808 
MR. F. C. PENROSE ON THE RESULTS OF AN EXAMINATION 
wliicli can be cited, are tire two Minerva temples on the Acropolis at Athens, both of 
which in their orientation can be referred to the Pleiades (a constellation sacred to 
the goddess) at different epochs ; and at PJramnus the remains of the two temples of 
Themis and Nemesis, which evidently followed the same cult, are found side by side, 
with a difference in their orientation exactly tallying with the precessional movement 
of Spica."^ In the well-preserved temple at .^gina the western wmll of the cella has 
been pierced excentrically by the doorw^ay, and apparently for the object of enabling 
the setting of Antares to be observed from the adytum. There may have been other 
examples of the same kind, but the doorways of very few of the earliest temples in the 
country have been sufficiently well preserved to decide whether the same thing may 
or may not have been done. 
The orientation of temples may be divided into twm classes. Solar and Stellar. In 
the former the orientation lies within the solstitial limits, so that its angular distance 
from true east and west does not exceed the amplitude of the Sun at the solstice.s. 
The stellar orientation exceeds this limit. In Greece there are comparatively few of 
the latter class.—April 17, 1893.] 
The orientation angles giveii in the lists which follow were obtained from azimuths 
taken from the Sun or the planet Venus. In almost every case two or more sights 
were taken. Observations of stars at night were also used from time to time, to test 
the performance of the theodolite. Magnetic variations were also observed in most 
instances, which confirmed the opinion I had already arrived at that, owing to local 
attractions, magnetic bearings were not sufficiently exact for the purposes of this 
inquiry. The height subtended by the visible horizon opposite the axis of the temple 
was also in every case observed. 
For the present it may be treated as a postulate that in any temple oriented 
within the solstitial limits of its latitude, the axis was so dmected that, on the great 
festival of the year, the first beam of the rising Sun should fall upon the statue 
centrally placed in the temple, or on the incense altar in front of it; and as 
obviously the priests would desire to have due warning of the Sun’s approach, it was 
also arranged that some bright star or constellation sliould rise or set heliacally where 
it could be seen from the adytum. By heliacal rising or setting, a phrase used in 
many passages of ancient writers, is meant, that such star should be just visible 
before the light of the rising Sun should be too powerful. This interval of time 
would vary according to circumstances, but it would generally require that the 
depression of the Sun below the horizon should be about ten degrees. Previous to 
the invention of water clocks or other artificial means of measuring time, the rising 
or setting of the stars would have been the only reliable chronometers at night. 
In the following list the orientation angles are measured from the south and 
round by way of west, north, and east :— 
* At Tegea also there ai‘e divergent foundations, wliich appear to correspond to changing amplitudes of 
a Arietis. 
