The Orientation of Greek Temples

Abstract

A first glance the question of the orientation of Greek temples seems a simple one, hardly worth discussing; every new student of Classical archaeology learns from the handbooks that Greek temples, with very few exceptions, all face east. The explanations of this phenomenon are various but generally assume that the position of the sun plays an important role in the siting of Greek temples and, by inference, in Greek religion and ritual. So widely is this theory accepted that an eminent architectural historian could pass over the question of orientation in a discussion of the siting of Greek temples with the following: ' ... last is a principle so well known that it need scarcely be mentioned: orientation, in which practically every Greek temple, Bassae excepted, faces east or slightly north of east so that the rising sun at the proper season shines on the cult statue'.l Stillwell's statement reflects the generally held view but is a gross overstatement of the facts as outlined by W. B. Dinsmoor, the dean of Classical architectural historians, in his Architecture of Ancient Greece: 'In actual fact the axes of Greek temples box the entire compass; but more than 80% run, if not exactly east-west, at least within the arc formed on the horizon between the sunrise directions at the summer and winter solstices. It seems that most temples were laid out to face the sunrise on the actual day of their foundation, presumably on the festival day of the divinity.'2 Dinsmoor, following Penrose, ingeniously demonstrates the usefulness of this theory in discovering the construction dates of several temples, most notably the Parthenon.3 Even Dinsmoor's careful statement of the facts is open to some reinterpretation, however, if the evidence on which it is based is examined closely. First of all, within his 80% of temples running east-west some 8% in fact face west, leaving us with over 25% of the total not orientated towards the rising sun. Secondly, the literary sources used to support the importance of the rising sun to the orientation of temples are somewhat suspect and contradictory. Only one of the sources, the Agamemnon of Aeschylus is contemporary with the building of the Greek temples. The lines cited from that play (51g--20) are from the opening of the herald's speech as he arrives at Mycenae and greets everyone including 'the gods who face the sun'. These 'gods' are usually interpreted as statues of the gods standing in front of the palace of Mycenae, the position of which would seem to have little relevance to the orientation of Greek temples. The remainder of the ancient sourcesVitruvius IV, 5, Frontinus (in Gromatici Veteres,27), Hyginius (ibid., 169), Plutarch (Numa, 14,4), Lucian (House, 6), Clement of Alexandria (Strom. VII, 724) are of the Roman period or later. Vitruvius, a Roman citizen, writing in the time of the Emperor Augustus, argues, in fact, that temples ideally should face west rather than east: