The Thymele at Epidauros. Space, Healing, and Musical Performance in Late Classical Greece (Theran Press 2017) (original) (raw)
Related papers
Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2018.11.13, 2018
The authors of this book present an intriguing and exciting thesis about the form and function of one of antiquity's most beautiful buildings, the thymele (or tholos) in the sanctuary of Asklepios at Epidauros. Attributed to the architect Polykleitos the Younger by Pausanias (2.27.5), the thymele (so labeled in its building accounts) shows off brilliantly the potential of using the rectangular conventions of Greek temple architecture for a round building. With a diameter of almost 22 m and a height of about 9 m, the peripteral thymele would have dominated the broad terrace to the west of the small Temple of Asklepios and must have been a focal-point for the sanctuary as a whole.
The Greek architectural orders--Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian--lie at the heart of the classical traditions of building, and yet satisfying accounts for their origins have proved elusive. In contrast with conventional theories that would see the orders originating over the course of a long evolution, this book stresses the suddenness of the phenomenon and its dependence on historical context, human agency, and artistic inspiration. Casting new light on a subject that has preoccupied architects since the Renaissance, Mark Wilson Jones shows how construction, influence, appearance, and meaning found expression in complex and multifaceted designs. New emphasis is placed on the relationship between the orders and the temples of worship that they were created to adorn. Temples were exquisitely made offerings to the divinity, and they also contained valuable offerings. In revealing affinities between certain offerings and the orders, the author explains how these gave architectural expression to sensibilities of intense social and religious significance. A download is provided of the front matter, preface and introduction.
E. C. Partida – B. Schmidt-Dounas (Eds.), Listening to the Stones. Essays on Architecture and Function in Ancient Greek Sanctuaries in Honour of Richard Alan Tomlinson (Oxford 2019), 2019
During the survey of Mycale (modern Dilek Dağları in western Asia Minor), H. Lohmann and his team discovered the ruins of an Ionic temple, dating to the middle of the 6th century BC. Since illegal excavations threatened it, a rescue excavation of the temple was carried out in three annual campaigns from 2005 to 2007. During this excavation, the entire remains of the temple were uncovered. With a length of 28.8 m (approximately 100 feet) and a width of 8.6 m the temple, facing east, is a hekatompedos. The unique layout of the building combines a pronaos with eight interior columns in two rows with an almost quadrangular naos, which has two columns (centred above an older naiskos) and a large room in the western part of the building with three columns along the longitudinal axis. The west room was not accessed through the pronaos and naos, but directly from outside through a door at the western end of the southern wall. Based on this layout and the finds, the west room is interpreted as a room for banqueting. Thus, this building can be described as a combined building, uniting a temple and a hestiatorion under one and the same roof. In this paper, the building is compared to other examples of combined buildings in Archaic Greek architecture, in order to better understand its unique layout and its functions.
JSAH 73, pp. 592-594, 2014
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ANNUARIO della SCUOLA ARCHEOLOGICA DI ATENE e delle MISIONI ITALIANE IN ORIENTE, 2021
The systematic excavations of the University of Crete at Eleutherna (Central Crete) have focused, since their beginning in 1985, on the Central Plateau of the Pyrgi hill, the acropolis of the ancient city (Sector II-Central). An Archaic temple and an imposing Tetraconch, a few meters further N, were brought to light during the excavations. Although the initial use and date of the construction of the Tetraconch remains unclear, it was converted into a church in the 7th century. These buildings seem to have formed landmarks of Eleutherna’s acropolis during different phases of its history, demonstrating the enduring public nature of this topos which was directly connected to the political and religious functions of the city down the centuries. Their architectural remains, amongst which stands out the thesauros of the temple with its sophisticated and mechanically innovative cover and locking device, along with other vestiges, including ritual depositions of feasting remains and votives, are presented here in detail for the first time. Through their study, we will try to explore the continuities and disruptions in the sacred topography of the acropolis at Εleutherna and to set them within the broader socio-political context of their time.
This current volume is intended to explore visual and archaeological evidence, as well as literary and epigraphic written sources, which inform us that musical and choral performances were an important part of many cults and rituals performed in spaces and architectural buildings of the ancient world. Despite it being difficult to ascertain whether specific spaces were intended for the performance of music and dance through archaeological records, the essays featured in this book raise the notion that particular architectural features might have facilitated music and dance performances. Contributing authors were asked to address music and dance which took place not only in dedicated musical settings and dance floors in purpose-built spaces in the forecourts of the sanctuaries, but also instances of performance along processional streets and around altars and cult statues, as well as on monumental steps and in dining rooms in a sacred context. Together, the papers cover different regions and a broad chronological span. Furthermore, most papers present archaeological material that has either been recently discovered or is published here for the first time. Contents: Angela Bellia, Acknowledgements. Abbreviations. Contributors. Angela Bellia, Introduction; Erica Angliker, Dances, Rituals and Spaces at the Sanctuary of Despotiko; Daniel Sánchez Muñoz, e2 nam-nar-ra: A Musical Royal Space in Ancient Mesopotamia; Caleb Patrick Simone, Dancing for Artemis at Brauron: Choreia and the Shaping of Sacred Space; Sylvain Perrot, Musical and Choral Performance Places in Hellenistic Delos; Angela Bellia, Monumental Steps and Theatral Steps as Sacred Spaces for Music and Dance Performances; Marco Serino, Musical Space as Symbolic Space. Communication Strategies and Local Social Identity in Red-Figure Vases of the Himera Painter’s Workshop. Index of Places. Subject Index. http://www.libraweb.net/index.php?dettagliononpdf=1&chiave=3446&valore=sku&name=Telestes5\_Bellia.jpg&h=849&w=600
College Art Association Reviews 2.15.2017, 2017
Greek tragedy and comedy form a central strand of ancient life that we have inherited and made our own: ancient plays are still performed, still inspire new authorship, still inform us about ancient life; but they also established the very genres that continue in our operas, musicals, television, and film. By the end of the fourth-century BCE, any ambitious Greek city had a stone theater of some sort, and remains of ancient theaters are ubiquitous in Mediterranean landscapes. This handsome volume, edited by Rune Frederiksen, Elizabeth Gebhard, and Alexander Sokolicek, presents twenty-six collected papers given at a conference in Athens on the architecture of ancient Greek theaters. The papers not only present the current state of research in this broad topic but also point forward to new directions of inquiry.