Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/275

 Bk. III. Ch. II. DORIC TEMPLES. 243 result of the greatest of their wars, so that almost all those which remained were pulled down or rebuilt. The consequence is, that nearly all the great temples now found in Greece were built in the forty or fifty years which succeeded the defeat of the Persians at Salamis and Plataea. 132. Temple at j3Egina restored. No scale. The oldest temple of this class is that best known as the Theseiura, or Temple of Theseus, at Athens, though it is nearly certain that it ouglit more properly to be considered the temple of the god Mars. It constitutes a link between the archaic and the perfect age of Grecian art; more perfect than the temple at ^gina or any that preceded it, but falling short of the perfection of the Parthenon, its near neighbor both in locality and date. Of all the great temples, the best and most celebrated is the Par- thenon, the only octastyle Doric temple in Greece, and in its own class undoubtedly the most beautiful building in the world. It is true it has neither the dimensions nor the wondrous expression of power and eternity inherent in Egy]itian temples, nor has it the variety and ]toetry of the Gothic cathedral ; but for intellectual beauty, for perfec- tion of proportion, for beauty of detail, and for the exquisite perception of the highest and most recondite principles of art ever applied to architecture, it stands utterly and entirely alone and unrivalled — the glory of Greece and a reproach to the rest of the world. Next in size and in beauty to this was the great hexastyle temple of Jupiter at Olympia, finished two years later than the Parthenon. Its dhnensions were nearly the same, but having only six pillars in front instead of eight, as in the Parthenon, the pro}Jortions were different, this temple being 95 ft. by 230, the Parthenon 101 ft. by 2-27. To the same age belongs the exquisite little Temple of Apollo