OF THE ORIENTATIONS OF A NUMBER OF GREEK TEiMPLES. 
825 
or November 21 , which days do not seem to have had any association with the 
mysteries. 
There remain also amongst the temples which I examioed, five, of which the 
orientation lies between the solstitial limits, all of them apparently of late foundation, 
which do not appear to have any connection wuth heliacal stars ; namely, at Athens, 
the Theseum, the later Erechtheum, the later Temple of Bacchus, and the existing- 
Jupiter Olympius; and at Ephesus the latest of the three great temples of Diana. 
The orientation of these temples can supply no data for pointing out the year of 
them foundation, but it may throw light upon the month and day of their principal 
festivals. 
The Theseum, with orientation angle 283° 6' 2", bad the sun rising over Hymettus 
in the direction of its axis on March 2 or October 10. The festival of the Thesea is 
considered to have been held on October 8 or 9. 
The axis of the later Erechtheum—orientation angle 265° 9' 22"—was visited by 
f 
the rising sunbeam on April 4 or September 7. Or, if the Sun at its rising was made 
to appear towards the northern door jamb, wEich as before observed seems to have 
been the arrangement in some other of the Athenian temples, and if the amplitude 
be increased by 2°, the days would be either April 8 or September 3. The third of 
September is the assigned date of a great festival—the Niceteria—held in this 
temple. 
The later Temple of Bacchus, at Athens, of which the orientation angle is 
255° 49' 30", would have received the first sunbeam along its axis on April 23 or 
August 18. That of Jupiter Ol 3 unpius is 270° 5' 2". The sunrise dates would be 
March 26 or September 15. The axis of the later temple at Ephesus, of which the 
orientation angle is 284° 35' 17", would have coincided with sunrise on February 28 
or October 14. 
Lastly, amongst the temples which I examined I met with five examples outside 
the solstitial limits, temples, namely, which at no time of the year could have had a 
sunbeam coinciding with their axes—and with these I may associate two others 
which I did not visit and of which I can give no exact measures, and a site which I 
did visit, but where no antique remains are actually visible, namely, that of the 
former Temple of Venus, at Ancona.* If, as may be presumed, the jaresent cathedral 
IS built on the old foundations, the orientation would in this case also be extra- 
solstitial. i 
These temples were very probably arranged, as many of those in Egypt appear to 
have been, so as to coincide with the rising or setting of some star. In five cases 
of those referred to, the jDeculiarity of the site must have influenced the direction of 
the axis. I have not yet subjected any of these to sidereal discussion ; the list is as 
follows :— 
1. The great temple at Delphi, which has not yet been excavated, and where con- 
* Ante clomtim Veneris qnam Dorica sustinet Ancon. .Tov., ‘ Sat.’ IV. 
MDCCCXCTTT.—A. 5 N 
