TEMPLE (the Latin " Templum") a building set apart for religious uses. What is known of the columnar architecture of the nations of antiquity is derived chiefly from their temples. In the temples of the Egyptians, it may be said to display itself exclusively, and like wise much more' extensively than in the temples of the Greeks or Romans, with this further difference as regards the general design and character, that in the Egyptian edifices the columns are placed internally, that is, so as to form colonnades along the sides of an enclosed fore-court, and the portal or frontispiece of the temple itself. Of this disposition of the entire plan, with a walled-in cortile or cloister, an example is shown in Eurrrwr AucurrscruitE. To that article and the articles GREEK ARCHITECTURE and Roustv ARCHITEC TURE we refer for other particulars relative to Egyptian temples and some of the characteristic differences between them and those of the Greeks and Romans; and to NINEVEU, ARCHITECTURE or, for notices of the temple-palaces of the Assyrians; and proceed to give in this place some further particulars respecting the temples of Greece and Rome.
Instead of being composed of a variety of parts grouped and com bined together, Grecian temples consist only of a simple parallelogram, a cella, or body of the temple itself, either in antis, or else peripteral, that is, entirely surrounded with an external colonnade ; for to these two distinctions may be reduced all those subordinate ones for which separate technical terms have been invented : but whatever be their technical designation the general shape and outline still remains a simple unbroken parallelogram, either with or without external colonnades along its sides. Still simple as are the plans of Grecian temples, there are many terms required to express their varieties in regard to the application of columns, besides those denoting the number of columns in front, that is, beneath the pediment. Thus, if there were columns only in front, the building was termed prostyle ; if at each end, amphi prostyle; if there were also colonnades along the sides, it was said to be peripteral, that is, with wings (aisles) or colonnades quite round it. When there were two rows of columns, one behind the other, it was termed dipteral. Again, where a range of columns was placed between antic, forming the extremities of walls at right angles with such colonnade, it was said to be in antis. This was generally the case with the promos, the vestibule or inner portico behind the columns in front. According to the number of columns in front, porticos are
said to be tetrastyle, that is, with four columns ; herastyle, with six ; octastyle, with eight ; decastyle, with ten ; and dodeeastyle, with twelve, the greatest number that can very well be brought beneath a pedi ment; and even of these two last the examples are exceedingly rare. If instead of columns at the angles there were antic, then the number of columns alone was reckoned as before, and would denominate what would be equivalent to a portico containing two more : thus a distyle in antis, that is, two columns between two ants;, would be equal to a tetraatyle, as in both there would be three intercolumna ; a tetrastyle in antis would be equal to a hexastyle, and so on. When the cella was without a roof, and in part, at least, open to the sky, the temple was termed The following diagrams will render these terms more intelligible, and at the same time serve as examples of the different forms of plan as regards columniation, or the arrangement of the columns.
Though so exceedingly small as to show little more than the position of the columns, without any regard to exactness in other respects, these slight diagrams will both serve to render evident many circum stances that cannot else be fully explained And also to exemplify the respective denominations of temples and porticos according to the number of columns in front. The one "in antis" is a distyle in antis, there being only two columns between the antic, or three intercolumns, as in the two tetrastyle examples (prostyle and amphiprostyle) ; whereas were there four columns between the ante, it would become tetrastyle in antis, and have as many intercolumns as a herastyle, of which last the peripteral figure is an example. The dipteral and pseudo-dipteral are both octastyles ; and the hypwthral a deeustyle. This last may also be taken as an example (though an imperfect one) of a diprostyle, for it will be seen that if the portico were a mere prostyle, it would project forward two intercolumns from the body of the temple. In this figure the pronaos may also be termed polystyle, on account of the great number of columns in successive rows between the side walla enclosing that part of the plan (pronaos), which may be described as a dipteral or double tetrastyle in antis, having a distylo in antis behind it, and a diprostyle decastyle in front of it.