Plate 9. The Temple of Nemesis at Rhamnus

The Temple of Nemesis was located on a hill on the east coast of Attica, and is today in a state of ruin. It was first explored by the Society of Dilettanti (London, 1817), and portions of all parts were found whereby the entire building could be restored as on our plate.

The Temple was built of marble; art forms indicate the building as being of the Periclean times. It is a six-columned Peripteral, and the smallest Temple of this kind. On the long side are 12 columns, a lesser number than on the Theseus Temple, from which otherwise it differs little. The corner pilaster of the pronaos of the cella is exactly an axis of the corresponding column, and in this respect is the only instance. The columns are somewhat more slender than former examples, being 1-5 diameter higher than 5[…] diameters. They stood in sinkages, a proof that the lower work was not yet cut away; also in the same way the channels of the column shafts were not yet finished. Each shaft consisted of 5 drums, and the antæ and wall of 8 courses, of which the lowest was about twice the height of the others, a rule which we see followed in most antique structures. Fig. 7 shows the echinus of the capital, and under it the cinctures or rings at the necking are shown at actual size, the execution of this extreme fineness being possible only in a fine grained marble. The leaf-wave cymatium of the corona shows signs of former decoration; this is shown at a larger scale above Fig. 5. Noteworthy, over the leaf-wave, the corona reappears in the same plane as below. The sloping corona of the pediment is less in height than the horizontal. The cyma is similar to that of the Parthenon, only on its upper edge a bead is shown. As a corner acroter we see a griffin ornament, which has been restored from discovered remains.

Fig. 4 shows a plan of the Temple. Inside of the encircling peristyle we see a peculiar Temple in antis, with a rear hall (opisthodome) on the west. The columns of both pronaos and opisthodome have eleven channels on the front side, the back side remaining smooth. On the floor of the pronaos we find between the columns round sinkages which presumably were for the fastening of iron gates. The sides of the antæ show different widths on the two ends; those on the east (at the pronaos) have twice the width of those on the west, and have an architrave spanning from the wall to the third column back from the front.