This paper examines Greek temple architecture from its earliest origins through the Hellenistic period, drawing primarily on Helmut Berve and Gottfried Gruben's foundational study of Greek temples. It begins by surveying the religious customs of ancient Greece and the limited but distinct role of priests, then analyzes the social and historical factors that determined where temples were built — from pan-Hellenic sanctuaries at Olympia and Delphi to regional and local shrines. Finally, the paper assesses the architectural principles underlying temple construction, including the sculptural and tectonic qualities of Greek design, the use of proportion derived from the human body, decorative conventions, and the evolution of building techniques across successive periods.
The paper consistently uses the "context before analysis" technique: it establishes the religious and social background before assessing the physical architecture. This allows readers to understand why Greek temples look and function as they do before encountering technical descriptions. The technique is especially visible in the architecture section, where the author first explains how Greek notions of space and form differed from modern ones, then unpacks specific design features such as the naos, tectonic construction, and sculptural decoration.
The paper is organized into four substantive parts preceded by an introduction: (1) religious customs and the priesthood; (2) pan-Hellenic temple sites such as Olympia, Delphi, Isthmus, and Nemea; (3) regional and local temples including Eleusis, Bassae, Aegina, and Sunium; and (4) architectural principles including design philosophy, proportion, decoration, sculpture placement, and construction techniques. Each section closes with a brief synthesis before the paper concludes with an overall summary of findings.
Present-day Greece still retains the temples, shrines, and sanctuaries of the pre-Hellenic period. The modern world of architecture and historians regards these temples very highly because of their unique and simple designs and also because of their apparent beauty and technical excellence. These temples have a profound history behind them, because they stand as testament to perhaps one of the most astonishing occurrences in recorded human history: ancient Greek religion. The Greeks recognized several hundreds of gods, believing that everything in life was suffused with divine presence. Helmut Berve and Gottfried Gruben (1963) describe this phenomenon:
"The presence of gods or demigods might be felt on towering mountain heights or on a headland overlooking the storm-lashed sea; in mysterious woodland thickets, ravines, and caves, the solemn stillness of a grove, or the middle of a sunny, fertile field. From ancient graves, heroes buried in the distant past wrought good or ill, while the defense of forts and cities, the activities of street and market, the deliberations of governing bodies and decisions of public assemblies could none of them do without the proximity of guardian and guiding deities. And for these a dwelling had to be prepared."
This paper reviews the requisites of Greek religion, including the early methods and influences on temple construction and design. It begins by revealing the religious customs of Greek civilization and the role of priests in the Greek religion from its inception through the Hellenistic period. This aspect is important because it allows us to understand the basic structure of thought behind Greek religious activities and provides a brief overview of the power structure within Greek religion. Subsequently, the paper assesses the reasons behind the choice of temple locations, noting major trends and turning points — including social and historical explanations — to better understand how sites were selected. Finally, the paper analyzes the architecture of the Greek temples, addressing both the technical aspects and the physical structures. This paper aims to assist the scholarly world in better understanding the development of Greek temple architecture from its inception through the Hellenistic period.
The religious customs of the Greeks were not limited to a few rituals but were diverse and numerous in nature, demonstrating the importance of religion and the status of gods among the Greeks. It is important to note that the diversity of Greek religious activities was equivalent to their multiple desires and the distinctions they observed between themselves and their gods. Berve and Gruben (1963) write:
"Besides sacrifices, the gods received in their sanctuaries an abundance of thank-offerings from private persons, associations, and the state, in return for the favors that they had bestowed. Figurines and large statues of the deity worshipped, bronze tripods and cauldrons, weapons taken from the enemy, and monuments that had been donated out of a tithe of the crop, a trading profit, or the spoils of war all accumulated in the sacred precincts, together with statues of men and youths, women and girls, by means of which the male members of the community offered up themselves. They appeared not in naturalistic portraits but, so to speak, idealized as figures of the greatest beauty, vitality, and strength, intended to delight the gods. The same notion underlay the contests without which virtually no major festival occurred at the famous sanctuaries from the archaic period onwards."
