Apollo's Temples
Many temples were dedicated to Apollo in Greece and the Greek colonies. They show the spread of the cult of Apollo and the evolution of the Greek architecture, which was mostly based on the rightness of form and on mathematical relations. Some of the earliest temples, especially in Crete, do not belong to any Greek order. It seems that the first peripteral temples were rectangular wooden structures. The different wooden elements were considered divine, and their forms were preserved in the marble or stone elements of the temples of Doric order. The Greeks used standard types because they believed that the world of objects was a series of typical forms which could be represented in several instances. The temples should be canonic, and the architects were trying to achieve this esthetic perfection.From the earliest times there were certain rules strictly observed in rectangular peripteral and prostyle buildings. The first buildings were built narrowly in order to hold the roof, and when the dimensions changed some mathematical relations became necessary in order to keep the original forms. This probably influenced the theory of numbers of Pythagoras, who believed that behind the appearance of things there was the permanent principle of mathematics.
The Doric order dominated during the 6th and the 5th century BC but there was a mathematical problem regarding the position of the triglyphs, which couldn't be solved without changing the original forms. The order was almost abandoned for the Ionic order, but the Ionic capital also posed an insoluble problem at the corner of a temple. Both orders were abandoned for the Corinthian order gradually during the Hellenistic age and under Rome.
Apollo's Temples Stamp Collection
Greece 1961 Temple of Apollo Doric columns in Delphi
Greece 1999 Temple of Apollo Doric columns in Delphi
Apollo's temple in Delphi
Central among the number of imposing ruins that are interspersed on the Southern slopes of Parnassos mountain is the temple of Apollo. It is an imposing temple of the Doric order whose existence was woven through the turbulent history of the site, and endured numerous incarnations before it settled to the ruinous state we find it today, and which dates back to the 4th c. B.C. The temple of Apollo was first built around the 7th c. B.C. by the two legendary architects Trophonios and Agamedes. It was rebuilt after a fire in the 6th c. B.C.. and was named the "Temple of Alcmeonidae" in tribute to the noble Athenian family that oversaw its construction with funds form all over Greece and foreign emperors. This temple was also of the Doric order and had 6 columns at the front, and 15 columns at the flanks.
This temple was destroyed in 373 B.C. by an earthquake and was rebuilt for the third time in 330 B.C. Spintharos, Xenodoros, and Agathon, architects from Corinth. The sculptures that adorned its pediment were the creation of Athenian sculptors Praxias and Androsthenes. It was built to similar proportions and size as the Alcmeonidae version of the temple, with a peristasis of 6 and 15 columns along the short and long edges respectively.
Cyprus 1962 Temple of Apollo Hylates at Kourion 2nd century BC
Cyprus 1985 Temple of Apollo Hylates at Kourion 2nd century BC
Greece 1999 Temple of Apollo Hylates at Kourion 2nd century BC
Hylates was a god worshipped on the island of Cyprus who was later likened to the Greek God Apollo. His name probably derives from „barking“ or „forest“, which is why Lebek calls him Apollo of the woods. He was worshipped from the 3rd century BC until the 3rd century AD. An important sanctuary was located in Kourion.
Greece 1933 Temple of Apollo at Korinth
The temple of Apollo at Corinth is one of the earliest Doric temples in the Peloponnese and the Greek mainland. Built around 560 B.C.E., of local oolithic limestone on top of an imposing, rocky hill to the north of Acrocorinth, the Archaic temple was an emblem for the Greek city of Corinth, reflecting its growth and prosperity. The temple was peripteral, surrounded by a pteron of 42 monolithic, limestone columns (6×15), over 7 m. high. Its central structure was divided into three parts: an antechamber with two columns in antis (pronaos), a central oblong, rectangular room subdivided into two parts (cella), and a rear room with two columns in antis (opistodomos).
Greece 1967 Temple of Apollo at Bassai in Oichalia, a municipality in the northeastern part of Messenia, Greece. The temple was dedicated to Apollo Epikourios ("Apollo the helper"). It sits at an elevation of 1,131 metres above sea level on the slopes of Kotylion Mountain. Its construction is placed between 450 BC and 400 BC. It was supposedly designed by Iktinos, architect at Athens of the Parthenon.
Turkey 2013 Temple of Apollo in Side, Antalya Region, the 2nd century CE
Turkey 2017 Temple of Apollo in Side, Antalya Region, the 2nd century CE
The Temple of Apollo in Side is believed to be the place where Anthony met Cleopatra; he presented the Apollo Temple as a token of his love and devotion to her.
Even without the romantic angle, the Apollo Temple is a magnificent work of architecture dating back to 2nd century AD. What made it different from other temples of that era, is its antechamber which had a pair of massive Corinthian columns. It was built in honor of Apollo, the god of light and music.
Turkey 2014 Temple of Apollo in Side, Antalya Region, the 2nd century CE
Greece 2006 Temple of Apollo in Naxos
Turkey 2016 Temple of Apollo in Side, Antalya Region, the 2nd century CE. for the Horticultural EXPO 2016
Ajman 1972 The Temple of Apollo in Pompeii, is a Roman temple built in 120 BC
Located in the forum (market place) and facing the northern side of the town, it is the town's most important religious building and has ancient origins.