GREEK TEMPLES AND THE DATES OP THEIR FOUNDATION. 
63 
Lycians. Consequently, there is nothing archseologically inconsistent when we find a 
temple on a commanding’ site at Agrigentum, with a date as early as about 700 B.C., 
although the Hellenic colony, mentioned by Thucydides, may not have gone there 
until 582. At Selinus the earliest astronomic date is about 800 b,c. This temple is 
that called for convenience temple C in fig. 2. It was here that the extremely archaic 
sculptures, now in the museum at Palermo, were found, representing Hercules carrying 
off the Cercopian giants, to wdrich the date 795 seems as consistent as anything 
subsequent to 628 would be. 
The orientation of this temple C shows that about an hour before the sun rose 
upon the axis, a Arietis was setting heliacally towards the West, nearly two cen¬ 
turies before the date of the Hellenic colonization of the city. When, however, the 
newcomers took possession, they would have found that the star had ceased to serve the 
purpose it was intended to fulfil, and accordingly it would appear that a new temple, D, 
was built closely adjoining it to the North at an angle sufficiently inclined to follow 
the star. The calculated date of this new work is eighteen years after the coming of 
the Hellenes. From the star a Arietis beino- thus connected with the orientation, 
it may be inferred that these two temples were dedicated to Jupiter. The fact that 
the achievements of Hercules had formed the subject of the metopes of the earlier 
temple by no means invalidates the supposition that the temple itself may have been 
so dedicated. The temple A falls w^ell in the Hellenic period, and the architectural 
character, both of this and of temple D, appears to be in keeping with the astronomic 
dates. Temple B is extremely small, and is apparently parallel to the neighbouring 
temple C, but I did not examine it particular!}". Of the group of temples on the 
Eastern hill I was unable from want of time to secure the orientations with sufficient 
exactness to justify my giving final elements. The angles, however, are approxi¬ 
mately as below :— 
O / 
T, the great temple. 276 40. 
S. 275 35. 
R. 275 40. 
From these it may be inferred that tlie dates accord with the time of the Hellenic 
colonization. 
At Segesta the star, a, Arietis, seems to favour the supposition that the original 
temple wa.s dedicated to Jupiter. The existing structure, which from the refined 
character of its architecture seems to require a date of about the middle of the fifth 
century b.c. (which was also the epoch of a flourishing period among the Greek cities 
of Sicily), appears never to have been completely finished. As for the original founda¬ 
tion, if we accept the tradition countenanced by Thucydides that the city was 
founded by refugees from Ti’oy, the probability of tlie foundation of a temple in 
honour of Juptiter a century or more earlier does not require much argument. 
At Agrigentum, with the exception of the temple attributed to Juno Lacinia, 