Unlike Christianity, where an institution of priesthood and clergy is considered unquestionably essential for communication between god and humanity, the Greeks did not regard a clergy-like institution as necessary for mediating between themselves and their gods. This shows that the Greeks considered themselves to be very close to the divine and did not allow intermediaries to stand between themselves and their gods. Accordingly, no specialized institution of mediation existed in Greek religious practice. Knowledge of the various ritual customs was passed down from generation to generation, and research indicates that the head of the family carried out the necessary sacrifices. Berve and Gruben (1963) write:
"For state religion was at one time attended to by the most eminent families, or else it actually sprang from the cult of a single family, which thenceforth had the right to appoint the priests of the god in question from among its own members. The seer, too, not infrequently came from a family in which the art of interpreting omens was handed down from one generation to the next. It is true, however, that most priests of the public cult were chosen for a year or even for life by lot, so that up to a point the deity himself selected his own servants. Purity in the sense of freedom from bodily defects, and — for priestesses at least — also chastity, were both prerequisites for the tenure of holy office."
Furthermore, the official duties of priests in the Greek religion were very limited compared with the roles and responsibilities of priests in the Christian tradition. Their duties were confined primarily to caring for the temples and overseeing the sacrifices made by the people of Greece. They received no official salary for their services. Berve and Gruben (1963) write:
"His official duties, which included, besides carrying out sacrifices and other rites or celebrations, custody of the temple and all the god's possessions, left the priest time for other activities, at least in the smaller sanctuaries. Hence, he no more received a salary than did the holders of other honorary offices, obtaining instead a share of the sacrificial flesh and the hide of the slaughtered animal, as well as fees in natural produce or money. At the bigger shrines these revenues were indeed so rich that they alone sufficed to tempt people into assuming or buying priestly office."
Many historians have underestimated the status and importance the Greeks gave to their sports and national festivals, because much of the present literature on Greece places heavy emphasis on Greek mythology. However, some historians have profoundly studied the influence of sports and religious festivals on Greek culture. Berve and Gruben (1963) discuss the significance of games:
"The fact that Pindar's songs of victory were already in antiquity grouped as Olympian, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian odes shows that the public games held during the great celebrations at Olympia, Delphi, and Nemea, and on the Isthmus of Corinth, surpassed all others in importance and fame."
Olympia was considered to possess a very scenic landscape and held tremendous importance to the Greeks because of its tree-covered terrain, fine valleys, plains, sharply rising mountains, and streams cutting deep into the landscape. Many historians have identified both the scenic beauty of this place and the games held there as the two major reasons for the construction of a temple. Berve and Gruben (1963) describe the landscape and write that "this is the very reason why a sacred place could develop there at which Greeks from the geographically and politically fragmented motherland, and from the daughter-cities in south Italy and Sicily across the Ionian Sea, assembled to worship jointly, and where they became conscious, over and beyond all differences and boundaries, of their unity."
The culture and customs cultivated in the temple and around Olympia held great significance to the Greeks throughout their history: "The force of the tradition and the power of fascination that Olympia radiated remained effective till the triumph of Christianity, which saw this sanctuary as a bastion of heathen religion."
While Olympia can be considered the most favored place for sporting activities, Delphi is most famous for its oracles and prophecies. "At the former: Zeus, the mighty god of the heavens; at the latter: Apollo, his radiant son. Apollo had no more been resident, in primitive times, in the place where he was later most highly honored than had his father" (K. Schefold, 1946; G. Roux, 1952; A. Orlandos, 1960, as cited in Berve and Gruben, 1963).
The temple of Delphi held great significance to the Greeks. While many historians have failed to identify physical traces of the early temple and have relied on the shared memory of the Greeks, some have found concrete evidence that a temple was built there. As recorded in Berve and Gruben (1963): "The temple of the classical period, before which stood a large altar given by Chios, was erected at the end of the sixth century by the Attic family of the Alcmaeonidae on the site of the building burned down in 548. It was paid for with money collected throughout the entire Greek world, and — partly at the family's expense — provided with a marble pronaos and magnificent pediment figures. An earthquake destroyed this edifice in 373, and its replacement could not be completed until about 330. Thus, what can still be seen today of the foundations, structural members, and recently re-erected columns belongs to the period when Greece came under the shadow of Macedonian power."
The temples of the Isthmus and Nemea are considered less famous than those at Olympia and Delphi because of the greater religious and symbolic importance of the latter two. Nonetheless, every year the Greeks gathered at these places for their national festivals and games, and people from all corners of Greece came to celebrate the occasion. As recorded in Berve and Gruben (1963): "Together with the hero Palaemon, Poseidon, the sea-god and earth-shaker, had since the sixth century possessed a temple in a grove of stone-pines on the sea-girt isthmus, with its many earthquakes, where the festival was celebrated under Corinthian leadership" (A. Frickenhaus, 1911, as cited in Berve and Gruben, 1963).
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