Metŏpae
（
μετόπαι, Vitruv. iv. 2.4; literally,
“interstices between two beam-ends”). A name given in Doric architecture
to the spaces between the triglyphs (q. v.) in the frieze. They were originally left open.
Thus, Orestes manages to make his way into the Tauric temple of Artemis through one of
these openings (Eurip.
Iph. T. 113). They were afterwards filled with panels of
wood, which were in course of time superseded by plain slabs of marble, as in the temples at
Paestum, etc. These slabs were sometimes slightly ornamented with a round shield in low
relief, as in the frieze
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Metopé from the Cella of the Great Temple of Olympia. Nymph, Heracles, and
Atlas.
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of the temple of Zeus at Olympia. More frequently they were filled with figures in
relief, as in those of Selinus (see
Statuaria
Ars), and of the Theseum and the
Parthenon
(q.v.). The term is also applied to similarly sculptured slabs not placed between the
triglyphs, but on the wall of the
cella, as in the temple of Zeus at
Olympia. See
Olympia.
