Temple of Hephaistos

Temple of Hephaistos. ΝΑΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΗΦΑΙΣΤΟΥ. A Doric peripteral temple, with pronaos (fore-temple), cella (inner shrine), and opisthonaos (rear wing), the best preserved of its type in the Greek world. The facade of the pronaos and opisthonaos, to the east and west, are distyle, and the inner shrine has an interior colonnade. It occupies the crest of the Kolonos Agoraios Hill and was designed by an unknown architect probably in honor of Hephaistos, patron of metal-workers, and Athena Ergane, patroness of potters and crafts in general. It is built mostly of Pentelic marble, with its decorative sculpture in Parian. The east side, which faces the Agora, received special attention: it has ten metopes showing the Labors of Herakles, and the four easternmost metopes of the longer north and south sides show the Labors of Theseus. From these last the temple and its surroundings took the name «Theseion» in recent years. The frieze above the pronaos shows a scene from the Battle of Theseus and the Pallantids, with gods present, and that of the opisthonaos shows the Battle of the Lapiths and the Centaurs. Fragments of sculpture from the pediments are on display in the Museum of the Stoa of Attalos. The east pediment seems to have shown the Deification of Herakles, his entry onto Mount Olympos, and the west a scene from the Battle of the Lapiths and the Centaurs. The two bronze cult statures of the cella are believed to be the work of Alkamenes (prob. 421-415 BC), In the 3rd century BC a garden with small trees and shrubs was planted around the temple. , The Temple was converted into the church of St. George probably in the 7th century. In the early 19th century the church was used as a burial place for Protestants and for many European Philhellenes who died in the Greek War of Independence in 1821. The building remained in use through 1834, when it was the site of the official welcome of King Otto, the first king of the modern Greek state. Since then until the 1930's it was used as a museum.