Temple of Athena Alea and Skopas

Shortly after the middle of the 4th century. B.C. a new marble temple is built. It was a work of Skopas, a famous architect and sculptor of the 4th century BC. It was a peripteral hexastyle doric temple with fourteen columns at its long sides. Influences from the temple of Apollo at Figaleia and the Athenian Propylaea are obvious.

Its uniqueness lies in its exceptional proportions, the architecture of its interior space and the exceptional pedimental sculptures and relief ornamentation. In On the east pediment the Calydonian Boar Hunt was featured, while in the west pediment the combat between Telephus and Achilles at Kaikos river in Magnesia on the Meander.

The discovery of fragments of these sculptures during the excavations conducted in the early and mid 20th century revealed the stylistic features, as well as the innovations in Skopas’ artistic expression: Passion, intense movement, deep carving of anatomical features of the face, dynamic movement of the garment foreshadow the trends of the new Era: The Hellenistic.

As far as the architecture is concerned, the extensive use of the Corinthian order, the creation of internal facades and the play of light and shadow introduce a new conception of space. Interior space emerges autonomous from the austere, traditional doric exterior facades. Skopas forms an essentially cultic space, a space dominated by the «eikon» (image) of the divine – this is the cult statue of Athena Alea – as wel as by symbolic offerings related to the history of the polis and the cult.