Temple of Athena (Assos)

The Temple of Athena at Assos is the only archaic Doric order temple in Asia Minor, where the Ionic order otherwise dominated. The temple was found heavily ruined, but a large portion of the building elements was still present, making it possible to largely reconstruct its structure. The sanctuary displays some peculiarities that are atypical for Greek temples, making it of great architectural interest. Particularly noteworthy is the decorative architecture, which besides metopes, as typical for the Doric order, also includes on the architrave a relief frieze rather typical for the Ionic order. The dating of the temple is disputed. Proposals range from 560 to 440 BC. More recent investigations and considerations place the construction around 540 BC. At that time the region was under Persian rule.

Although various European travelers visited Assos and mentioned antiquities, the temple was first mentioned and briefly described at the beginning of the 19th century by the Englishman William Martin Leake. The first systematic excavations took place from 1881 to 1883 under the direction of the American Joseph Thacher Clarke. The results of the excavations were published in various reports. Further excavations were carried out from 1979 to 1987 and were published in 2012.

The peripteral temple stands on a hill that was the acropolis of Assos, which in turn lies not far from the sea. The building, about 14.00 × 30.30 m in size, was constructed from local volcanic andesite—a hard and coarse‑crystalline material—and consisted of a peristasis with 6 × 13 columns, a cella and a pronaos, between whose antae two columns rose. The pteron in front of the pronaos was laid particularly deep, so that the anta fronts axially corresponded only with the third column position of the long sides. The substructure consisted of an euthynteria and a crepidoma formed by a single step, on which directly the stylobate as the support of the columns followed. The columns had a lower diameter of 0.91 m and were originally about 4.6 m high. Their inter‑axis distance was 2.45 m on the long sides and 2.66 m on the fronts, where the corner joch was the only measure to resolve the Doric corner conflict, contracted to 2.55 m. Of the originally 36 Doric capitals, 32 were found, which can be divided into various groups.

From the architrave, 18 undecorated and 15 blocks decorated with a figure frieze are completely or partially preserved. The representations can be thematically divided into two groups. There are mythological scenes and protective animals, some of which are mythical creatures. Thus the figure frieze shows heraldic sphinxes, fighting bulls, lions with prey, but also the battle of Heracles against Triton and his pursuit of the centaurs—here depicted with human legs—on Mount Pholoe. In addition, the frieze presents Nereids and a symposium scene with four persons placed directly on the floor. From the triglyph frieze, ten metopes are preserved, which show similar figures. There are mythical creatures, but also human figures such as runners, riders and fighters. One metope shows Europa on the bull. It seems that several sculptors were at work, even though the style overall is uniform and fits well with northeastern Greek art.

The roof was made of wood and covered with terracotta tiles. It was decorated with architectural ornament, but only few of its components were found, including a decorated fragment belonging to the eaves, as well as fragments of the sima. Only a terracotta antefix was found, while a lion head may have come from a waterspout. From the acroterion a single fragment was found.

The temple was renovated several times in antiquity, first extensively apparently soon after its original completion, possibly as a result of an earthquake. In Hellenistic times a black‑white pebble mosaic was laid in the cella. It was still well preserved at the end of the 19th century, but has disappeared today.