Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-npj9w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-10T08:22:15.271Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Temple Building at Segesta

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Alison Burford
Affiliation:
Newnham College, Cambridge

Extract

The hollow peristasis at Segesta presents two interrelated problems. The question of how Greek temples were constructed, and whether the method generally used was applied to the structure at Segesta, depends to some extent for its answer upon the Segestans' motives for building. And the problem of motive is affected by considerations of architectural method. Neither problem appears to have been fully discussed in the light of the other. The result is that at the moment the prevailing views of either problem stand quite unconnected. Thus while many scholars accept the structure as the sole surviving member of a projected scheme to build a complete temple, the theory is now widely held that it was meant to serve merely as a hellenizing decorative element round an Elymian shrine or open-air altar, and so, that the Segestans' interest in Greek temple-architecture was purely superficial.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1961

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable