On the Orientation of Greek Temples, fyc. 



379 



April 27, 1893. 



The LORD KELVIN, D.C.L., LL.D., President, in the Chair. 



A List of the Presents received was laid on the table, and thanks 

 ordered for them. 



The following Papers were read : — 



I. " On the Results of an Examination of the Orientation of a 

 number of Greek Temples, with a view to connect these 

 Angles with the Amplitudes of certain Stars at the time 

 these Temples were founded, and an endeavour to derive 

 therefrom the Dates of their Foundation by consideration 

 of the Changes produced upon the Right Ascension and 

 Declination of the Stars arising from the Precession of the 

 Equinoxes." By F. C. Penrose, F.R.A.S. Communicated 

 by Professor J. Gorman Lockyer, F.R.S. Received Decem- 

 ber 13, 1892. 



(Abstract.) 



This investigation is supplementary to Mr. Lockyer's examination 

 of the orientation of the Egyptian temples, in the course of which 

 he has cited passages translated from hieroglyphics, showing most 

 distinctly that there was a connexion between the foundation of 

 those temples and certain stars. He has also shown that the struc- 

 ture of the temples demonstrates that the light from these stars 

 must have been admitted at their rising or setting along the axis of the 

 temples through the doorways, and that in certain temples the door- 

 ways have been altered in such a way as to follow the amplitude of the 

 star as it changed, owing to the precession of the Equinoxes, and that 

 in some cases a new temple had been founded alongside of an older 

 one for the same purpose. 



Although there does not seem to be any historical or epigraphical 

 record of such a nature in Greece, the architectural evidence is not 

 wanting. On the Acropolis of Athens there are two temples, both 

 dedicated to Minerva, lying within a few yards of one another, both 

 apparently oriented to the Pleiades, the older temple to an earlier 

 position of the star group, and the other to a later one. At Rhamnus 

 there are two temples almost touching one another, both following 

 (and with accordant dates) the shifting places of Spica. In a temple 



