All Topics  
Bassae

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 
 

 

Bassae
 
 
  Topics Bassae Topic Home

Bassae (Latin) or Bassai, Vassai or Vasses, meaning "little vale in the rocks", is an archaeological site in the northeastern part of Messinia Prefecture that was a part of ArcadiaArcadia

Arcadia or Arkada is a region of Greece in the Peloponnesus....
 in ancient times. Bassae lies northeast of KyparissiaKyparissia

Kyparissia, rarely Cyparissia is a town of around 4,000 in western Messenia....
, south of AndritsainaAndritsaina

Andritsaina, also Andritsena is a community and a municipality located in the southeastern part of the Ilia Prefecture...
 and west of MegalopolisFacts About Megalopolis

Megalopolis can mean:* The town of Megalópoli, Megalopolis, Greece....
. It is famous for the well-preserved mid-5th century BCE Temple of Apollo Epicurius.

Although this temple is geographically remote from major polities of ancient Greece, it is one of the most studied ancient Greek temples because of its multitude of unusual features. Bassae was the first Greek site to be inscribed on the World Heritage List (1986). Its construction is placed between 450 BCE and 425 BCE.

Temple of Apollo Epikourios

The temple was dedicated to ApolloApollo

In Greek and Roman mythology, Apollo , the ideal of the kouros, was the archer-god of medicine and healing and also a b...
 Epikourios ("Apollo the helper"). It was designed by IktinosIktinos

Iktinos was an architect active in the mid 5th century BC, who, together with Kallikrates designed the Parthenon in Athens...
, architect of the Temple of HephaestusTemple of Hephaestus

The Temple of Hephaestus in central Athens, Greece, is the best-preserved ancient Greek temple in the world, but is far less...
 and the ParthenonParthenon

he Parthenon was a temple of Athena, built in the 5th century BC on the Acropolis of Athens....
. The ancient writer PausaniasPausanias (geographer)

Pausanias was a Greek traveller and geographer of the 2nd century A.D., who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius an...
 praises the temple as eclipsing all others but the temple of Athena at TegeaTegea

Tegea was a settlement in ancient Greece, and it is also a municipality in modern Arcadia, Greece, with its seat in the vill...
 by the beauty of its stone and the harmony of its construction. It sits at an elevation of 1,131 metres above sea level on the slopes of Kotylion Mountain.

Construction and decoration

The temple is aligned north-south, in contrast to the majority of Greek temples which are aligned east-west; its principle entrance is from the north. This was necessitated by the limited space available on the steep slopes of the mountain. To overcome this restriction a door was placed in the side of the temple, perhaps to allow worshippers to face east or let light in to illuminate the statue.

The temple is of a relatively modest size, with the stylobateStylobate

In classical Greek architecture, a stylobate is the top step of the crepidoma, the stepped platform on which colonnades of t...
 measuring 38.3 by 14.5 metres containing a DoricDoric order

The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of Ancient Greek or classical architecture; the...
 peristylePeristyle

In Roman architecture a peristyle is a columned porch or open colonnade in a building that surrounds a court that may contai...
 of six by fifteen columns. The roof left a central space open to admit light and air. The temple was constructed entirely out of grey ArcardianArcadia

Arcadia or Arkada is a region of Greece in the Peloponnesus....
 limestoneLimestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite ....
 except of the friezeFrieze

In architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain or — in the Ionic or Co...
 which was carved from marbleMarble

Marble is a metamorphic rock resulting from the metamorphism of limestone, composed mostly of calcite ....
. Like most major temples it has three "rooms" or porches: the pronaosPronaos

A pronaos is the inner area of the portico of an ancient Greek or Roman temple, situated between the portico's colonnade or ...
, plus a naos and an opisthodomosOpisthodomos

An opisthodomos was the room present at the rear of some ancient Greek temples....
. The naos most likely once housed a cult statue of Apollo. The temple lacks some optical refinements similar to those found in the ParthenonParthenon

he Parthenon was a temple of Athena, built in the 5th century BC on the Acropolis of Athens....
, such as a subtly curved floor, though the columns have entasisEntasis

In architecture, entasis is a design technique used to counteract a certain optical illusion....
.

The temple is unusual in that it has examples of all three of the classical orders used in ancient Greek architecture: DoricDoric order

The Doric order was one of the three orders or organizational systems of Ancient Greek or classical architecture; the...
, IonicIonic order

The Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two...
, and CorinthianFacts About Corinthian order

The Corinthian order is one of the Classical orders of Greek and Roman architecture, characterized by a slender fluted colum...
. Doric columns form the peristyle while Ionic columns support the porch and Corinthian columns feature in the interior. The Corinthian capitalCapital (architecture)

In several traditions of architecture including Classical architecture, the capital forms the crowning member of the column....
 is the earliest example of the order found to date.

It was relatively sparsely decorated on the exterior. Inside, however, there was a continuous Ionic friezeFrieze

In architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain or — in the Ionic or Co...
 showing Greeks in battle with AmazonsAmazons

In Greek mythology, the Amazons were either an ancient legendary nation of female warriors or a land dominated by women at ...
 and the LapithLapith

In Greek mythology, the Lapiths were a semi-legendary, semi-historical race, whose home was in Thessaly in the valley of the...
s engaged in battle with CentaurCentaur

This article is on the mythological creatures....
s. This frieze's metopesMetope (architecture)

In classical architecture, a metope is the space between two triglyphs of a Doric frieze....
 were removed by Charles Robert CockerellCharles Robert Cockerell

Charles Robert Cockerell was an English architect, archaeologist, and writer....
 and taken to the British Museum in 1815. (They are still to be seen in the British Museum's Gallery 16, near the Elgin MarblesElgin Marbles

The Elgin Marbles, sometimes called the Parthenon Marbles, are a large collection of marble sculptures brought to ...
.) Cockerell decorated the walls of the Ashmolean MuseumAshmolean Museum

The Ashmolean Museum on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England is the world's first university museum....
's Great Staircase and that of the Travellers ClubTravellers Club

The Travellers Club is a gentlemen's club standing at 106 Pall Mall, London....
 with plaster casts of the same frieze.

Preservation

The temple's remoteness— Pausanias is the only ancient traveller whose remarks on Bassae have survived— has worked to its advantage for its preservation. Other, more accessible temples were damaged or destroyed by war or by conversion to later religious uses; the Temple of Apollo escaped both these fates. Due to its distance from major metropolitan areas it also has less of a problem with acid rainAcid rain

Acid rain occurs when sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are emitted into the atmosphere, undergo chemical transformations ...
 which quickly dissolves limestone and damages marble carvings.

The temple of Apollo is presently covered in white tent with five rows in order to protect the ruins from the elements. Conservation work is currently being carried out under the supervision of the Committee of the Epicurean Apollo, which is based in Athens.

External links


ipt>