Talk:Ancient Greek temple

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A fact from Ancient Greek temple appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 18 November 2007. The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Greek temples went from small structures of mud and wood (9th century BC) to the classical stone monuments widely known today (6th century BC)?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2007/November.

Wikipedia

Most famous?[edit]

I've removed the following until it can be verified. I seriously doubt most people could name the building.

   "(The Parthenon) remains the most famous building in the world today"

Apathetic 07:03, 4 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

For things that aren't people, "best known" is sometimes preferable to "famous". I often make the same substitution, but for this article wrote "most famous building in the world" because the Parthenon is often called that by people who write about it.

A thing can be considered famous without most people being able to name it. The Venus de Milo is a famous sculpture, along with the Discobolus and Rodin's The Thinker. That is, most people would recognize the Venus de Milo if shown a picture of it, but may not be able to name the statue. The opening paragraphs of the WP articles on those sculptures all describe them as famous works of art, and it's not a case of Wikipedians getting it wrong. They are repeating the views of classical scholars and art historians.

Buildings are not accorded the popular, household name status enjoyed by movie stars, pop musicians and writers of novels, but within spheres interested in the visual arts and architecture certain objects are considered famous.

A Google search for "parthenon" +"famous building" verifies that the Parthenon is routinely said to be "the most famous building in the world", or "the most famous building in Western histroy", by scholars and authors who have written about either the Parthenon itself or classical architecture.

1,100 is not a large number of hits, but these references are to printed books, not webpages. So the veracity of the statement in question becomes semantic quibbling. What's the difference between "famous" and "best-known"? A matter of context.

Arbo 08:14, 4 September 2006 (UTC) @[reply]

Update: google search for "most famous building in the world" indicates the Empire State Building, Chrysler building, Taj Mahal and Sydney Opera House are right up there at the top of the ladder, well above the Parthenon, and the Eiffel Tower hardly rates a mention.

Fascinating, because most of the hits in this search refer to webpages, newspapers and magazines, not scholarly books. One webpage has a gaping weasle expression "...considered by many to be the most famous building in the world..."

Of all of the buildings mentioned so far, which is the most famous in the world really? Depends who is doing the talking.

Arbo 09:36, 4 September 2006 (UTC) @[reply]

I'm not against having this mentioned, but it needs a reliable source to back it up. Even then, it should probably be something like "has been called the best-known" with a reference. Apathetic 00:43, 6 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Perfect. It can remain as it is for the time being tho. Thanks for your input.

Arbo | talk 17:55, 13 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Certain day?[edit]

What's this about? Is it more special on some days than on others?

   Greek temples faced east because thats the way the sun rises making it amazing on a certain day

Boemanneke 16:07, 3 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

major update and extension[edit]

I have extended this article, mostly drawing the on the German version, which is a featured article. I have mainly diverted from that version by providing more intermediate topic titles and by organising the illustrations in a different fashion, as well as by adding some. It would be useful if more English references could be found (although there actually is a bigger body of literature on this topic in German). athinaios 20:05, 12 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Upgraded rating[edit]

This is a "generic" article that is of "top" importance to several disciplines, not merely "high importance". I have taken the liberty of upgading it on the archaeology and Greece and Rome projects as well as architecture. Someone needs to knock it into shape. Amandajm (talk) 15:15, 10 December 2008 (UTC) what the hay stack[reply]

External links modified[edit]

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Dodecastyle query[edit]

From Glossary_of_architecture#D: "Dodecastyle: Temple where the portico has twelve columns in front, as in the portico added to the Temple of Demeter at Eleusis, designed by Philo, the architect of the arsenal at the Peiraeus.[24]" (EB 1911)

From Ancient Greek temple, # Column number terminology: "The term dodekastylos is only used for the 12-column hall at the Didymaion. No temples with facades of that width are known". unref.

Thoughts? Johnbod (talk) 01:10, 30 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]

End of Greek temple construction:[edit]

The article presents Greek temple construction as ending in the 1st century BC, after which Roman temples were built instead. This is (a) false (the temple of Zeus at Aezani is a standard Greek temple built in the late 1st century AD) and (b) misleading, since the distinction between Greek and Roman temples is very blurred.

The key sentence is: The increasing romanisation of the east[26] entailed the end of Greek temple architecture, although work continued on the completion of unfinished large structures like the temple of Apollo at Didyma or the Olympieion at Athens into the later 2nd century AD.[27]

[26] is a citation for a general claim that Romanisation occurred in the East in the Imperial period. [27] is a note "Regarding Roman period and financing, using the province of Asia as an example" (i.e. an aside). So the article offers no citation for its claim that Greek temple architecture died out. It seems to be playing into old fashioned ideas about Greek decline under the Roman empire. Furius (talk) 21:14, 11 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]