page_title: Temple of Athena Pronaia
section_title: Temple C
hierarchical_section_title: Temple of Athena Pronaia / Description / Temple C
caption_attribution_description: English: Delphi (Greek: Δελφοί, [ðelˈfi]) is both an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis. You can use the images for free. But a link to http://www.ploync.de/reisen/5099-orakel-von-delphi.html - I would be happy&#160;:)
context_page_description: The Temple of Athena Pronaia was a temple at the ancient site of Delphi, in the Sanctuary of Athena Pronaia, a group of buildings comprising temples and treasuries as well as the famous Tholos of Delphi. It was actually built thrice. The earlier temples, referred to as A and B, were built in the 7th and 6th centuries BC respectively and were made of porous stone; a third temple was built of limestone in the 4th century BC, although it is not certain that it actually was dedicated to Athena this time.
context_section_description: The third temple, built of limestone in the 4th century BC, was possibly not dedicated to Athena but rather to Artemis.  Scholars are led to this supposition by the testimony of Pausanias, who mentions that one of the temples in the sanctuary of Pronaea was dedicated to Artemis.  However, the traditional view remains in favour of Athena. 
  The date of its construction is approximated to 360 BC, and it was located at the west of the terrace supporting the entire complex of the "Marmaria". Although only the foundations are extant, its plan has been fully restored: It was based on a crepidoma consisting of three levels and had a prostyle in antis consisting of six columns on the façade. 
  It also had a cella and a vestibule. The cella was separated from the pronaos by a gate in the Ionian order. Along the rear wall were arrayed statues on bases, possibly some of a later date. 
  It seems that the temple bore no sculpted decoration, with the exception of the acroteria, which have not, however, been preserved.  A possible reason therefore could be that the temple lay very close to the tholos, built a couple of decades earlier and bearing a striking decoration, so the architect of temple C wanted to create a contrast.
  Pausanias describes the temple in the 2nd century: 
  "When you enter the city [of Delphoi] you see temples in a row. The first of them was in ruins . . . the fourth is called the temple of Athena Pronoia (Forethought). Of its two images the one in the fore-temple is a votive offering of the Massiliots, and is larger than the one inside the temple. The Massiliots are a colony of Phokaia in Ionia . . . The votive offering of the Massiliots is of bronze. The gold shield given to Athena Pronoia by Kroisos the Lydian was said by the Delphians to have been stolen by Philomelos."
  The temple could not have functioned to a later date than the 4th- or 5th-century, when all pagan shrines where closed during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire.
caption: Panoramic view of the site today.
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