Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/293

 Bk. III. Ch. II. FORMS OF TEMPLES. 261 Xo. 146. Sometimes the cell was tetrastyle or with four pillars in front. In this form the Greek temple may be said to be complete, very few exceptions occurring to the rule, though the Parthenon itself is one of these few. It has an inner hexastyle portico at each end of the cell ; beyond these outwardly are octastyle porticoes, with 17 columns on each flank. The great temple at Selinus is also octastyle, but it is neither so simple nor so beautiful in its arrangement ; and, from the decline of style in the art when it was built, it is altogether an inferior example ; still, as one of the largest of Greek Doric temples, its plan is worthy of being quoted as an illustration of the Aarying forms of these temples. Another great exception is the great temple at Agrigen- tum (Woodcuts Nos. 149 and 1.51), where the architect at- tempted an order on so gigantic a scale that he was unaljle to construct the pillars Avith their architraves standing free. The interstices of the columns ai-e therefore built up with walls pierced with windows, and alto- gether the architecture is so bad, that even its colossal dimensions must have failed to render it at any time a pleasing or satisfac- tory work of ai't. A fourth exception is the temple at Paestura before re- ferred to, with 9 pillars in front, a clumsy expedient, but which arose from its having a range of columns down the centre to supi)ort the ridge of the roof by a simpler mode than the triangular truss usually employed for carrying the roof between two ranges of columns. With the exception of the temple at Agrigentum, all these were peristylar, or had ranges of columns all around them, enclosing the cell as it were in a case, an arrangement so ajij^arently devoid of purpose, that it is not at first sight easy to account for its universality. It Avill not suffice to say that it was adopted merely because it was beautiful. 1411. Plan of (ireat Temple at Agrigentum. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.