NEED ANSWER FAST! (Har)
Helen’s Eidolon?
I recall that at some point I heard that while most of the temples are oriented so the entrance is eastward, EXCEPTION is in the case of chthonic gods and Hades and such which are oriented westward (disoriented? 
). I can only find one reference to a temple to Hades (Elis) but can’t find a lick of info about its architecture on the web. Anyone know of examples? That mystery cult mess at Samothrace maybe?
Looking forward to seeing a serious answer to this. That westward orientation cannot be purely occidental.
Not sure, but isn’t that the direction that the underworld was located? In the west? So wouldn’t it make sense to orient your temples that way?
But it’s been a LOONG long time since i had any latin classic classes.
No, not for the Romans at least. In the Aeneid, there is an entrance to Hades in Italy. Of course, that would be west to the Greeks, and the op is about the Greeks.
The guy who obsessed over this is Joseph Norman Lockyer, who wrote a book about ancient astronomical orientations. It went out of print, but Jerome Lettvin of MIT brought it to the attention of the MIT press, and they put out a paperback edition several years back. Fascinating stuff I don’t know how Lockyer’s received by the archaeological community, but at least he’s no van Daniken:
[quote]
Some Greek temples were oriented astronomically.[1]
…
^ Penrose, F.C., (communicated by Joseph Norman Lockyer), The Orientation of Greek Temples, Nature, v.48, n.1228, May 11, 1893, pp.42-43
[\quote]
There’s quite a bit here:
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sitchin/whentimebegan/whentimebegan03.htm
Here’s his book, The Dawn of Astronomy, although I see he has a great many others out. The guy edited Nature for years:
IIRC, he associated several temples with the heliacal rising of significant stars, not the sun. I don’t recal him saying anything about chthonic gods.
Better page on Dawn of Astronomy:
The Temple of Apollo at Vassae is orientated not far off North-South, just to add another dimension to the mix. It’s speculated that this might just be to do with the topography, so maybe the Greeks weren’t that bothered by the orientation, but I think this is a subject we don’t know enough facts about. I suspect a trawl through Pausanias is the best bet, but I don’t have the time. Hades had several entrances so you wouldn’t really be pointing towards it with any orientation (apart from up-down, maybe).
I don’t recall Pausanias saying much, if anything, about orientations. You’d want to look through your Pausanias to identify the temple, and use modern maps or archaeological plans for the orientation, I’d think. Not a quick study over a weekend, I’m afraid.
No he doesn’t, at least not directly. Colonel Leake is your man for that! What I meant is that he might be of help in talking about temples to Hades, and whether they differed in any way to ‘normal’ temples. I can’t think of any extant ones and the only thing that comes to my head is the sanctuary to Hades at Tenaron, but there are no temple remains there.
Ah, interesting replies. I was sort of hunting for something in the “commonplace knowledge” realm and apparently this is not in that realm. (I think the closest clear examples I’ve come by are temples to Kali! A bit irrelevant here) Was something interesting I was going to add as an aside in lectures but the issue sounds pretty iffy. Good to know! Thanks, all.
smacks Polycarp
I’ve never heard of anything about it - Cal clearly has a handle on the historiography of the issue. I’ll say that, in general, the idea of a divide between Olympian and chthonic (my favourite word ever, by the way) deities is very controversial - there are good arguments on both sides.
My roommate, doing her PhD in Greek archaeology, also reports no knowledge of any general rules of temple orientation.