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Temple of Hephaestus is one of the best preserved temples in the city of Athens and all of Greece. Temple of Hephaestus was constructed in 449 - 415 BC. It was originally dedicated to Hephaestus (Roman equivalent Vulcan, hence the word "volcano"). He was a patron god of metal working and craftsmanship. Greeks believed that he lived deep in the mountain caves and his active work caused volcano eruptions. The temple was very lucky to change hands. From the 7th century to 1834 it served as a Greek Orthodox Church of Saint George Akamates. This preserved the structure from being destroyed by stone masons who reused other ancient structures to build new buildings in the Athens.
The construction of the temple began around 449 BC, but the
construction progress from west to east was slow. By 430 BC the temple
was largely completed, only the roof and cult image group were still
missing. Both could only be tackled during the Peace of Nicias between
421 and 415 BC. The temple was probably consecrated in 415 BC. It was
located on what was then the western city limits of Athens.
At
that time there were many foundries and metalworking trades in this part
of the city. That is why it was also dedicated to Hephaestus, the god of
the metal artists of the time - the blacksmiths - (today artistic
blacksmiths) and their metalworkers. Hephaestus was "responsible" for
the entire artistic spectrum of metalworking, including the manufacture
of jewelry, weapons, sacred-ritual and profane everyday objects.
The temple stands on a small hill on the western edge of the Agora, the
Kolonos Agoraios.
The temple rose on a three-level substructure, the Krepis. The lowest
level was made of limestone, while the rest of the visible architecture
was made of Pentelic and Parian marble. This is unusual, as the entire
Krepis was usually made of a single material and thus stood out clearly
from the last layer of the foundation, the Euthynteria, which was
already visible in the upper part. The actual temple rose on the
approximately 1.06 meter high substructure.
It is a ring hall
temple, a Peripteros, Doric order, 13.71 meters wide and 31.78 meters
long, with six columns on each of the fronts and 13 columns on the long
sides. The lower column diameter was 1.02 meters, the column height
reached 5.71 meters. The axis distance of the columns was 2.59 meters,
the intercolumnium, the clear distance between the columns, was
therefore 1.57 meters wide. The corner bays show a simple contraction.
Above them rose the rather heavily proportioned entablature of Doric
architrave and triglyph-metope frieze, which was 2.02 metres high.
Only on the east front and on the adjoining first two bays of the
long sides were the metopes decorated with sculptures and made of Parian
marble, while the other metopes were inserted as simple, smooth and
white marble slabs. The metopes on the east side depicted scenes from
the mythical cycle of Heracles, while the metopes on the long sides
depicted scenes from the life of the local hero Theseus. The latter in
particular led to the interpretation of the building as a Theseion, a
temple dedicated to Theseus. The sculpted metopes were backed with a
rich blue, the metopes in contrasting red.
Above the triglyphon
was the Doric geison with its usual mutulus slabs. Like the adjoining
sima, it was made of Parian marble. The sima had lion-head gargoyles
between painted palmette friezes on its eaves. The gable triangles on
the fronts were filled with figures made of Parian marble. During
further excavations in the 20th century, remains of these gable figures
were found, which showed the battle of the Lapiths against the Centaurs
(Centauromachy) in the east gable and further mythical battles in the
west gable. Acrotere adorned the ridge: a floating Nike crowned the east
side, a fleeing female figure, stylistically attributable to the period
of the Rich Style around 420 BC, crowned the west gable.
The
cella, the room containing the cult image, was integrated into this ring
hall. Following the principles of Doric temple construction, the outer
walls of the cella were aligned with the column axes. The resulting
walkways, the ptera, were one bay deep on the long sides, two bays on
the east side and one and a half bays deep on the west side. The
walkways were covered with a coffered ceiling made of Parian marble. The
emphasis on the eastern porch through its particular depth can be
interpreted as an element of Ionic architecture that has found its way
into a Doric temple.
