The Ionic order attains its greatest elegance in the Erechtheion, a small temple also situated on the Acropolis (pl.s, jigs. 1-3), a picturesquely irregular group having a small temple upon each side of a central hall. Commenced just after Perikles's time, it was not, according to an inscription, completed in 409 B. C. In more ancient times there here stood a place of worship enclosing the wooden image of Athena which fell from heaven, as well as that goddess's sacred olive tree and Poseidon's salt-spring, called into existence by these deities in a friendly contest of power. The ground-plan and the section (pi. 6, fig. 8; pi. 8, jig. 3) are given according to Hansen's restoration. Under the great hall, the roof of which is borne by Ionic columns (fig. 4), are seen the trident and the sacred spring. From the temple access was obtained in the rear to a smaller portico, the roof of which was borne by six female statues (caryatides;fig. 5). This small temple is usually considered as the sanctu ary of the nymph Pandrosos. According to Hansen's opinion, the middle part of the principal temple was open in hypxthral fashion, and in it grew the sacred olive, while the anterior room of the same temple was divided into three celke, of which the middle one was sacred to Athena and the lateral ones to Poseidon and the nymph Pandrosos respectively.
Oilier non-Athenian buildings which were erected at this date is the Temple of Nemesis at Rhamnos (t/. 6, fig. ro), which, although it remains uncompleted, conies nearest in the fineness of its pro portions to the works upon the Acropolis. In Thorikos, on the east coast of Attica, are the remains of a building which, notwithstanding its per istyle, may have served ends other than those of worship. It has seven columns in front, but the centre intercolumniation and the two middle ones of the fourteen columns on the longitudinal sides are wider than the others. The interior arrangement is not preserved. Perhaps the Pro pyhea and Temple of Athena at Sunion, as well as that of Demeter at Eleusis, are of this date (pi. 8, fig. 16). The latter is a structure of very peculiar plan, begun by Iktinos, architect of the Parthenon. It is a large square hall divided by four rows of Doric columns, which were erected by Korcebos, into five aisles, the centre one of which, about 20 metres (65 feet) wide, had an open roof, while above the four side-aisles rise upper series of columns, erected by Metagenes; Xenokles constructed the roof. Although quadratic in plan, the arrangement of the aisles is such that they have a longitudinal direction, and so the face upon which the entrance is placed must be considered as the longitudinal side.' In the
year 318 B. C., Demetrios Phalereus added a portico of twelve Doric columns.
Iktinos also built (43o B. c:) the Temple of Apollo at BasKe,' near Phigalia (/5/. 6, fig. 6), a peripteral Doric temple of six columns by fif teen, 14 metres (46 feet) wide and 38 metres (124Y2 feet) long, the walls of whose cella enclosed Ionic half-columns on their interior faces (pl. 3, fig. 12). A single column—which probably bore a votive offering— has a richly-decorated capital (fig. 13). Little remains of the great Temple of Zeus at Olympia built by Libon, and which, though similar in dimensions to the Parthenon, had only six columns in front and fourteen on each side; yet enough is left to enable us to reconstruct the exterior (pi. 6, fig. 4), while the interior, with its colossal statue wrought by Pheidias, had, according to a wall-painting in the new Museum at Berlin, the appearance shown on Plate 7 (fig. 4).
About five miles from Epidauros stood a famous Temple of Asklepios in a thickly-wooded grove in a beautiful valley between two mountains. This temple was distinguished for its splendor, and bore the inscription, " Let only pure souls enter here." Some of its foundations can still be traced. The great theatre by the sculptor Polykleitos at Epidauros is the best-preserved ruin of its kind in Southern Greece.
At the close of the fifth and beginning of the fourth century B. C. the Athenian sculptor Skopas built the Temple of Athena at Tegea, which, according to Pausanias, had Ionic columns externally, while in the interior the Corinthian order surmounted the Doric. This is the first appearance of a new order with a tall, rich capital adorned with leaves, slender shafts, and an entablature still richer and more elegant than that of the Ionic.
Works of the Fourth Ceninly B. C.—To the fourth century belong the great. theatre of Megalopolis and that of Messene. The former, which Pausanias regarded as the largest in Greece, was elliptical, with a circum ference of fifty stadia; its ruins are still well preserved. The latter was surrounded with magnificent walls of ashlar-work with numerous round and rectangular openings; its stadium, with its Doric porticoes, is in great part still extant.
The Temple of Apollo at Miletos was a dipteros of ten columns by twenty-one, commenced in the beginning of the fourth century by Paionios of Epliesos and Daphnis of Miletos, yet was scarcely finished at the end of the century. The Ionic order was employed externally, while interiorly the cella was adorned with pilasters having capitals of various styles; near the entrance stood half-columns with Corinthian capitals (pl.