Plate 40. The Temple of Minerva Polias at Priene

The Temples of Asia Minor destroyed by the Persians were not renewed as soon as were those of Greece, as their restoration falls in the 100th Olympiad and still later. The Temples as indicated by the ruins were mostly in the Ionic style. How much similarity they had to those of the earlier destroyed monuments we can not ascertain as of the latter, excepting a few at Samos, no remains exist. The base varies from the Ionic to the Attic, the capital is low with small volutes, and usually has bolsters. The entablature with a weak architrave and a low frieze has, as a rule, under the corona, the Persian dentil course. The most characteristic feature is the arrangement of the antæ capital with a sofa-like front and thin bolsters on the ends. There are also free standing pillars with the same kind of capitals. In the remains of Persian architecture types are found after which these capitals with modifications seem to have been formed in the spirit of Grecian art.

On Plate 40 is represented the Temple of Minerva Polias at Priene, which presents to us in all its parts the finest example of Asiatic-Ionic architecture. It was a six-columned Peripteral, with 11 columns on the side, and stood on a terrace on the south side of the Mycale hills, being built by Pytheus, of white marble from these hills, and dedicated by Alexander, 335 B. C. From the remaining ruins the height of the columns could not be ascertained to a certainty; they may have been at least 19 modules.

Fig. 8. is a portion of the plan. The corner capitals are somewhat of an exception to those of older examples at Athens. Two complete volutes form the inner angle, the bolsters spreading out at this point and the abacus taking the same form, as shown at the plan of the capital, Fig. 3. At Fig. 1 is the front view and at Fig. 2 is the side, a corner volute being shown on the former and an inner angle volute on the latter. At Fig. 4 are shown sections of the front and end.

Fig. 5 shows the scheme whereby the volute line, which has four complete turns, can be constructed. The portions of two 45° diagonals contained in a regular hexigon (which is drawn in the eye of the volute), are divided into six equal parts, and the part nearest the center is again divided into two parts, which give the points 1, 2, 3, etc., to 16, from which the quarter windings I, II, III, etc., to XVI (Fig. 1), can be drawn. The remainder of the construction is similar to that described on the former plate.

The eye of the volute is sunken, and probably was decorated with gold or precious stones. The relations of the members of the entablature (Fig. 1) and the decorations are, throughout, exemplary. Over Fig. 7 is given an elevation and section of the pediment cornice. The cyma is decorated differently from that on the long side and the dentils are omitted. At Fig. 7 is given a section of the corona as it is carried across under the tympanum. The soffit of the architrave has a panel between the capitals as is shown on the section at Fig. 2. The inner side of the architrave has a different profile from the outer and is also lower. On this was placed the ceiling, consisting of a single row of coffers, which were separated by beams shown at P, one being located at each column. The width of the soffit of these beams was I the lower diameter of the column, and the soffit was decorated with a panel similar to that in the main architrave shown at Fig. 2. The coffer is shown in half at C. This line indicates also the center between the column axes.

The base, Fig. 9, is in good relation with the elegant character of the other parts of this order; it belongs to a rare style occurring only in the Ionic, and shows at the same time the oldest example of a base with a four-cornered plinth, which the architect probably used to protect the thin astragals resting thereon.

On this plate are also shown for comparison, at Figs. 10 and 11, the best examples of this style of column base, which are taken from different monuments. In the base from the Temple of Apollo Didymæus, Fig. 11, the beads or astragals do not project beyond the torus, which would have been better also in the Priene example, as then the ornamented channels on the lower part of the torus would have been visible to the observer from below. A very ancient base of the latter style (Fig. 10) is found in the remains of the Temple Hera at Samos, which was burned by the Persians. The channeling of the torus and the scotia is given at a larger scale at the right.