The eastern porch had other special
features. For example, an Ionic frieze was installed above the
architrave that connected the antennas of the pronaos. However, this did
not end at the antenna corners as expected, but was, like the associated
architrave, extended beyond the side ptera and continued on the inside
of the entablature of the porch. Above the extended pronaos architrave
it bears figurative scenes - groups of gods as spectators of mythical
battles - while it continues on the remaining three sides of the porch
as a smooth blue band. This two-bay deep vestibule is clearly set apart
from the rest of the building, from the side ptera of the ring hall, as
if it were independent, which is unique in this form. A figurative
frieze depicting a centauromachy was also placed above the architrave of
the rear opisthodom, but ends there, as expected, above the antae. Both
Ionic friezes were framed at the top and bottom by Ionic egg-shaped
bars, and the wall base of the cella also had such an Ionic frieze. The
accumulation of Ionic elements in this otherwise strictly Doric building
is remarkable.
The eastern vestibule, which was extended to two bays, reduced the length of the cella, making it more compact. It is assumed that this was a subsequent change in the plan, which served the purpose of bringing the cella proportions into line with those of the Parthenon. As in the Parthenon, a column arrangement of 4 × 7 columns was inserted in the cella. At the Hephaisteion, the side columns had to be moved close to the walls to allow enough space for the cult image group placed in front of the surrounding rear column arrangement. The inner column arrangement was Doric order and two-storey, as in the Parthenon, in order to achieve the necessary height for the ceiling construction with reduced column diameters. In Greek architecture, the height of the columns depended on the lower diameter of the columns and could only increase with this. The inner walls of the cella were roughened to accommodate wall paintings. None of these paintings have survived. The cult image group with Hephaestus and Athena handed down by Pausanias was created between 421 BC and 415 BC, according to the accounting documents, and placed in the temple - almost 30 years after construction began. It was probably the work of Alkamenes.
The basis for the development of proportions in this temple seems to
have been the middle level of the Krepis. At 32.51 meters, it was a
hundred feet long and 14.45 meters wide. The width to length ratio was
therefore 4:9, which corresponds to the proportion system of the
Parthenon. The height up to and including the geison also had this
proportion in relation to the width, which in turn also recurs in the
ratio of column height to yoke at 9:4. All of this seems to have been
borrowed from the design of the Parthenon, although not implemented with
the same consistency.
In terms of visual refinements, the temple
had a curvature from the Krepis to the Geison, a slightly raised
curvature of all structural elements, the height of which was 3
centimeters on the fronts and 4.5 centimeters on the long sides. The
columns had a slight entasis, i.e. a slightly curvolinear course of
their tapering, and an inclination, i.e. a slight internal inclination
as a further element of visual refinement, of 4.5 centimeters.
In contrast to the Parthenon, the Hephaisteion still has all its
columns, and even the roof, which had no correlation between column axis
and rafter spacing, is largely intact. The friezes and other
decorations, however, were badly damaged by iconoclasts, art lovers and
looters over the centuries. The temple survived because it was converted
into a Christian church dedicated to Saint George in the fifth century.
However, this conversion came at the expense of the ancient interior,
which was removed and replaced with Christian additions. In particular,
the vaulted roof of the interior dates from this period.
During
the centuries of Ottoman rule in Greece, the temple remained the most
important Greek Orthodox church in Athens. When the first king of
independent Greece, King Otto I, entered the city in 1834, the welcoming
mass was held here. Ludwig Ross established the "Theseion" as the first
archaeological museum in Athens at that time.
Today, the temple
is part of the archaeological site of the Athenian Agora under the
supervision of the 3rd Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities
of the Greek Ministry of Culture.
The Theseus Temple, located in the Volksgarten in Vienna (1st district), is a smaller replica of the Athenian Theseion (Hephaisteion) and was built from 1819 to 1823 by the Austrian architect Peter von Nobile.