecture, Doring Kindersley, Ltd.:2006, p. 96.
• Invernizzi, Antonio. 1965. I frontoni del Tempio di Aphaia advertizement Egina. Torino: Giappichelli.
• Ohly, Dieter. 1977. Tempel und Heiligtum der Aphaia auf Ägina. München: Beck.
• Pilafidis-Williams, Korinna. 1987. The Sanctuary of Aphaia on Aigina in the Bronze Age. Munich: Hirmer Verlag. ISBN 9783777480107
• Schildt, Arthur. Die Giebelgruppen von Aegina. Leipzig : [H. Meyer], 1895.
• Schwandner, Ernst-Ludwig. 1985. Der ältere Porostempel der Aphaia auf Aegina. Berlin: Westward. de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110102796.
• Webster, T. B. L. 1931. "The Temple of Aphaia at Aegina," Journal of Hellenic Studies, 51: 2, pp. 179–183.

External links [edit]

• Official website
• Pedimental Sculpture
• Temple of Aphaia Photographs
• (Hellenic Ministry building of Culture) Archaeological site of Aphaia on Aigina
• German Wikipedia page for Dieter Ohly
• Ferdinand Pajor, "Cockerell and the 'G Tour'"
• Perseus website: "Aegina, Temple of Aphaia" Extensive photo repertory
• Adolf Furtwängler on the temple's polychromy, 1906
• Reconstruction of the polychrome Western Pediment
• The Museum of the Goddess Athena

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Aphaea

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