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Paestum

9/1/2014

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Picture
Paestum—originally Poseidonia—was one of the major early Greek colonies in southern Italy (some sixty miles southeast of Naples), founded around 600 BC by colonists from Sybaris. Even today the site offers a taste of Greece thanks to its astonishingly well-preserved temples. The oldest one, the Temple of Hera, is said to be the most beautiful Archaic Doric temple in existence, better preserved than any early Doric temple in Greece itself. (Doric is the earliest architectural style in Greece, dating back to the seventh century BC. It is characterized by stout, portly columns that were later replaced by the lighter and slimmer—some say, more elegant—Ionic style, then later still by the more ornate Corinthian style.)

​The temple you see in the picture was built around 500 BC in honor of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and arts. In Paestum, more so than in Acropolis in Greece, we are reminded how ancient architects considered temples living beings. If you look closely at the columns you’ll notice how they “swell” in the middle and how “squashed” are their echini (echinus is the rounded molding in the top portion of the column, called the capital). Both apparent distortions were intended to convey the belief that buildings were living entities that swell and get squashed under heavy pressure. In these early temples, you really feel that the full weight of the upper structures lies on the columns.

Along the same lines of belief, the interior of the temple (naos) was a sacred place enclosed by walls. The naos was the abode of the god or goddess in whose honor the temple was constructed; the statue of the deity was kept within in darkness. Only priests were allowed inside, while the rest of the population gave offerings and prayers outside. The inner chamber was divided by two lines of columns into three parts, called naves. This three-nave partition was later adopted in the construction of the Christian churches.

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    Overview

    All
    Alignments Of Carnac
    Bent Pyramid
    Castel Sant’ Angelo
    Chalice Well
    Chartres Cathedral
    Fontevraud Abbey
    Glanum
    Glastonbury Abbey
    Glastonbury Tor
    Gothic Image
    Grand Menhir
    Hatshepsut Temple
    Hilandar Monastery
    Horus The Avenger
    Inside The King’s Chamber
    Isle Of Avalon
    Notre Dame De Livron
    Old Lyon
    Paestum
    Petra Tou Romiou
    Pyramids Of Giza
    Ramanasramam
    Step Pyramid Of Zoser
    The Bourges Cathedral
    The Hooded Man
    The Lion Gate
    The Oracle Of Cumaean Sybil
    The Oracle Of Delphi
    The Osireion
    The Paimpont Forest

  • Home
  • About
    • Contact
  • Meet Me in the Underworld
    • Press
  • Sacred Places Blog
  • Events
  • Gallery
    • Sacred Sites
    • Edge of Water
    • Form and Color
    • Mediterranean Moods
    • Windows of Rome
    • Nature Spirits
    • Exhibitions
    • Self Portrait
    • Flower Fantasia