1893.] Orientation of a number of Greek Temples, $c. 



383 



almost entirely confined to the Zodiacal constellations, and conse- 

 quently suitable stars are very much limited in number. 



Another very great limitation arises from the consideration that, to 

 have been of any service as a time warner, the star must have been 

 heliacal, and when these two limitations are taken into account, it 

 becomes improbable to the greatest degree that there should always 

 have been a suitable star unless it had been so arranged by the 

 builders of the temple. 



In about two-thirds of the cases which I have investigated the 

 dates deduced from the orientations are clearly earlier than the 

 architectural remains now visible above the ground. This is ex- 

 plained by the temples having been rebuilt upon old foundations, as 

 may be seen in several cases which have been excavated, of which 

 the archaic Temple of Minerva on the Acropolis of Athens and the 

 Temple of Jupiter Olympius on a lower site are instances. There 

 are temples also of a middle epoch, such as the examples at Corinth, 

 ^Es?ina, and the later temples at Argos and at Olympia (the 

 Metroum at the last named), of which the orientation dates are quite 

 consistent with what may be gathered from other sources. 



Besides the list "of intra-solstitial temples already given, I have 

 particulars of five for which I have been unable to find an heliacal 

 star. They are all known to be of recent foundation, when other 

 methods of measuring time had been discovered. The solar axial 

 coincidences were no doubt in all these cases connected with the 

 great festivals of these temples. It was clearly the case in two of 

 them. 



At the Theseum at Athens the date was either October 10 or 

 March 2. The Thesea festival is reckoned to have been on October 

 S or 9. For the later Erechtheum the day would have been April 8 

 or September 3. The great festival of this temple is put down for 

 September 3. 



Leaving the solar temples, we find that the star which was ob- 

 served at the great Temple of Ceres must have been Sirius, not used, 

 however, heliacally — although this temple is not extra- solstitial — but 

 for its own refulgence at midnight. The date so determined is quite 

 consistent with the probable time of the foundation of the Eleusinian 

 Mysteries and the time of year when at its rising it would have 

 crossed the axis at midnight agrees exactly with that of the celebra- 

 tion of the Great Mysteries. 



It is reasonable to suppose that when, as in the case of Sirius at 

 Eieusis, brilliant stars were observed at night, the effect was 

 enhanced by the priests by means of polished surfaces. 



Herodotus, speaking of a temple at Tyre (B. IT, 44), says : — 



4 * Kai ev avru) rjaau o-Trj\ai ?vo. rj fiev -)(j}vaov ti7re(fi0ov, ?j Se a/uLapu^tov 

 \l0OV, Xd/LITTOVTOS Tas vvktcls /jLe^aOos" 



