DOI: 10.53084/3459.2025.23.56.002

E.A. Boiko
Temple architecture of the Sicilian tyrannies in the Early Classical period

Abstract: The paper is focused on temples built in Sicily, presumably during the period of activity of the Emmenids and the Deinomenids dynasties. The problems of dating, attribution and interpretation of Sicilian temples in the region are acute due to the small amount of epigraphic data and the quality of archaeological research carried out in the 19th and 20th centuries. However, the question of the influences of tyranny on aesthetics is a classic one. The research focuses not on the temples mentioned by the ancient authors (however, they are taken into account), but on the archaeological constructions correlated with the time of the Emmenids and Deinomenids and on typological similarities of these constructions. The investigation indicates that in Sicily in this epoch almost no temples of small and medium size, but only large temples are built. They are often connected with ancient and honored places of the poleis. All these temples are structurally similar. During this era, the new plan of temples was born, which is followed in Sicily (especially in Akragas) throughout the 5th century BC. Besides, all the temples are built strictly in the Doric order, ionian features disappear. The appearance of these temples was close to the Doric temple on Aegina but retained some archaizing details (such as the proportions of the capitals or the treatment of architectural sculpture).

Keywords: Ancient Greek Art, Architecture, Early Classics, urban development, Early tyrannies, Emmenids, Deinomenids, Sicily, Akragas, Syracuse, Himera, temple of Zeus the Olympian at Akragas

To cite this article: Boiko E.A. Temple architecture of the Sicilian tyrannies in the Early Classical period. Aristeas XXXII (2025): 18–41.

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Author:

Elizaveta A. Boiko