MIT Libraries homeDome

The Ionic Treasury of the Massaliots, the northeast corner, detail; The third Temple of Athena, built ca. 370 BCE next to the Tholos, was non-peripteral and more severe. Together with the Doric Treasury of the Thebans and the Ionic peristyle in the gymnasium, it is among the first buildings to be made of the fine St. Elias limestone from Mt. Parnassos. Behind the six Doric columns of its façade the cella was closed only by three screens between two Ionic half-columns in antis. The latter's half-capitals were of a new type, with volutes on all three sides, as in the Temple of Apollo at Bassai. The cella's open, well-ventilated entrance and elongated plan suggest that it contained an altar, perhaps similar to that in the Hieron at Samothrace. Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.groveart.com/ (accessed 11/11/2007)