Plan the principal hall as a long rectangle entered on its short side through a porch with two columns between the side walls and a vestibule, and put a great round hearth in the centre of the hall, ringed by four columns carrying a raised roof.
The precinct and its altar
Set the temple within its sacred precinct, the temenos, walled and entered by a gateway, the propylon; put the great altar in the open before the east front, on the temple’s axis, and leave the ground round the temple free for the procession and for the offerings set up there.
A Greek temple was the house of the god’s statue, and the rites were held outside it. The precinct marked off the holy ground: at Aegina a terrace held up by retaining walls, entered through a small propylon, with the altar a little way in front of the east front of the temple; on the Acropolis the great altar of Athena stood in the open east of the Parthenon.
Within the wall stood the offerings of the faithful, statues, stelae and small treasuries, and often a grove of the god’s trees. The temple was seen first at an angle, from the gateway, and walked round to its front.
Related rules
Dine lying on couches: set three couches round three sides of a low table, the fourth side left open for serving, each couch taking up to three diners propped on the left elbow; the room is named for its three couches, the triclinium.
Let one simple ratio govern the whole: at the Parthenon the lower diameter is to the axial spacing, the width of the stylobate to its length, and the height of the order to the width of the front, all very nearly as 4 is to 9.
D : axial spacing ≈ 1.905 : 4.296 ≈ 4 : 9; stylobate 30.88 : 69.50 ≈ 4 : 9
Plan a Greek theatre by inscribing three squares in the orchestra circle; the side nearest the scene fixes the front of the stage (proscaenium), and the scene is set back to a line tangent to the circle.
proscaenium at r cos 45° ≈ 0.71 r from the centre; logeion 10–12 ft high
Set the altar to face the east, and always lower than the statues in the temple, so that those who pray and sacrifice look up towards the god; make it high for Jupiter and the gods of the sky, low for Vesta and Mother Earth.
In a peripteral temple the flanks have twice as many intercolumniations as the front: six columns in front means eleven along each side, counting the corner columns twice.
side columns = 2n − 1 (Vitruvius) · 2n + 1 (Greek practice)
Cite this page Chris Paton, “The precinct and its altar”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/greek-temenos. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.