ANTAE
ANTAE (
παραστάδες) were
originally posts or pillars flanking a doorway. (Festus,
s. v.
Antes.) They were of a square form, and are, in fact, to be regarded
rather as strengthened terminations of the walls than as pillars affixed to
them. There is no clear case of the application of the word to detached
square pillars, although Nonius explains it by
quadrae
columnae (1.124).
The chief use of
antae was in that form of
temple which was called, from them,
in antis
(
ναὸς ἐν παραστάσι), which Vitruvius
(
3.1, s. 2.2, Schn.) describes as having, in
front, antae attached to the walls which enclosed the cella; and in the
middle, between the antae, two columns supporting the architrave. The ruins
of temples, corresponding to the description of Vitruvius, are found in
Greece and Asia Minor; and we here exhibit as a specimen a restoration of
the front of the temple of Artemis
 |
|
Antae, temple at Eleusis. A, A, the antae; B, B, the cella, or
ναός.
|
Propylaea, at Eleusis, together with a plan of the pronaos.
Vitruvius gives the following rules for a temple
in
antis of the Doric order :--The breadth should be half the length;
five-eighths of the length should be occupied by the
cella, including its front walls, the remaining three-eighths
by the
pronaos or portico; the
antae should be of the same thickness as the
columns; in the intercolumniations there should be a marble balustrade, or
some other kind of railing, with gates to it; if the breadth of the portico
exceeds forty feet, there should be another pair of columns behind those
between the
antae, and a little thinner than
they; besides other and minor details. (
Vitr.
4.4.)
In the pure Greek architecture, the
antae have
no other capitals than a succession of simple mouldings, sometimes
ornamented with leaves and arabesques, and no bases, or very simple ones; it
is only in the later (Roman) style, that they have capitals and bases
resembling those of the columns between them. The antae were generally of
the same thickness throughout; among the rare instances of their tapering
are one of the temples of Paestum, that of Diana at Eleusis, and the
choragic monument of Thrasyllus at Athens.
In a Greek private house the entrance was flanked by a pair of antae with no
columns between them; and the space thus enclosed was itself called
παραστάς. (
Vitr.
6.10, s. 7.1, Schn.) So also Euripides uses the term to denote either
the pronaos of a temple (
Iph. in Taur. 1126), or the
vestibule of a palace (
Phoen. 415).
The following are the chief of the other passages in which
antae or
παραστάδες are
mentioned:--Euripid.
Androm. 1121, where
παραστάδος κρεμαστὰ signifies the arms
suspended from one of the
antae of the temple;
Cratin. fr. 45, Meineke; Xen.
Hier. 11.2; Hero,
Autom. p. 269;
Inscript. ap. Gruter, p.
207. See also Stieglitz,
Archäologie der Baukunst,
vol. i. pp. 236-242; Penrose,
Invest. of the Princ. of Ath.
Archit.; Stuart,
Antiq. of Athens. [
TEMPLUM]
[
P.S] [
W.W]
