TEMPLE, (from the Latin templum,) a building erected in honour of some deity, whereat the people met for religious worship. Clemens Alexandrinus and Eusebius refer the origin of temples to the sepulchres for the dead: Herodotus and Strabo will have the Egyptians to have been the first who raised temples to the mods : others say, that the portable temple, or tabernacle, made by Moses in the desert, was the first of the kind, and these hold it to have been the model of all others. The first temple erected in Greece is ascribed to Deucalion by Apollonius ; as the first in Italy is said to have been built by Janus, or Faunus. In antiquity, we meet with many who would not build temples to their gods, for fear of confining them to too narrow bounds. They performed sac rifices and other religious rites in all places indifferently, from a persuasion, that the whole world is the temple of God, and that he requires no other. This was the doctrine of the Magi, followed by the Persians, Seythians, Numidians, and many other nations mentioned by Ilerodotus, Cicero, and Strabo. The Persians, who worshipped the sun, believed it would be injurious to his power to enclose within the walls of a temple him who had the whole world for his habitation ; and hence, when Xerxes ravaged Greece, the Magi exhorted him to destroy all the temples he found. The Athenians would erect no temple to Clemency, who, they said, was to live within the hearts of men, not within stone walls. The Bithy nians and Germans had no temples, but worshipped on mountains and in woods.
Temples were built and adorned with all possible splendour and magnificence ; and this partly out of reverence for their respective deities, and partly to create an awe for them in those who came to pay their devotions. The temples were built after that manner which different votaries thought most agreeable to their Gods ; for instance, the Doric pillars were sacred to Jupiter, Mars, and Hercules ; the Ionic to Bacchus, Apollo, and Diana ; and the Corinthian to Vesta ; though there are instances of these being used in 4he same temples ; such were some of those dedicated to Minerva, which had pillars of the Doric, Corinthian, and Ionic orders. Wherever a temple stood, if the situation of the place would permit, it was so contrived, that the windows, on being opened, might receive the rays of the rising sun. The front was towards the west, and the altars and statues were placed towards the other end, that the worshippers, on entering, might have their faces towards them, it being a custom among the hea thens to worship with their faces towards the east. If the
temples were built by the side of a river, they were to look towards the banks of it ; if near the highway, they were. to he so ordered, that travellers might have a fair prospect of them, and pay their devotions to the god as they passed : those built in the country were generally surrounded with groves. In the front of the temple was the porch, in which, according to Casaubon, was placed the holy water, in a vessel of stone or brass, with which all who were admitted to the sacrifices were sprinkled ; beyond this porch it was not law ful for the prattle or polluted to pass ; this led into the body of the temple, where was the adyittni, or sacred place, into which none entered but the pricAs. Belonging to each temple there was a vestry, which seems to have been a treasury both tor the temple itself; and for such also as had a mind to secure their wealth in it, as was done by Xenophon, who committed his treasures to the custody of the priest 'of Diana, at Ephesus.
Temples are thus described by some of the ancients : first, the whole edifice ; secondly, the altar on which the offerings were made ; thirdly, the porch in which usually stood an altar, or an image ; and lastly, the place upon which the image of the chief god was erected. This idol was originally only a rude stone ; and Themistius tells as, that thus they all continued till the time of Diedalus, who first gave them feet. In after-ages, when the art of graving and carving was invented, those rude lumps were changed into figures resem bling living creatures, generally men. The material of these statues, among the Greeks, was generally wood ; and it has been observed, that those trees which were sacred to any par ticular deity, were thought most acceptable for his statues : thus, Jupiter's were made of oak; Venus', of myrtle ; Mi nerva's, of olive ; Hercules', of poplar, &e. Sometimes they were the work of the lapidary, and consisted of common or of precious stones ; at other times of black stone, indicating the invincibility of the gods : marble and ivory were frequently made use of, sometimes clay and chalk ; and, last of all, brass, silver, gold, and other metals. The place of the images was in the middle of the temple, where they stood on pedestals raised above the height of the altar, and enclosed with rails.