Ionic temples you need to know

In Asia Minor there are a few examples of temples with the Aeolic capital, perhaps a precursor of the Ionic Order. (Pergamon, Neandria and Lesbos). Three Archaic Ionic temples were: at Samos, Ephesus and Didyma. The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was begun about 550BC. It had as many as 21 columns along each side in a double colonnade (it was a dipteral temple). It was made of marble but with a wooden roof and terracotta tiles. The bottom drums of some the columns were decorated with relief sculpture. The legendary King Croesus gave some of the money towards the temple. The temple at Samos was dipteral too. Little remains of the archaic temple at Didyma. Two important Classical Ionic temples to know are on the Athenian Acropolis. (1) The Temple of Athene Nike. It is tiny but had very rich decoration and gold acroteria. Its frieze seems to show scenes from the Battle of Plataea during the Persian Wars. It had a beautiful parapet carved in relief sculpture (figure of Nike fixing her sandal). The other is a most unusual temple called the Erechtheum. (See separate handout). It is Ionic but unique in its shape (a rectangle divided in two separate sections with two porches, most famously the Caryatid Porch on the south side. It held several shrines, to Athene, Poseidon (his trident landed in the North Porch apparently) and Erechtheus, an ancient king of Athens. It had a sculpted Ionic frieze of dark grey Eleusinian marble with white figures attached. It is exceptionally rich in its decoration, especially the elegant north porch. Uniquely, an inscription survives recording the pay of about 130 workmen who were paid 1 drachma per day for work on the temple (including the architect). A fourth century Ionic temple is the later one to Artemis at Ephesus which was incredibly grand. Another from the same period is the Temple of Athene Polias at Priene, considered one of the most perfect examples of the Ionic Order.

Perhaps the most beautiful of all Ionic temples and the most impressive in scale is the massive Temple of Apollo at Didyma in Asia Minor, a really splendid temple too large even to roof in fully and astonishingly rich in decoration. Finally, a Corinthian temple (a sub-set of the Ionic Order). The Temple of Zeus Olympios in Athens. It measures about 188 X 40m with a double colonnade at the sides and three rows of columns at the front. It is built of Pentelic marble, designed by Cossutius, a Roman architect in the 2nd century BC. Its slender and elaborate capitals are a landmark in Athens just below the Acropolis.