Temple

Western

principal feature of Assyrian and Chal dean temples was the ziggurat (q.v.) or stepped pyramid, with stairs or an inclined plane leading up to the terraces of the steps and the summit. The walls were decorated with glazed brick or painted stucco, and in some cases, at least, each stage was dedi cated to a separate divinity, as in the famous example at Babylon, in which each of the seven stages was dedicated to a separate planet. It is undoubtedly to a ziggurat that the biblical tradition of the Tower of Babel refers. Besides a ziggurat the temple group comprised a court or courts and various rooms for priests and for the storage of temple treasures and archives. Further west, on the Mediterranean coast, a different type occurs, in which a small, enclosed room is fronted with a monumental en trance, frequently flanked by columns. This type is not only known from various small Phoenician models, but is also clearly represented in the biblical descriptions of the various temples at Jerusalem. The earliest description of Solomon's temple is that of I Kings, vi. 7, which, despite its completeness, is open to many interpretations and an enormous number of different restorations have been based upon it and indications found on the site. The essential elements are, however, clear and consist of a courtyard, a great altar of burnt offerings, traditionally placed upon the sacred rock now known as the sakhra, and the temple building itself.

This was entered through a lofty porch or gateway of obviously Egyptian pylon type, which was flanked or fronted by two enor mous free-standing columns, which were purely decorative or tra ditional and may represent a lingering of the same neolithic tradi tion that set the phallic stones in the Malta temples. Through the pylon one entered the naos (the holy place or hekiil), 40 cubits long, 20 wide and 3o high (the cubit being roughly one and a half feet). It was lighted by a row of lattice windows, probably a clere story set high in the wall, like the somewhat similar clerestory windows at Karnak. Behind the naos, and entered from it was the Holy of Holies or debir, 20 cubits in all three dimensions. Within this sanctuary was kept the Ark of the Covenant, flanked by two cherubim. Surrounding the naos and sanctuary were three storeys of small chambers. In the details described, this temple shows an interesting combination of forms with origins in all the surround ing countries. Thus the pylon porch and the diminution of height from front to back are purely Egyptian, while the greater number of the ornamental motives (cherubim, etc.) are of Mesopotamian origin. In construction, however, the combination indicated of stone, timber and metal is distinctively of the Mediterranean coast. The temple was destroyed (586 B.c.) and rebuilt 7o years later, largely in accordance with the older type, with certain dif ferences, the most important of which was the use of a great curtain to separate the naos from the sanctuary and the existence of two courts instead of one. In c. 20 B.C. Herod built a third temple which was hardly completed in its entirety before the capture of the city and the razing of the temple by Titus (A.D. 7o).

The Aegean World and Greece.—The Minoan civilization has left remains which indicate that both caves and high places were deemed sacred. Representations on seals and wall paintings

also show that small shrines existed in great numbers, but up to the present time (1928) no large, monumental temples have been discovered. The most ordinary type of Aegean shrine of pre Greek date is well represented on a fresco in the palace at Knossos (c. 15oo B.c.), showing a wall surrounding a temenos or sacred area, planted with trees, and filled with worshippers.

In the early Hellenic Greek world it would seem that the temenos with its altar was the most common form of temple; the constructed building not appearing until two or three centuries had elapsed after the Dorian migration. The earliest temples were of various forms, patterned on primitive dwellings, but the rec tangular form was finally adopted and developed. The construc tion was apparently of sun-dried brick, with wall ends and open ings cased in wood. A porch in front was early added, between solid end walls, which were the continuation of the side walls of the cella or enclosed portion. As building skill increased, and the need for larger and more splendid temples was felt, columns were added, first in one row down the centre, to decrease the unsup ported span of the roof , and later in two rows, dividing the cov ered space into nave and aisles. On the outside columns on the porch matched those within. Later, another porch was added at the rear, and finally a colonnade would be continued entirely around the building, giving the developed type which has been famous as the characteristic classic type ever since. One of the earliest of large size, of which many remains exist, is the temple of Hera at Olympia (variously ascribed to many dates between the loth and 7th centuries B.C.). Its stone foundations were ob viously originally designed to carry sun-dried brick walls and its wood cased antae (q.v.), or pilaster-like wall ends, and door jambs are of the most primitive type. It is reported by Pausanius that the original wooden columns of the colonnade were replaced by stone columns of various shapes and sizes during the entire history of classic Greece, differences in contemporary styles ac counting for the relative delicacy or crudity of the columns. Naturally, the greater number of the architectural fragments found are of late date. By the middle of the 7th century B.C. the Greek temple type was thoroughly established and the ruined tem ple at Corinth, of this date, had a stone colonnade in which all the elements of the later perfected Doric order are found. There is also a large group of archaic temples in south Italy and Sicily, where the Greek colonies of the time had reached a high level of wealth and established civilization. Thus at Syracuse, at Segesta, Selinus, Agrigentum (Acragas) and Paestum there are many examples of archaic Doric temples of the late 7th and 6th centuries B.C. In all of these the columns are heavy and low, closely spaced and with widely projecting, heavily convex capitals, and the entablature above is heavy in proportion. Sculpture of a crude type appears during this period, notably in the metopes and the pediments, or gable ends.